Is Adobe Acrobat Included in the CS5 Free Trials?

Since we started offering the direct download links for all CS5 product trials last week, there have been some inquiries on Acrobat’s absence from Adobe’s suite downloads, and it also seems to be a common question out there on the Net…

Acrobat 9.3 Pro is the version that is officially part of Creative Suite 5, but it is not included in the trial versions of any of Adobe’s CS5 suites… So if you would like it, Acrobat Pro must be down­loaded separately (in English, French, German, or Japanese), with its own 30-day trial period – although note that Adobe offers an Acrobat 9 trial for Windows only.

If you decide to convert your trial and purchase any CS5 suite edition on either Windows or Mac (except for Production Premium), you will receive a full working copy of Acrobat 9 Pro. Please note – very important - you need (and should make sure to receive) a separate serial number from Adobe for Acrobat 9 Pro – the main CS5 key you get for the rest of the suite will not work for Acrobat.

So, why did Adobe separate Acrobat 9 from the rest of the CS5 suite, for trials and activation? We suspect it’s because Acrobat 9 will be celebrating its second birthday soon and the release of Acrobat 10 is due out later this year – and so by creating separate packages and license keys, it will make it much easier to swap the new version of Acrobat into Creative Suite 5 when it arrives…

At that point we’ll probably see a point release of CS5 that includes the new Acrobat 10, say for example Creative Suite 5.3 (similarly to how CS3 became CS3.3 when Acrobat 9 was announced and incorporated in June 2008) – and current CS5 users will easily be able to upgrade if desired.

[UPDATE (November 15th) – The new release of Acrobat X is out! Download a free trial, or find out more about the upcoming CS5.5 point release...]