Have you heard? Microsoft Edge is getting Adobe’s freemium PDF viewer

Gabbie Odonkor

The new PDF viewer in Microsoft Edge is powered by Adobe, and it won’t let you forget it. Microsoft announced on its website that it is replacing Edge’s current PDF viewer with one from Adobe Acrobat, which includes some “advanced” features that are available for a fee.

Microsoft promotes the integration as providing users with “a one-of-a-kind PDF experience” that includes “higher fidelity for more accurate colors and graphics, improved performance, strong security for PDF handling, and greater accessibility.” While Microsoft claims that these fundamental features will remain free and that no existing functionality will be lost, documents will still bear “an unobtrusive Adobe brand mark.”

The PDF viewer will display Powered by Adobe Acrobat in the bottom right corner of documents Image <a href=httpsgabbietechmetas ceo mark zuckerberg tries to catch up to chatgpt in ai race>Microsoft<a>

You’ll also see the option to “try” Adobe’s paywalled PDF features, such as combining files, editing text and images, and converting PDFs. Enabling these features, however, comes at a cost: you must sign up for an Adobe Acrobat subscription.

According to Microsoft, you can complete the transaction (or sign in to an existing Adobe subscription) right from Edge. It’s unclear how aggressive these sign-up prompts will be, but I’m guessing the “Edit with Acrobat” button shown in the above screenshot will.

Edge is my preferred Windows browser, and this appears to be more bloatware, especially for a PDF reader that no one was complaining about in the first place.

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By Gabbie Odonkor Founder
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Gabriel Djabatey Odonkor , known professionally as Gabbie Odonkor, is a Ghanaian blogger, freelance journalist, and reporter.
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