As the "veteran" format, PDF was perfected over the years as a global standard for distribution and viewing of information. Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat gave the tools to create and view PDF files in several languages and for several platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).
In August 2000, Adobe bought Glassbook, a software company intended for publishers, booksellers, distributors and libraries. Adobe also partnered with Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com to offer ebooks for Acrobat Reader and Glassbook Reader.
# Two new software
In January 2001, Adobe launched Acrobat eBook Reader (free) and the Adobe Content Server (for a fee).
Acrobat eBook Reader was meant to read PDF files of copyrighted books, while adding notes and bookmarks, visualizing the book covers in a personal library, and browsing a dictionary.
The Adobe Content Server was intended for publishers and distributors, for the packaging, protection, distribution and sale of PDF copyrighted books, while managing their access with DRM according to the copyright holder’s instructions, for example allowing or not the printing and loan of a book. The Adobe Content Server was replaced with the Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server in November 2004.
In April 2001, Adobe partnered with Amazon, for Amazon’s eBookStore to include 2,000 copyrighted books for Acrobat eBook Reader. These were titles of major publishers, travel guides and children books.
Acrobat Reader was then available for PDAs, beginning with the Palm
Pilot in May 2001 and the Pocket PC in December 2001.
# Adobe Reader
From 1993 to 2003, according to Adobe’s website, over 500 million copies of Acrobat Reader were downloaded worldwide. In 2003, Acrobat Reader was available in many languages and for many platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Symbian OS, etc.). Approximately 10% of the documents on the internet were available in PDF. PDF was also the main format for ebooks.