Adobe Reader for Android app updated

Adobe has rolled out an updated Reader app for its Android users. In an official post announcing the release, Dennis Griffin, Principal Product Manager for Adobe Reader for Tablets and Smartphones shared that an iOS version of the app is ready. It is being held back because of the Apple App Review process, and that it would be available once Apple approves it.

Elaborating upon its changelog, Griffin reveals that the most significant introduction in this update has been the addition of cloud file storage with Acrobat.com. Users can share documents between all of their devices and computers over Acrobat.com using the Reader app. For example, a user reading a document on her laptop can save it to Acrobat.com, and open the same document on her phone or tablet. Any comments added to the document will be automatically saved back to the cloud from the device.  

The iOS app is ready, but awaits a go-ahead from Apple

The forms interactivity in the updated Reader app is enhanced. The update comes with new additions such as Field Validation, Calculation, and Formatting on iOS in the summer. Griffins adds that these have been added to their Android version with this update. The updated Reader app comes with added support for Field Hierarchies. As for the FormsCentral, the update comes with added support for those PDFs in Mobile Reader. Now that there is support for Form interactivity on both iOS and Android.

Among the interesting changes to FormsCentral is the ability to create PDF forms that communicate back with FormsCentral for data collection. The updated Reader app now comes with improved support for selecting and highlighting Asian text. Also a part of the update, is a significantly improved way of handling of Asian and Vertical text. This way, users can use the full range of text selection, and highlighting features on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean text.

For the iOS version of the updated Reader app, Adobe allows users to print their documents with the markups from Reader for iOS. Griffins in the post shared that although built-in printing and PDF support is one of the highlights of iOS, the iOS PDF engine did not support the whole PDF specification. In particular, it could not handle PDF Comments or Forms properly, because of this when users printed out their marked up documents from Reader for iOS, they would get the document without any markup.

Android users should know that Adobe is working towards getting this working for them too and an update is in the pipeline. The latest update for Reader for iOS and Android users now supports Rights Management place dynamic watermarks on documents, thereby expanding the range of documents that can be viewed on mobile securely.