Adobe today announced a number of enhancements to its Adobe Document Cloud intended to enhance collaboration around PDF documents, maximize mobility, and improve the overall PDF workflow and experience. It is also making a number of enhancements to Acrobat Reader and to its Adobe Scan and Adobe Sign mobile apps.

The new features of greatest interest to lawyers are:

Sign from anywhere. Every subscription to Acrobat DC now includes Adobe Sign and Acrobat DC comes with a redesigned and simplified way to send documents for signature. In addition, people can now sign PDFs electronically in Adobe Reader.

Work from anywhere. With today’s release, Adobe is making it easier to work on PDFs from anywhere. Open a document on one device, then pick up on another right where you left off. New editing functionality on tablets (see below) and integrated Adobe Sign lets you perform the same work on a tablet that you would on a desktop.

Send a document for review from a mobile device.

New review workflows. Acrobat DC subscribers can now send documents for review to non-subscribers, who will then have the ability to review and comment on the document even if they do not have Acrobat software. When you send a document for review, the user is notified by email and opens the document in a browser. Comments from multiple users can all be consolidated in a single document and questions or comments can also be directed at single users within the group.

Scan multiple business cards at once.

Scan multiple business cards at once and in multiple languages. I reported here in June about enhancements to the Adobe Scan app for iOS and Android that allowed users not only to scan images of business cards, but also to turn them into shareable digital contacts. Today, Adobe has further improved that app so that users can rapidly scan multiple business cards with their mobile devices at once, and have each card recognized as a separate contact. In addition, Adobe Scan now recognizes five additional languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

You can now edit a PDF on an iOS or Android tablet

Edit on tablets with touch-enabled PDF. With today’s enhancements, Acrobat Pro DC mobile users can now edit PDFs from their iOS or Android tablets with all the same functionality that they have on their desktops. Users can change text, format and edit, or add, rotate and resize images within a PDF, all with the touch of a finger.

Recognize and fill forms. Adobe has improved form-field recognition across Acrobat DC desktop, Acrobat Reader mobile and the Document Cloud web app, enabling users to fill out and sign forms more quickly. Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s AI-powered image-correcting software,  analyzes documents to recognize the field type, size and position so that users can just tap and type content without having to change tools manually or align text in field boxes.

In addition, Adobe has redesigned the home view in Acrobat DC. The redesign is intended to provide a single view into all of a user’s PDF activity, including status updates on incoming and outgoing tasks, such as documents that have been shared with you for review or that need your signature.

These updates are available to anyone who has a subscription to Acrobat DC or Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.