Comparing two PDFs using Compare Documents utility in Acrobat Pro in command line

I have a need to compare two PDFs based on text, images, annotations, formatting, headers/footers, styles etcetera. The Adobe acrobat pro tool is working very good as per my requirements. I need to call it through Java program or command line. It could be something which takes the two PDFs as argument and compare options as Pro version have - text, images, annotations, formatting, headers/footers and background and generates the list of differences. It could return the differences either in a form of pdf document highlighting the differences or the map which is mapping something like page numbers to the details of differences that are appearing.
This would be very helpful. Please answer asap.
Thanks in advance.

Sounds like you want to do this on a server, but you should know that Adobe Acrobat cannot legally be used on a server.
For server-based PDF operations you can look at Adobe LiveCycle products or our Adobe PDFLibrary (available in both Java and C++)

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To compare two pdfs using version 8

Hi,
Can somebody please help me in how to compare two pdfs using acrobat reader ver 8 or any other othe tool which can be used for this. I know acrobat reader 9.0 can do that but i don't want to go for it.
Thanks in advance
Shruti

There is no product called Acrobat Reader any more.
There is the free product Adobe Reader. This cannot compare documents,
in any version.
There is the commercial product Acrobat. This comes in versions
Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Professional. Acrobat Professional can
compare documents, perhaps Acrobat Standard too. This is true in
version 8 and version 9.
Aandi Inston

How to compare two PDFs using Visual Basic

Hi,
We have created one Visual Basic exe for comparing two PDFs.We are using AcroExch.App and AcroExch.avDoc
for creating adobe application object. And we are using MenuItemExecute "DigSig:ToolsDiff" for comparing the PDFs. This piece of code is working fine with Adobe 4.0 and it is comparing the PDFs and showing the mismatches.
But the same piece of code is not working with Adobe 8.0 Professional. Is there any similar command to MenuItemExecute "DigSig:ToolsDiff" in Adobe 8.0 to find out the mismatches or any alternate approaches that i can try to make the existing code works properly to see the mismatches between two PDFs.
Thanks in advance,
Raju

The only APIs for comparing PDFs are part of the plugin APIs, and not exposed to COM/IAC. You would need to write a custom plugin that called the APIs directly and then expose your plugin for use via VB.
Leonard

Compare two pdf files using adobe acrobat through command line

Does anyone know how to compare two pdf files using adobe acrobat through command line. I want to do this via command line because we want to compare hundreds of file every day through some automated windows tasks.
If command line option is not available in acrobat, then is it feasible to make use of acrobat javascript API to do this task?
Any kind of help will be greatly.

Command-line: Not possible.
JavaScript: Possible, but very limited. Basically the only thing you can do is simulate clicking the Compare Documents button. The rest has to be done manually.
However, it *might* be possible to automate this process a bit more using a plugin. Ask over at the Acrobat SDK forum for more information...

How to programmatically compare two PDF documents.

We are in need of a solution related to comparing baselined and revised PDF documents, generally around 2-3 pages of content. Please note that I am looking for programatic comparison, ideally a dotnet based solution using Acrobat SDK. Any help will be highly appreciated.

Is there any recommendation considering there are no ways to programmatically compare two PDF's in .net. I noticed there are few solutions on Adobe site just like below but everyone seems to be stuck at the compare screen unable to simulate the Enter Key functionality.
      AcroAppClass acroApp1 = new AcroAppClass();
            acroApp1.Hide();
            AcroPDDocClass acrpDoc1 = new AcroPDDocClass();
            acrpDoc1.Open("c:\\MoreInformation.pdf");
            acrpDoc1.OpenAVDoc("BaseLine");
            AcroAppClass acroApp2 = new AcroAppClass();
            acroApp2.Hide();
            AcroPDDocClass acrpDoc2 = new AcroPDDocClass();
            acrpDoc2.Open("c:\\MoreInformation1.pdf");
            acrpDoc2.OpenAVDoc("Revised");
            AcroAVDoc avDoc = new AcroAVDoc();
            AcroAppClass acroMainApp = new AcroAppClass();
            acroMainApp.MenuItemExecute("DIGSIG:CompareDocuments");
            avDoc = (AcroAVDoc)acroMainApp.GetActiveDoc();
            Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc acrpDiffDoc = (Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc)avDoc.GetPDDoc();
            bool save = acrpDiffDoc.Save((short)PDSaveFlags.PDSaveFull, "c:\\compared.pdf");

How to compare two PDF documents?

