Adobe Systems Inc. said Monday it will launch latest version of its Acrobat document-sharing software will allow users to embed videos in PDF files.

Acrobat 9 will allow users to include Flash-based video when they create documents in the portable document format, or PDF, so they can be read across different hardware and operating systems. Until now, PDF documents could only include text and simple graphics.

Though PDF and Acrobat Reader have become synonymous with documents, Adobe is exploring the potential of adding multimedia to the mix.

Video and audio have become ubiquitous on the Web, and our customers are becoming increasingly interested in and comfortable with using those content types, Adobe director of product management Rick Brown said.

The San Jose-based software maker also launched Acrobat.com, which will host Web-based software services to support document creation and sharing.

The company latest update to Acrobat was in November 2006, almost a year after it purchased Macromedia Inc., the creator of Flash software.

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