How To Compare Two Pdf Files In Adobe Acrobat Xi Pro
Jeannine Lander
I went to the help pages to see how to access the "compare documents" tool. It says to select Tools->Compare. However, my tools menu does not have that tool. On the help page there was a screenshot of the Tools screen (with all the tools icons). There were far more tools pictured there than what I have in my tools menu, including the Compare files tool. I don't understand why I don't have all the tools for Acrobat DC STD (2015)
PS - I am posting this to "Creating PDFs" simply because none of the choices had anything to do with my question, so I just picked the first one on the list. If someone can direct me to the appropriate sub group, I will move this post to that group.
We have significantly improved Compare functionality in our new release of Adobe Acrobat DC. Please update to the latest version to give it a try. The new Compare Files Tool offers a Side-by-Side view which provides a better experience in identifying differences and a modern UI.
I just tried comparing 2 pdf's -- with and without only Text checked. The file was prepared from texlive and has multiple equations and a postscript figure -- none of which gives any problems on the 2 files separately. The files are about 225K each, with the figure being about 32K of that, which are really pdf inserts after development by texlive.
I've done a Repair and rebooted, but always get the same crash. I also killed an AdobeCollabSync.exe process which sometimes hangs Acrobat (please -- let us disable this nicely!?), but this had no effect.
The crash stops in the midst of the comparison -- just says it is has a problem. I turned to Nitropdf Pro and did the comparison. The downloaded compare file is about 1.2M. I regularly open files 10 times that size using Acrobat.
I tried Compare with several pairs of different pdf files. On one set, a precursor of the files of my current interest, I got an immediate prompt that the files were too "complex" and that I should try Scan mode instead of Report mode, which did work just fine.
I did all this while on the phone with tech support. I even sent my files of interest to a DIFFERENT PC with Acrobat DC Pro that has a DIFFERENT ACCOUNT (not me), so that my profile being corrupted was NOT an issue. The files of interest again crashed the same way under Compare (NOT individually).
I get the same crash under Report mode, but not under Scan mode. However, using Scan mode is not very useful as it just target whole sections or pages that have small differences, instead of targeting just those differences.
Since my pdf files were created using pdflatex under texlive, I turned to using latexdiff that comes with texlive, on the old and new .tex files. latexdiff creates a new compare.tex file which also can be processed by pdflatex into a correctly marked-up pdf file.
Greetings! I am sorry to hear that you are facing issues with compare feature. Please try out the files in our improved Compare functionality in the latest version of Acrobat DC Pro. Reach out to us in case, you face any issues. You may also log a Bug Report or make a Feature Request at: Adobe Acrobat - Feature Request/Bug Report Form
Also, we have significantly improved Compare functionality in our new release of Adobe Acrobat DC. Please update to the latest version to give it a try. The new Compare Files Tool offers a Side-by-Side view which provides a better experience in identifying differences and a modern UI.
I am trying to compare the first and second versions of a legal contract. The only difference between the first and second versions of this contract are some addition / deletion of words / paragraphs. After I ran the comparison, the results only showed: whole page deleted and whole page inserted (which shouldn't be right, as only minor changes were made to the text).
- First Version: this document was sent to me by e-mail by ABC Ltd. Under properties, it shows that the PDF producer is "Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 19.21.20049". When I open this first version, I am able to select and copy text.
- Second Version: ABC Ltd printed this document, signed it, and delivered the hardcopy to me. I scanned this into my PC using my office scanner (RICOH). Under properties, it shows that the PDF producer is "Adobe PSL 1.3e for Canon". When I scanned this document, I adjusted the settings, so that the scanned document would be OCR. When I open this second version, I am able to select and copy text.
- AfterI pressed the "Compare Files" button, and selected both Old and New Files, a yellow interrogation mark would appear under the New File, and when I put my mouse cursor over it, the following message would appear: "Selected document is a scanned PDF and contains no text. Acrobat will perform image to image comparison only."
- I have tried printing this Second Version using Acrobat by selecting "Adobe PDF" as the printer. Let's call this print out as "new Second Version. Then, I tried running a comparison between the First Version and the new Second Version, but still have the same problem mentioned above.
