Microsoft Edge will use Adobe Acrobat as rendering engine for managing PDF files. The integration will happen in future versions of the web browser that will be released next month for Windows 10 and Windows 11. A year later, in March 2024, Microsoft will remove its own engine.
The main web browsers on the market, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, have integrated support for PDF and it is a good way to view this type of document due to its speed and low consumption of resources. Microsoft’s for Edge is basic, like the rest of the built-in browsers, but it works really well.
Change must be understood as a Extended business partnership between Microsoft and Adobewhich is already present in other products from the Redmond firm such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint or in the Teams communications service that also has the Acrobat reader integrated.
Microsoft Edge will use Adobe Acrobat
Acrobat is a de facto standard since it was Adobe that initially developed the PDF format. Acrobat Reader It has a free version and also extensions for browsers like Google Chrome. Starting in March it will be available by default in Edge “to enhance the PDF experience and the value users expect from Microsoft Edge by empowering the integrated PDF reader with the Adobe Acrobat rendering engine”. Adobe says in the ad.
The new features coming to Microsoft Edge with this integration are outlined in the video below, where Adobe highlights that “will provide users with a unique PDF experience that includes richer rendering for more accurate colors and graphics, improved performance, strong security for handling PDFs, and greater accessibility, including better text selection and reading narration. aloud”.
Adobe says that “these capabilities will remain free”Although it’s not hard to imagine that the ultimate goal is for users who need other features beyond just reading, such as editing text and images, converting PDF to other file formats, or combining files, pay for the subscription from Adobe and -obviously- a part goes to Microsoft as a result of the aforementioned trade association.
We will see how the integration is done. The current Edge engine is effective for the essentials, reading Surely Acrobat will be more capable, but we will have to see the consumption of resources and if the page load is as fast as before.
To conclude, say that browser extensions are just another way for PDFs and not the most complete. It is a comfortable and effective method, but many of us do not use it because of the load it has on the web browser, which has it like any add-on you install. And they only offer reading functions. If you need something else better use a dedicated PDF application. In this guide you have some of them and free.
