There is a difference between the version number of the PDF standard used by the PDF document
and the version number of Adobe Acrobat with which the PDF document is compatible. The
“version of the PDF standard” is often referred to as the “PDF version” for short.
| PDF version |
Is supported by |
| PDF 1.3 |
Adobe Acrobat 4.x and later |
| PDF 1.4 |
Adobe Acrobat 5.x and later |
| PDF 1.5 |
Adobe Acrobat 6.x and later |
| PDF 1.6 |
Adobe Acrobat 7.x and later |
| PDF 1.7 |
Adobe Acrobat 8.x and later |
If you edit a PDF document of a different version than your version of Adobe Acrobat , you
may be changing the PDF version of the document without realizing it. For example, suppose you
have a PDF document which was last saved in Adobe Acrobat 5.x. The PDF version of this
document is 1.4. You open this PDF document in Adobe Acrobat 7.x, change it and save it.
Normally, you will then change the PDF version of this document to 1.6. To prevent this, you
can select the option Prevent the automatic increase of the PDF
version.
Note:
- You can open PDF 1.7 (Acrobat 8) documents in Adobe Acrobat 7, but you will get a
warning saying that the document “may not open or display correctly”. You can edit and
save these documents in Adobe Acrobat 7 and still keep their PDF version 1.7.
- Exceptionally (e.g. when trying to edit and save a signed PDF using "Save as"), Acrobat
does increase the version number, even if Prevent the automatic increase of the
PDF version is enabled.