Adobe Systems on Monday introduced the Adobe Acrobat 6.0 product line and said a free Acrobat 6.0 reader to view the companys PDF-encoded documents would be available for download in May.
The new Acrobat 6.0 family — Acrobat 6.0 Professional, Acrobat 6.0 Standard and Acrobat Elements — offers different levels of functionality to address specific customer needs, the company said.
Acrobat 6.0 Professional and Standard will be accompanied by Acrobat Elements, a volume-license-only product that allows enterprises to place inexpensive Adobe PDF creation capability on every desktop, according to Adobe.
The software will be enhanced by addional collaborative features, such as the ability to tie up changes within Microsoft Word, according to reports. Adobe also announced a plan to tie in XML support into the PDF document infrastructure, allowing companies to design “smart documents”.
Acrobat 6.0 Professional and Standard are expected to ship in May; the Professional version is expected to sell for an estimated price of $449, or $149 for an upgrade from Acrobat 5.0 or 6.0. Acrobat 6.0 Standard will be priced at $199, or $99 for an upgrade. Acrobat Elements, available exclusively through Adobes licensing programs, begins at $28 per seat for a 1,000 seat license, the company said.