Microsoft has just announced that it has entered into a partnership with Adobe to integrate the technologies of the Acrobat PDF reader into its Web browser.
You will soon no longer need to download dedicated software to read your documents in PDF format optimally. Microsoft has just revealed that it has partnered with Adobe, the specialized software publisher and creator of the Portable Document Format, in order to integrate certain Acrobat technologies into Edge. Microsoft’s Web browser, configured by default on Windows as a PDF reader, will soon benefit from certain features specific to Adobe’s PDF reader.
Acrobat integrated in Edge, but in a limited way
The partnership between Microsoft and Adobe will enable Edge’s 1.4 billion users to enjoy ” a unique experience that includes higher fidelity for more accurate colors and graphics, improved performance, and stronger security for managing PDFs “. The integration of Adobe’s technologies into Edge’s native PDF reader should also significantly improve text selection as well as voice-aloud narration.
However, do not expect to be able to perform more specific operations on your PDFs with Edge. The integration of Acrobat in Microsoft’s browser is limited to the essentials, namely reading PDFs. To access more advanced functions, including editing text or images within a file, or the ability to combine documents, you will need to checkout. You will indeed have to pay a paid subscription to Adobe to take advantage of it. However, if you already have such a subscription, you will be able to exploit all the capabilities of Acrobat directly in Edge via the dedicated extension. A win-win deal for Microsoft as for Adobe therefore.
A gradual deployment on Windows 10 and Windows 11
The transition between the native PDF reader of Edge and that of Adobe should be done gradually, mainly to meet the requirements in companies with a fleet of machines managed by an administrator. Without giving further details on the rollout schedule, Microsoft says Adobe Acrobat capabilities will be integrated into Edge for all users, on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Edge’s native PDF reader engine will disappear. definitively from March 2024.
For several months now, Microsoft has been working hard to try to make its web browser more attractive. Edge, which has approximately 5% market share, could soon see its adoption explode, in particular thanks to the arrival of the new Bing. Because to access the new version of the search engine which integrates an iteration of the ChatGPT chatbot, Microsoft imposes several rules, including the use of Edge as the default web browser on Windows.
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