How to use Compare PDF
- Choose the original PDF, then the new version (or drop both, original first).
- Pick Text changes for wording, or Visual to compare how each page looks.
- Select Compare.
- Read the list of changes with page numbers, or copy the plain-text report.
Find every change between two versions
A contract comes back from the other side as a fresh PDF with no tracked changes. A supplier sends a revised quote. A policy document is updated and you need to know what's different. Reading both side by side misses things: a figure changed from 500 to 650, a clause gaining the words 'in writing', a sentence quietly removed. This tool lists every word that was added, removed or changed, with the page it's on in each version and a few words of context either side.
The comparison runs across page breaks, so when an inserted paragraph pushes text onto the next page, the moved text isn't reported as changed: only the real edits are. You can ignore capital letters if only the meaning matters, and copy a plain-text report of all changes to paste into an email or a review ticket.
Visual comparison
Some changes aren't in the text: a different logo, a moved signature, a new stamp, an altered chart, or a scanned page. Visual comparison draws every page of both versions at the same size and marks the pixels that differ in red over a faded copy of the new page, so you can see at a glance where something changed. Tiny differences from font smoothing are ignored. Pages that exist in only one version are listed too.
Confidential by design
The documents people compare are often the sensitive ones: draft contracts, offers, legal filings and financial statements. Online comparison services ask you to upload both. Here both PDFs are read and compared inside your browser and never leave your device; there is no account, no upload and no copy kept anywhere.
Tips
Put the older document first, so additions and removals read the right way round; use Swap if you chose them in the wrong order. Scanned PDFs have no text to compare, so either use Visual comparison or run OCR PDF on both versions first. Password-protected files need their password removed with Unlock PDF.
Questions
- What's the difference between text and visual comparison?
- Text comparison lists every word that was added, removed or changed, and ignores text that only moved to another page, which is what you want for contracts and reports. Visual comparison draws each page of both versions and highlights the pixels that differ, so it also catches changed images, signatures, stamps and layout, and works on scanned PDFs.
- Are my documents uploaded?
- No. Both PDFs are read and compared in your browser, and nothing is sent to a server. That matters for drafts of contracts and other confidential documents.
- Can it compare scanned PDFs?
- Visually, yes. For a text comparison, scans need a text layer first: run OCR PDF on both versions, then compare them.