Hi i need to compare two PDF documents. Is there any way to do this using javascript or applescript.or SDK
Im new to PDF scripting...
Please someone help me.....
thanks in advance....
Subha

Need to compare the difference between two PDF which should include font, style, text, spelling comparision and need to produce the report which should tell the difference.

Comparing two pdf

Hi All,
I have compared two pdf files using below method
DigSigCompareWords
(docA, docB, true);
The report will be generated as document A document B where i'm seeing
all the compare words and matched text.
But i need to get the consolidated report like the one i'm getting from adobe acrobat XI professional compare document with text only.
Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks Irosenth.
I have another problem i have sucecssfully compare two documents but i couldn't able to save 3rd document if i use activedocument to copy to pddoc and save also its not saving.
Please suggest ideas.
Note:
i have read all the forums releated to this that all the user expect this feature[comparison] as automation from 2010 stil not available in sdk XI,X.

How to compare two PDF files through PLSQL

Hi,
Can any body help that how to compare two PDF files through PLSQL programing and gives the differences as output.
Thanks,

Or simply apply an oracle text index on your pdf column:
SQL> create table t (id integer primary key, bl blob)
Table created.
SQL> declare
bf bfile := bfilename('TEMP','b32001.pdf');
bl blob;
begin
dbms_lob.createtemporary(bl,true);
dbms_lob.open(bf,dbms_lob.lob_readonly);
DBMS_LOB.LOADFROMFILE(bl, bf,dbms_lob.getlength(bf));
insert into t values (1,bl);
commit;
dbms_lob.close(bf);
dbms_lob.freetemporary(bl);
end;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> create index t_idx on t (bl) indextype is ctxsys.context parameters ('filter ctxsys.auto_filter')
Index created.
SQL> declare
   mklob   clob;
begin
   ctx_doc.filter ('t_idx', '1', mklob, true);
   dbms_output.put_line (substr (mklob, 1, 250));
   dbms_lob.freetemporary (mklob);
end;
Oracle® Database
Release Notes
11
g
Release 1 (11.1) for Linux
B32001-04
November 2007
This document contains important information that was not included in the
platform-specific or product-specific documentation
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.This generates a text only version of your pdf and standard text comparison methods can be applied ....

Adobe XI Pro trial verison, when compared two pdf files it gives error "Expected a Name Object"..Can some one say how to fix this?

Installed Adobe XI Pro trial verison, when compared two pdf files it gives error "Expected a Name Object"..Can some one say how to fix this?

Installed Adobe XI Pro trial verison, when compared two pdf files it gives error "Expected a Name Object"..Can some one say how to fix this?

Compare Documents tool in Acrobat Pro 9

I'm assessing the Compare Documents tool in Acrobat Pro 9 for business use, and have some very specific questions about its functionality:
When I initially load a pair of PDFs to compare, occasionally Acrobat refuses to accept them as anything but "scanned documents" even though they are fully electronic-sourced PDFs created in, usually, Adobe illustrator. What are the specific criteria that cause Acrobat Pro to force the "scanned documents" type? Is it related to the presence of only "flattened"/"outlined" text instead of embedded fonts? Lack of layers? Some other graphical feature? How do the comparison parameters/performance change when the loaded docs are designated as scanned rather than one of the other types?
Second, when I've done a Compare on two nearly identical documents and then call up the "old and difference images" display - is there any way at all to manipulate this display? Some of my docs are large - potentially full press-sheet size of around 24" x 40", and when the differences between them are tiny (e.g., a change in only a few Braille dots over the entire graphic) the on-screen rendering of the "difference image" side of the display is relatively tiny and practically useless, although it contains exactly the information I need to see. Can it be grabbed/stretched/magnified/saved/printed/analyzed some other way besides how it is? It seems to disappear literally at the first mouse-motion or key-touch, which is incredibly frustrating. Are there any changes or improvements in this feature in version 10.x over version 9.2.0 (which is the latest version my company has approved)?
Third, also at the post-compare stage, the feature tags a small printer info block in a corner of the document with "This image was replaced" even when I know the info block has not been changed. Why could this happen?

