Adobe's Latest Product Lets You Turn a Photo of a Document Into a Fully Functional Digital File

Adobe Systems is once again stepping up its cloud document game, this time with a mobile-friendly twist and a dash of Photoshop magic.

Adobe

The global software giant today announced its latest cloud computing product, Adobe Document Cloud, a new, streamlined document creation, editing and sharing experience that will work seamlessly across mobile, desktop and web platforms. It's Adobe's third major cloud release to date, joining Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud.

The subscription-based all-in-one cloud document services solution features a completely overhauled "mobile-first" Adobe Acrobat and Reader combo (called Adobe DC), a set of tools that enable users to create, manage, fill out, sign and share PDFs -- the ubiquitous file type Adobe introduced to the world some 22 years ago.

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The goal of the new offering, Kevin Lynch, Adobe senior vice president and general manager of document services told Entrepreneur, is to "revolutionize and simplify how people get work done with critical documents, from helping you get a contract signed as soon as possible, to collecting comments on a document from clients and customers, to even getting them to read your white paper."

Outfitted with a new, mobile-optimized Tool Center, Acrobat will enable users to more easily accomplish a variety of document management and distribution tasks via its freshly touch-enabled interface, all within their personal Adobe document hub in the cloud -- directly from their smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC.

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In addition to creating, reviewing, approving, e-signing, tracking and commenting on docs from the Document Cloud, users will also be able to accomplish something really cool thanks to Photoshop technology -- instantly and automatically convert any paper document into a digital file that can then be modified, keyword-searched and sent for signatures, without losing any of its original formatting. We witnessed this convenient feature in action firsthand and it's pretty slick, particularly the cherry image enhancement capabilities that we've come to expect from Photoshop over the last 25 years.

Subscribers to Adobe Document Cloud will also have access to Adobe's eSign Services (formerly Adobe EchoSign). They'll also be able to use two new companion Adobe mobile apps for free -- Acrobat Mobile, which stores your files, settings and signatures, and Fill and Sign, a handy auto-complete feature.

The Acrobat DC and Adobe Document Cloud package will be available for $14.99 per month and is expected to be available within 30 days.

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