Adobe has released Adobe Digital Editions 2.0, its freeware application for managing ebooks on a PC or Mac. Digital Editions is required for transferring protected eBook files to compatible mobile eBook Readers using Adobe’s EPUB and PDF standards.

Version 2.0 includes accessibility support for the first time, plus includes the latest reader mobile technology for managing ebooks between computer and mobile readers.

The Digital Editions 2 interface is fully operable using a screen reader. However, role information about content elements such tables and headings are not available to assistive technologies. Information about Highlights is not available to assistive technologies. Adobe Digital Editions; Downloads. Adobe Digital Editions 2.0.1: Macintosh (17.3 MB) Windows (5.7 MB): Downloads. Downloads; New Downloads; Downloading. When Adobe Digital Editions opens your book, it confirms that you have the permissions to read it. Many books are Digital Right Management (DRM) protected. If it is not a protected book, you can open it and start reading. However, if it is a protected book, you have to authorize Adobe Digital Editions using either an Adobe ID or a Vendor ID. To download DRM-protected ebooks to your computer and transfer them to compatible ereaders, you'll need to install and authorize Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). To download the same ebooks to additional computers or devices, be sure to authorize each one with the same OverDrive account or Adobe ID.

The major new feature in Adobe Digital Editions 2.0 are its new accessibility features to allow eBooks to be more easily read. These include support for high-contrast screens, plus assistive software, including Window-Eyes (Windows), VoiceOver (Mac), JAWS and NVDA.

Version 2.0 also includes the latest mobile reader technology such as Vendor ID, Bookseller ID and Japanese text, allowing users to sign in using Vendor or Bookseller IDs (such as Google or Barnes & Noble), allowing users to read content purchased from these sellers.

One feature removed from version 2.0 is support for Flash-based multimedia objects, an unsurprising move given Adobe’s decision to remove Flash support from mobile devices as it concedes defeat to HTML5 multimedia standards.

The new build is actually a stable release of Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview, which was previously available for beta-testing. This release has now been discontinued.

Adobe Digital Editions 2.0.1

Adobe Digital Editions 2.0 is a freeware download for PCs and Macs. A compatible EPUB-capable eBook Reader is required for transferring book purchases using the program – a complete list of compatible devices can be found here.

Adobe’s much maligned reading app for Windows got an update this week. It’s now officially in to 2.0 and out of the beta testing which Adobe had been running for the past year or so.

I don’t have a full update list for the current release, so I cannot say for sure if it supports some much desired features like Epub3, but I do know that a previous update added support for Japanese text. And from the release notes I can see that not all text styles are support (right to left, overprint, and others) nor does this app support embedded audio and video.

Adobe Digital Editions 2.0 Mac

My source is reporting that the app has better support for fonts, and it appears that this app no longer needs to have fonts embedded in the Epub for them to work. There are also a number of bugs mentioned in the release notes, so you might want to read up before you download the update from Adobe.