Sounds like you want to do this on a server, but you should know that Adobe Acrobat cannot legally be used on a server.
For server-based PDF operations you can look at Adobe LiveCycle products or our Adobe PDFLibrary (available in both Java and C++)

How can u get the matching percentage whenever compare the pdf files(compare the strings)

Actually I want matching percentage whenever compare the pdf files.First I had completed
read the pdf files content into string
my code like as
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser;
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
public partial class Form1 : Form
string str1;
string filename;
string path;
string str2;
public Form1()
InitializeComponent();
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
openFileDialog.CheckFileExists = true;
openFileDialog.AddExtension = true;
openFileDialog.Filter = "PDF files (*.pdf)|*.pdf";
DialogResult result = openFileDialog.ShowDialog();
if (result == DialogResult.OK)
filename = Path.GetFileName(openFileDialog.FileName);
path = Path.GetDirectoryName(openFileDialog.FileName);
textBox1.Text = path + "\\" + filename;
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
openFileDialog.CheckFileExists = true;
openFileDialog.AddExtension = true;
openFileDialog.Filter = "PDF files (*.pdf)|*.pdf";
DialogResult result = openFileDialog.ShowDialog();
if (result == DialogResult.OK)
filename = Path.GetFileName(openFileDialog.FileName);
path = Path.GetDirectoryName(openFileDialog.FileName);
textBox2.Text = path + "\\" + filename;
public static string ExtractTextFromPdf(string filename)
using (PdfReader r = new PdfReader(filename))
StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 1; i <= r.NumberOfPages; i++)
text.Append(PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(r, i));
string result = text.ToString();
return result;
public static string Extract(string filename)
using (PdfReader r = new PdfReader(filename))
StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 1; i <= r.NumberOfPages; i++)
text.Append(PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(r, i));
string result1 = text.ToString();
return result1;
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
str1 = Form1.ExtractTextFromPdf(textBox1.Text);
str2 = Form1.Extract(textBox2.Text);
}Finally how can u get the matching percentage whenever compare the pdf files(compare the strings)please help me.thank u

Hi,
Based on your code, I see your code related to
iTextSharp Pdf.
iText is a third party library to create PDF originally written for java. iTextSharp is
the C# adaptation of that library.
Question regarding iText are better asked on the iText forum, rather than the Microsoft Forum:
http://itextpdf.com/support
Thanks for your understanding.
Best regards,
Kristin
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Can anyone help? I just opened my PDF and letters are missing in each word and sentence. I am using the trial version of Acrobat Pro XI

Can anyone help? I just opened my PDF and letters are missing in each word and sentence. I am using the trial version of Acrobat Pro XI

Hi gretchenm66156293,
Are you running into this issue with one PDF in particular, or with any PDF that you open? Did the PDF display correctly previously? How was that PDF created?
For starters, please choose File > Properties and click the Fonts tab. What fonts are used in the PDF? Are they "embedded" or "subsetted."
I would be happy to take a look at the PDF here, if you'd like. Let me know!
Best,
Sara

I am having autocad not respond when I am making a pdf using autocad 2002 and adobe acrobat XI

I am having autocad not respond when I am making a pdf using autocad 2002 and adobe acrobat XI
We have adobe acrobat 8 on another system that seems to work fine, what elsedo we need to do to get this trial version to work properly.
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Any help on this would be appreciated

It's probably a compatibility problem with the updated PDF libraries vs. you hopelessly old ACAD that can't be resolved. In any case, I'd consider it one of those things of trying to attack the problem on the wrong end. All major CAD programs have native PDF export these days and even ACAD has had since v2006 at least...
Mylenium

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You can read this article to see if it helps:
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Thank you, Aandi.
That worked. Made my day.
Cheers,
Deborah

Comparing two PDFs using Compare Documents utility in Acrobat Pro in command line

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