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Open Adobe Acrobat Pro on your computer.
Go to the Tools pane and select Compare Files.
In the Compare Files window, click Select File on the left to choose the older version of your PDF.
Click Select File on the right to choose the newer version of your PDF.
Click Compare to start the comparison process.
Review the summary report that appears, which highlights all text and graphic differences between the two files.
Best practiceFor best results, avoid using scanned PDFs as input, since Acrobat compares text and graphics most accurately with digitally generated files.
Use the side-by-side view and navigation tools to examine each change in detail, including both textual edits and visual modifications.
Best practiceYou can focus the comparison on text, graphics, or both by adjusting the settings before running the comparison.
After comparing, use the navigation panel to quickly jump between each detected change in your PDFs.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
The Compare Files feature helps you quickly identify differences between two PDF documents. It's designed to save time by highlighting exactly what has changed, such as text edits, image updates, or formatting adjustments, making it easier to review revisions without manually scanning every page.
Compare Files fails with a 'security settings' error because one or both of the PDF documents are protected. This protection, like a password or restricted permissions, prevents Acrobat from accessing and analyzing the content for comparison. To fix this, you must first remove the security settings from both files.
Yes, when using Compare Files, you have an option to 'Compare text only'. This setting tells Acrobat to focus solely on text changes and ignore any differences in images or other graphical elements, which can be useful when you only care about content wording.