Adobe Acrobat vs. On-Screen Takeoff®

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Acrobat
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Acrobat DC is the current version of the well-established document / PDF management solution, part of the Adobe Document Cloud (the other part being Adobe's eSign services based on technology acquired with EchoSign in 2011).
$19.99
per month
On-Screen Takeoff®
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
On-Screen Takeoff is a construction takeoff and estimating solution. It is intended to streamline takeoff, RFI, and bidding processes.N/A
Pricing
Adobe AcrobatOn-Screen Takeoff®
Editions & Modules
Acrobat Pro for Individuals
$19.99
per month
Acrobat Pro for Teams
$23.99
per month per user
Acrobat Studio for Individuals
$24.99
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe AcrobatOn-Screen Takeoff®
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsOn-Screen Takeoff® pricing varies based on licensing options and specific business needs. The annual subscription plans are designed to scale with project and team size. Available Subscription Options: •On-Screen Takeoff •On-Screen Takeoff with Takeoff Boost™ •On-Screen Takeoff and Quick Bid® •On-Screen Takeoff with Takeoff Boost and Quick Bid Each subscription is customized to match the subscriber's workflow requirements. A 14-day free trial is available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AcrobatOn-Screen Takeoff®
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User Ratings
Adobe AcrobatOn-Screen Takeoff®
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
4.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AcrobatOn-Screen Takeoff®
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe Acrobat is well-suited for editing documents and combining them into a single document if you have such a need. It is super easy, and you can even rearrange the order in which you combine them by simply dragging the documents into the desired order. Adobe Acrobat is great for adding contact documents to your website that customers fill out and complete. Adobe sends it to your email and alerts you so you can then manage the contact from there.
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  • I would recommend On-Screen Takeoff to any contractor that is not using it for estimating purposes. It helps the process in so many ways.
  • I guess if it was something straightforward, it might not be the most cost-effective solution. For what we do, it is indispensable.
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Pros
  • The edit PDF tool is a game changer for our business. There is no other tool that is as easy to use for small, quick PDF edits.
  • Adobe Acrobat makes adding, deleting, and combining PDFs very simple and seamless.
  • The comment tools, and the function to share for my comments with my colleagues, makes it easy to collaborate with my team on the same PDF document.
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  • User-friendly and easy to learn. You can sit down and figure out how to do simple takeoffs and counts with minimal training.
  • It is very accurate and it is great that you can do several calculations for each condition you make.
  • The colors and shapes provide a great visible audit trail.
  • The layering feature helps from keeping the screen too busy if you are doing several conditions on one page.
  • The worksheet tab keeps tallies of all the takeoffs from each page nicely.
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Cons
  • Maintain the layout when converting; sometimes, it loses the layout, and things are misaligned.
  • This makes it easier to write in custom text on a PDF, but sometimes I have to convert it from a PDF to a doc to achieve.
  • Menu could be easier to find things.
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  • How documents are uploaded to the program. On-Screen Takeoff will locate the files from whatever path you originally save it to. Therefore, if you move the location of the document, OST will not be able to open your project until the path is redirected.
  • Taking off curved shapes.
  • If you could apply a unit cost to a quantity, it would eliminate the need to export takeoff to Excel.
  • It would be nice to be able to apply a different scale to the same page i.e. if there are two different details on a drawing at two different scales, I have to duplicate the sheet and make sure I make each sheet scale to the specific detail on the sheet.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe Acrobat works seamlessly with the other Adobe products we use that are industry-standard. We will certainly continue to use Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, meaning it will always be convenient to work seamlessly with Adobe Acrobat for our organization. We are happy with the performance of Acrobat and it's meets our expectations.
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It provides invaluable communication, organization, and flexibility to generate a project overview both visually and by the numbers. In addition to the overview it makes getting into the project details easy and quick, so our takeoff is accurate and correct every time
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Usability
The features on the desktop version are all toolbar based, which makes it a little more cumbersome on a smaller device (and much simpler on a large screen). The web forms adjust well to different screen size so work well on mobile, tablet and computer
