Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Product Line Now Shipping; Beta Customers Applaud Easy and Reliable Adobe PDF Creation, Collaboration and Output

Business Wire, May 27, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2003

Adobe Systems (Nasdaq:ADBE) Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) 6.0 product line, a major upgrade and expansion of one of the company's cornerstone software applications and a critical component of its solutions for integrating documents into business processes. The new Acrobat 6.0 family enables workgroups, as well as business, creative and engineering professionals, to efficiently create, share, review, and archive files in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), a recognized standard for reliable electronic document distribution.

"The need to streamline document-based processes to run an enterprise more efficiently has never been more critical than in today's business environment," said Yasuo Yoshinari, business planning department manager, Hitachi, Ltd. Power & Industrial Systems. "With the Acrobat 6.0 product line, we can improve both the accuracy and quality of our engineering documents. In particular, Acrobat 6.0 Professional provides us collaboration tools designed specifically for the manufacturing industry. Ultimately, this adds more value to our technology investment, our organization and our people."

Customers are looking to Acrobat 6.0 to help better drive document processes. As a corporation developing documentation for products created worldwide, Motorola must send complex documents for review to team members speaking different languages and working in dispersed manufacturing and design centers. With Acrobat 6.0, the company can maintain tight control of document formatting and content, while making it easier to track materials through lengthy review cycles. Retail leader Macy's West, a division of Federated Department Stores, Inc., is looking to Acrobat 6.0 to improve document-intensive workflows for advertising and promotions, particularly those processes that depend on reliable creation of PDF/X-compliant materials. Advanced support in Acrobat 6.0 for commenting on CAD drawings in Adobe PDF will enable engineers at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB), an engineering, planning and environmental services firm, to review and approve technical content faster than ever.

The Acrobat family -- Acrobat 6.0 Professional, Acrobat 6.0 Standard and Acrobat Elements -- offers different levels of functionality to address specific customer needs. The most comprehensive product, Acrobat 6.0 Professional, helps business, creative and engineering professionals, who work with complex or graphically rich layouts, to improve the process of document exchange and collaboration. Acrobat 6.0 Standard enables workgroups to simplify document reviews using intuitive tools and a new, task-based interface. Acrobat Elements is a volume-license-only product that allows enterprises to place inexpensive Adobe PDF creation capability on every desktop, enabling reliable document distribution. Each member of the Acrobat family enables businesses to leverage the strengths of PDF for document presentation and XML for data exchange.

Adobe also announced the immediate availability of Adobe Reader(R) 6.0 software, an upgraded and re-named version of the widely distributed, free Acrobat Reader. Adobe Reader, which supports numerous desktop and mobile device platforms, is the definitive application for viewing, interacting with and printing Adobe PDF content ranging from business documents and forms to Photoshop(R) Album slide shows, eBooks and embedded multimedia. Adobe Reader is available free of charge as a download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. The company has distributed over half-a-billion copies of the product since its 1993 introduction.

Pricing and Availability

Acrobat 6.0 Professional and Acrobat 6.0 Standard for Windows(R) 98 Second Edition (Acrobat 6.0 Standard only), Windows NT(R) Workstation 4.0 (with service pack 6), Windows 2000 Professional (with service pack 2), Windows XP Home, Professional and Tablet PC Editions, and Mac OS X v10.2.2, are immediately available in English. French and German language versions are expected to ship the first week of June and Japanese language versions are expected to ship in early July. Acrobat 6.0 Professional has an estimated street price of US$449. Registered users of Acrobat 4.0 and Acrobat 5.0 can upgrade to Acrobat 6.0 Professional for an estimated street price of US$149. Acrobat 6.0 Standard has an estimated street price of US$299. Registered users of Acrobat 4.0 and Acrobat 5.0 can upgrade to Acrobat 6.0 Standard for an estimated street price of US$99. The products also are available through Adobe's licensing programs.

Acrobat Elements is immediately available for Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 (with service pack 6), Windows 2000 Professional (with service pack 2), and Windows XP Home, Professional and Tablet PC Editions. The product, available exclusively through Adobe's licensing programs, begins at US$28 per seat for a 1,000 seat license.