I can't remember. I can check tomorrow to confirm. But I had two options: (1) OCR fast, and (2) OCR precision. I chose OCR precision, and it took about 25 minutes for the scan to complete. The document had 50 pages.
Good job, to spot the scammer. This message "Selected document is a scanned PDF and contains no text. " seems clear. There IS no text, OCR was not done or AT LEAST ONE of the documents. If you think the message is wrong, please check by trying to select and copy text in BOTH files. OCR must be done, well and correctly, if you want to compare text.
I am able to select and copy texts in both files. I believe the problem is with the New / Second File (which was scanned). But I believe that the scan was done properly. I set OCR to precision mode, and it took 25 minutes to for the scan / OCR to complete.
I have tried your settings above as well, and it still doesn't work. I cannot share the whole file (as it contain confidential information). But I can share one page of the New File and Old File. Can you try comparing these two files from your side? Thanks.
Just one more question: The New File is a scanned document with binding / punched holes, whereas the Old File has no binding / punched holes. So, when I run a comparison between the old and new file, the holes are detected as text changes. This is confusing as there are 21 holes on each page, and there are 50 pages, and the comparison would show there are 1,050 text changes.
By "Filter", do you mean the "Settings" where I check various boxes under "Show in Report"? If that's what you are referring to, I checked the box "text" only. Further, I don't see any filter for ignoring punched holes.
Was this ever resolved? I am going through the same challenge. I have an original lease document, and a scanned and signed (signed with ink) copy that was sent back to me. I need to compare 45 pages but it just shows every page as deleted or inserted.
Yes, it was resolved. For PDF there are different types of comparison. The current comparison is telling you that you have two completely different documents, which is correct. What you want is to compare text, and only text. To do that, the scanned document must be OCR'd. You'll need to check the text after OCR to make sure it's really legible text. Do this by copying and pasting some text into a different document.
For the scanned and signed copy, make sure that you scan the document using the highest resolution possible. For my scanner, the highest was 600*600 dpi. If your scanner has the OCR function, do not use it. Given the large size of the file (as you used highest resolution), the pdf would come out in separate files. So, you need to combine / merge these PDF files first. After merging, run OCR using Adobe. Then, do the comparison. You should be able to compare and find difference. I found that the result was about 95% accurate. If the PDF file has handwritten words / diagrams / pictures, the result accuracy would drop to about 90%. If the PDF scan has punched holes, the result accuracy would drop down dramatically. Very tedious process involving a few extra steps, but better than comparing the whole document manually.
There are actually a few articles (that you can google) discussing in great detail about how (1) scan resolution, and (2) font style of a PDF document would affect the comparison result. It would be nice if Adobe could include these stuffs in the forums / FAQ.
Anyway, I have this old Windows Forms app that generates PDF-formatted reports. My would like our app to be able to do the same kind of visual comparison, but since they all already have Acrobat licenses, it seems silly/time-consuming to reinvent that wheel.
However, I would still like to improve their QOL a little by allowing them to select the report versions they want to compare from within our app, then hit a button (or some such) that will open Acrobat and toss the selected files straight into the compare tool.
I looked all around the Acrobat SDK documentation and didn't find anything, but it also looked like those docs were written in 2015... this latest compare tool seems newer than that, so I figured maybe there's a way that's just not well-documented yet?
I am also having a problem comparing two versions of a file. I uninstalled and re-installed Adobe Acrobat Pro and got same results.
Windows 10 Pro.
Adobe Acrobat Pro is version 23.2048. (20421).
I also tested using the suggestion in this thread.
Open Acrobat>help>About Acrobat.
Navigate to Acrobat>Edit>Preferences>Security (Enhanced)>disable "Protected View" and "Enhanced Security"> Click OK
Close and reopen Acrobat and try comparing files again. That failed with the same error.
Original settings were restored.
Acrobat still gives an error message that says
Acrobat could not compare the documents completely. Do you want to see the report anyway?
If you select yes, it's justa no data or difference. I get the same result no matter how I choose to compare the files, such as text only, etc.