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On Screen Takeoff is a valuable tool for what it does. Across the board it can keep track of the critical data and corresponding values without extra legwork. While powerful, it is prone to user error, and the problem can compound quickly if not realized up front. Overall a great project tool, but not without limitations
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Reliability and Availability
We have not had availability issues with Adobe Acrobat, or at least none that I am personally aware of. Some may encounter crashes of the software during outages of electricity in their city or neighborhood, which no one can plan for, but with generators in our organization, we have been lucky not to have outages
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No answers on this topic
Performance
One of the best features of Adobe Acrobat is its speed and stability. When dealing with massive multi-page files, having to reload a crashed program over and over again would slow down progress unnecessarily. And expanding on that, having the table of contents generated allows me to skip to different pages with ease, a necessary feature with exceptionally long files. word searches are even more helpful with text recognition.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
For a while, Acrobat DC crashed pretty frequently. I contacted Adobe Acrobat support about the problem. At first support was unable to provide a solution. After about a month Adobe's software engineers provided a fix. I just wish it had taken less than a month to solve the problem.
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I have had very few issues with the software which is probably the first sign that there is a good customer support team, since I am sure they are working and fixing problems for everyone when they get a report from somewhere. The few times I have had to reach out to support they have been knowledgeable and on top of helping me quickly get my issues resolved.
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Online Training
Easy to follow and understand
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
I was not involved with the implementation process, so I cannot answer this question. However, when it was installed on my computer system, they did so virtually. I just sat there while they took control of my computer over the network and watch them install it, lickety split
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Implementation was as simple as setting up the program and creating databases. Everything else was already in use and this was a supplement to the final organization of the system
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Alternatives Considered
In my opinion, both complement each other. Microsoft clearly has with Copilot the AI Edge. However, the visual dynamics of Adobe Creative are Outstanding and provide a balanced approach to creativity, utilizing both Excellent, user-friendly Tools.
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OST is still the most efficient and quick way of doing 2D takeoff. The software mentioned above all have their positives and negatives and they all have things which are far superior to OST. But OST really takes the cake when it comes to usability and a simple and useful interface. It's just so easy to create a condition on the fly and start taking something off. When it comes to actual 2D takeoff, OST is by far the easiest and most efficient way of getting the work done.
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Scalability
I find that many users aren't aware of many features of the software they use, nor may they be comfortable with learning multiple-step processes. For the simplest of PDF purposes (scanning, downloading, exporting), it gets a thumbs-up. For anything involving electronic signatures, meh--causes eyes to glaze over, or forgetting what all is involved.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Automation of contract offer generation enabled the HR team to reduce the time to process contracts by 97%.
  • The automated workflow is more accurate and decreased document errors by up to 90 percent.
  • The signature collecting process was cut from a minimum of 30 minutes to only 2 minutes.
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  • The main benefit for using this software is that our estimating takeoff productivity has gone way up from where it was before allowing us to compile bids and estimates in a quicker and more accurate way.
  • The ease of use has allowed us to reduce the time and investment we have had to put into training new hires on the software.
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ScreenShots

Adobe Acrobat Screenshots

Screenshot of where to create, edit, convert, and share PDF files all from within Microsoft Teams – as part of Acrobat integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.Screenshot of Liquid Mode in Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app, where users can read PDFs on phones and tablets without having to pinch and zoom. Navigate lengthy documents with intelligent outline and search tools, while maximizing readability and comfort with font size and line spacing that are adjustable.Screenshot of where to fill and sign PDF forms from anywhere and on any device. Here, users can collect signatures, digitally track progress, and automatically archive the signed document.Screenshot of the Adobe Scan mobile app, used to capture and convert documents into high-quality, interactive PDF documents that can be filled out, signed, and shared. This eliminates the hassle of finding a printer, filling a form by hand, and scanning it again.

On-Screen Takeoff® Screenshots

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