Michael Hankins
Overview
Areas PDFs are used
 History of Adobe
 Evolution of the PDF
 Present Day Adobe Software
 How the software has been adapted
 Development processes used
 Future of the PDF
 Conclusion

Areas PDFs are Used
Printing Industry
 Online Documents
 Online Forms
 Company Reports

History of Adobe

Founded in 1982 John Warnock and
Charles Geschke

In 1984 they released Adobe Post Script
Evolution of PDF: PDF 1.0
80’s into early 90’s began refining Post
Script language and streamlining printing
 While refining created a file format that
used Post Script, PDF
 In June 1993 Adobe released file format
 Was released with software for creating
and viewing PDF 1.0

PDF 1.1
November 1994 Acrobat 2 came out
 Also the new file format PDF 1.1 was released
 New format came with some new functionality
 Later Acrobat 2.1 was released
 During this time the PDF had some
competitors

PDF 1.2
November 1996 Acrobat 3.0 was released
along with PDF 1.2
 First file format that print media companies
could really use
 It had some useful functionality for these
companies
 Other companies began releasing plug-ins to
support this emerging file format

PDF 1.3
April 1999 Acrobat 4.0 and PDF 1.3 released
 File format came with new functionality
 Acrobat 4.0 also had new functionality
 This version was released with a lot of bugs
 By time of official release of the patch 100
million copies of Acrobat Reader downloaded

PDF 1.4
In 2000 PDF 1.4 was partially released with
Illustrator 9
 Illustrator had new functionality
 In May 2001 Acrobat 5 was released along
with PDF 1.4 being completely released
 Useful features in Acrobat 5 for both printing
businesses and the general user

PDF 1.5
May 2003 Acrobat 6 and PDF 1.5 released
 PDF 1.5 came with a few new features
 Acrobat 6 Pro with a lot of new functions

PDF 1.6
January 2005 Acrobat 7 and PDF 1.6 were
shipped out
 PDF 1.6 came with a variety of advancements

PDF 1.7
PDF 1.7 was mainly an improvement on
already established options
 Acrobat 8 released in October 2006
 January 2008 PDF 1.7 became an ISO
standard
 Acrobat 9 was later released

PDF/VT
In 2010 Acrobat X was released
 Acrobat X came with some new features
 In Fall 2010 PDF/VT was released as a new
ISO standard
 PDF/VT stands for PDF Variable Transaction
 PDF/VT has some advancements & limitations

Present Day Adobe Software

Adobe Acrobat XI

Adobe Reader XI

Adobe Reader Mobile Application
Adobe Acrobat XI
Acrobat XI released in 2012
 It comes with some improved photo and text
editing features
 It also has improved capability to save to a
Word document
 Adobe also improved the Portfolio option

Adobe Reader XI
Adobe Reader XI released in 2012
 Comes with some new features and
improvements
 Comes with a new way to sign forms

Adobe Reader Mobile Application
This application can be run a variety of mobile
operating systems and devices
 It comes with features that take advantage of
the capabilities of the mobile device

Development Process/Security
Adobe has a couple Development Teams
focused on product security
 Acrobat & Reader XI have a variety of security
features like Protected Mode & Protected View

Security: Protected Mode/View
Figure 1: Adobe Protected Mode/Protected View Sandbox Process [12]
Security Adobe Acrobat/Reader XI contd.
Figure 2: Acrobat/Reader XI Cross-domain Configuration Example [12]
Future of the PDF
A lot of challenges in the corporate world in
the area of electronic files
 PDF files are an example of something that
meets a lot of those challenges
 Now there are no files that are perfect for
every stage in the content lifecycle
 There are other file formats that can replace
older authoring formats

Conclusion
Adobe and the file format it made, PDF, have a
broad and diverse history
 They also have a large user base in both the
corporate world and the general public
 With the PDF functionality and the tools Adobe
has provided to interact with the PDF
 With Adobe’s commitment to stay with/ahead
of the times

Questions?