Adobe introduces new Liquid Mode to make PDF files smarter

Liquid Mode will debut first in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app for iOS and Android, including Google Play Store-compatible Chromebooks, followed by desktops and browsers.

Adobe Liquid Mode (Adobe)

Adobe's PDF files have made sharing and viewing documents easier for almost three decades. But now, the company is changing the way we use these PDF files. The company today introduced the new ‘Liquid Mode' that aims to make it easier for users accessing these files on a mobile device to view and edit PDF files as per their individual requirements.

The new Liquid Mode is powered by Adobe Sensei and it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in the background to understand and identify parts of a PDF, like headings, paragraphs, images, lists, tables, and more. It also tries to understand the hierarchy and ordering of those parts to reformat a static PDF into a more dynamic and customizable experience. It then simultaneously creates an intelligent outline, collapsible and expandable sections, and searchable text for quick navigation. Users can even tailor font size and spacing between words, characters, and lines to suit their specific reading preferences.

This, the company says, is especially useful for those who may see text as too small, squished together, tight, or jumbled. With Liquid Mode, users can pinch and zoom documents easily. They can also resize words, make them reflowable, make images tappable and expandable, and tables are responsive.

Liquid Mode will debut first in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app for iOS and Android, including Google Play Store-compatible Chromebooks, followed by desktops and browsers.

Apart from introducing the new Liquid Mode, Adobe is also exploring text personalization initiatives with partners and educational institutions to unlock the secrets of reading and retention for people of all ages and abilities. “Giving people tools to view and extract content from PDFs, without changing the PDF itself, will help everyone gain more insight and power from the trillions of PDFs housed in enterprise storage systems, PCs, mobile devices, and on the web,” Adobe wrote in a release.