SAN JOSE, Calif.--March 1, 2005-- Adobe Systems Incorporated and HP today announced they are expanding their relationship to help technical professionals -- including architects, engineers and construction (AEC) professionals -- improve collaboration inside and outside their organizations and more effectively drive document-based work to completion. Today's announcement marks a new effort by Adobe and HP to enable customers to increase productivity and minimize costs throughout the lifecycle of a project. The first outcome of this expanded relationship will be a new offering for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) that bundles Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional software with HP Designjet large-format printers. The combination helps improve efficiency and reduce costs by allowing technical professionals to reliably share all the components of a design project, both electronically in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and by easily and accurately printing the files in large format. "Adobe and HP are teaming to deliver solutions for AEC professionals challenged by complex and costly document processes," said Ivan Koon, senior vice president, Intelligent Documents Business Unit, Adobe. "As a result, project teams, which are often geographically dispersed, will be better equipped to share design ideas, solidify design intention and address the challenges of sharing information that are vital to the success of a project." Last year, the two companies came together with Bentley Systems, Incorporated, SolidWorks, Intel Corporation, Autodesk, Inc., and others to advance PDF/E, a proposed industry standard for the use of PDF in engineering workflows. PDF/E will simplify the printing and electronic exchange of intelligent documents and provide a framework for incorporating complex data types, such as 3D, in PDF files. "As a leader in the large-format printing market, HP has been a long-time supporter of industry standards that enable a more rewarding document printing and collaboration experience for engineering and other technical professionals -- from creation to share to print," said Enrique Lores, vice president and general manager, Inkjet Commercial Division, HP. "This new bundle offering further increases the added value of our HP Designjet large-format printers, which produce even the most complex documents at maximum speed, without compromising image quality." Acrobat 7.0 Professional enables technical professionals to generate high-quality, searchable and more secure Adobe PDF files from virtually any application, including CAD, technical diagramming, project scheduling, and other business and technical software. Compact and optimized for critical documents in the project lifecycle, PDF files created by Acrobat 7.0 Professional retain the look and feel of original application files, including layers, fonts, images, and formatting. In addition, Adobe PDF files can include added security, such as password-protection, so documents can be shared with confidence inside and outside the firewall.