To support their LiveCycle range of server products, Adobe Systems provides an XFA forms editor with Adobe Acrobat Professional called Acrobat Designer. Because they use a different technology than traditional PDF, forms produced by Acrobat Designer are said to be “Designer PDFs”, or “XFA PDFs”.

While “Acroforms”, Adobe’s original PDF forms technology is robust, widely supported and entirely adequate for the vast majority of static forms implementations, Designer forms have their uses. In particular, Designer forms are an important option for implementations requiring dynamic reflowing of text, or data-fields that “grow” to fit if a user enters more than a certain amount of data.

For forms requiring static page-elements to maintain page integrity, or for forms distributed outside a controlled set of users, Designer forms are often either inappropriate or offer no significant benefit.

Appligent Document Solutions is proficient with both technologies, and more importantly, can help you decide which is right for you. Contact us today to learn more.

Traditional PDF forms or Designer/XFA forms: How to Choose

Designer/XFA forms offer several features that are not supported in the current PDF standard, but at a price in terms of compatibility with “authentic” PDF and the applications for managing PDF, including Adobe Acrobat. Some of these factors may be relevant to your implementation.

Check out this article on choosing between traditional PDF and Designer/XFA forms.

Consult with your Appligent Document Solutions project manager or implementation specialist to get an authoritative perspective and recommendation on this important decision.

Note: Appligent Document Solutions server products work with the original AcroForms technology. Adobe Systems, through their LiveCycle products, is (currently) the sole provider of Designer/XFA-processing server software.