Scholarly Commons
Drop-ins welcome @ 306
For Current Hours:
library.illinois.edu/sc/about/hours/
Room 220 is open for use at all times the Main Library is open.
Phone: 217-300-1011
Adobe Acrobat Pro
What is Adobe Acrobat Pro?
Adobe Acrobat Pro is an optical character recognition (OCR) system. It is used to convert scanned files, PDF files, and image files into editable/searchable documents. It comes in three options: Acrobat X Pro, Acrobat XI Pro, Acrobat Pro DC. The differences between these versions is outlined in the left column. Though it has fewer language options than ABBYY FineReader, Adobe Acrobat Pro is a more pervasive software, partially because it is less academic, and more business-oriented. It is available for both Mac and Windows machines, and includes apps for iOS, Android, and Windows.
Adobe Acrobat Pro can analyze documents in multiple ways:
- Acrobat can analyze images as they are scanned into the program
- Acrobat can analyze already existing images, PDF files, or other file types after PDF conversion
Basic OCR Operations in Adobe Acrobat Pro:
- Open document in Acrobat as a PDF
- Click 'Edit Text'
- Program applies optical character recognition to the document
- Document is now fully editable
With the resulting files being editable and searchable, researchers will be able to:
- Copy, paste, and edit passages of text within the document
- Search the text in PDF readers or word processing programs
- Ingest the text into analysis programs like ATLAS.ti or NVivo
- Make information easier to find via the Internet by creating searchable documents
DC and XI and Reader, oh my!
Things can get confusing when talking about Adobe Acrobat Pro, due to the number of different versions that have existed, and exist today. This section will go through the current iterations of Adobe Acrobat Pro, their availability on campus and for download.
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DCAdobe Acrobat Pro DC (Document Cloud) is the current paid version of Adobe Acrobat Pro supported by Adobe. Released in 2015, DC is the twelfth version of Adobe Acrobat Pro to be released. It is available as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Adobe Acrobat XI ProAdobe Acrobat XI Pro was the eleventh iteration of Adobe Acrobat Pro, and was available for purchase from 2012-2015. However, it is still widely used as many have not yet made the switch to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader DCAdobe Acrobat Reader DC is a free PDF viewer that allows you to read, print, and annotate PDFs. It is connected to the Adobe Document Cloud, and has some of the features of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, including document conversion and fillable documents. It does not include OCR capabilities, though one can add on some extra services for small monthly fees.