Comparing vendor contract versions is a recurring time sink that produces disputes with Legal. Identify the pattern in…
Open Adobe Acrobat on your computer.
Go to Tools and select Compare Files.
Click Select File under 'Compare' and choose your first PDF (the older or original version).
Click Select File under 'With' and choose your second PDF (the newer or revised version).
Click Compare to start the comparison.
Review the results in the comparison summary and use the side-by-side view to examine highlighted differences.
Best practiceFor best results, avoid using scanned PDFs as input files, as text recognition may be inconsistent.
You can filter the comparison results to focus on text, images, or formatting changes for a clearer review.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
Compare Files will fail if either of your PDF documents has security settings. These settings prevent Acrobat from reading and comparing the content. To fix this, you need to remove the security protection from both the old and new PDF files before you try to compare them. Once the protection is gone, the comparison should work normally.
The 'Compare text only' option tells Compare Files to ignore all images and graphics in your PDF documents. It will only look for differences in the written words. This is useful when you want to focus purely on text changes, like in a contract, and don't care about shifts in image placement or design elements.
Yes, Adobe Acrobat's Compare Files feature is designed to help you track changes in signed documents. Specifically, it can show you what modifications were made to the document after it was signed. This is very helpful for legal or official documents where knowing the exact state at the time of signing, and any subsequent alterations, is critical for integrity and compliance.