Acrobat Reader DC on Linux Mint

In my post “Acrobat Reader for Linux Mint 20.1” from 2021 I have claimed that the best version of Acrobat Reader that you can get running on Linux is Acrobat Reader 9 published around 2013. Now I can add: this is the best version of native-executable form of Acrobat Reader that you can get on Linux.

But Linux is much more powerful. It can run not only its native executables. You can run some executables made for… MS Windows. And thanks to this I will show how to run Acrobat Reader DC v2015 (published around 2016) on Linux Mint. This version has at least one advantage over Acrobat Reader 9: it can correctly verify and visualize digital signatures embedded in PDF documents.

Preparation

Using your favorite package manager install Wine and Play On Linux (package name: playonlinux). The latter is not only handy to run some some MS Windows-targeted games on Linux, but is also very handy to install and run some MS Windows applications.

Installation

Step 1: Acrobat Reader DC

1. Run Play On Linux
2. Click button to install new software
3. In the search box enter “acrobat”. One item should be found: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Select it and click “Install” button.
4. After a while a new window will appear with a message similar to: “Note: this script will was successfully tested with Reader DC version 2015.010.20056” (sic!). Click on “Next”.
5. Then select to download the software
6. Then just continue selecting “Next”/”OK”.

This will install on your Linux the Acrobat Reader DC v2015 for MS Windows. It will be installed, as any other application in Play On Linux, in its own “PlayOnLinux’s virtual drive”. You will have following directory in your home directory: PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/AdobeAcrobatReaderDC

From now you can run it, but there will be some issues with missing fonts. Rather critical: some labels/buttons/drop-down-lists will be completely without text, which makes some functions in Acrobat Reader completely unusable.

Step 2: Fonts

1. Downloaded a ZIP package with fonts for Windows 7 from https://www.w7df.com/p/windows-7.html (maybe there are other sources)
2. Extract all files from the ZIP package into folder in your home directory:
   PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/AdobeAcrobatReaderDC/drive_c/windows/Fonts

Now run Acrobat Reader DC again.

And voila! 🙂 Now you have Acrobat Reader DC v2015 on your Linux! It can not only verify digital signatures embedded in PDF documents but in my case, I was able to print documents as well using my HP Laser Jet printer.

P.S.

One disadvantage: the whole PlayOnLinux’s virtual drive with Acrobat Reader DC is taking 1.3 GB of disk space… What a waste! I guess this is a cost of keeping each PlayOnLinux’s application separate from others.