You can use the Acrobat SDK to create plug-ins for Adobe Reader and Acrobat as well as standalone applications that interact with and manipulate PDF documents. The Acrobat SDK contains two libraries: the Acrobat core API and the PDF Library API.
The Acrobat core API contains a set of interfaces that enable you to develop plug-ins that integrate with Acrobat and Adobe Reader. The PDF Library API enables you to develop applications that interact with and manipulate PDF documents. It overlaps with the Acrobat core API (with the important exception of the AV-layer, which is only part of the Acrobat core API); however, the PDF Library API also extends the Acrobat core API with a small number of interfaces specific to the PDF Library API. This chapter introduces the Acrobat core API and PDF Library API.

What’s in this guide
This guide describes Acrobat plug-in and PDF Library application development concepts and how to develop Acrobat plug-ins and PDF Library applications. It shows how your plug-in can manipulate and enhance the Acrobat Professional, Acrobat Standard and Adobe Reader? user interface and the contents of underlying Adobe PDF documents. This guide also describes how to upgrade plug-ins from Acrobat 7 to Acrobat 8, provides platform-specific techniques for developing plug-ins, and lists the Acrobat SDK header files.