Two versions of a report or contract arrive and you need to know what changed. Reading both side by side is slow, and the changes that matter are often small: a number, a date, a clause.

What the tool compares

Compare PDF reads the text of both files and compares them line by line. It produces a report showing:

• how many lines are in each document
• how many lines the two share
• lines that appear only in the first document
• lines that appear only in the second document

The report lists up to 50 lines from each side, with a note when there are more.

How to use it

1. Open Compare PDF.
2. Upload the older file as Document 1 and the newer file as Document 2.
3. Run the comparison and read the report.
4. Open the two PDFs and check each flagged line in context.

What it is good at

• Finding changed, added or removed wording
• Spotting a changed figure, date or name
• Getting a quick sense of how much a document changed

What it cannot see

Knowing the limits is what makes the tool safe to use.

• Layout and formatting changes. Moved sections, new fonts or changed colours are not reported unless the words change.
• Images. A replaced logo or chart is invisible to a text comparison.
• Line order. Lines are matched by their content, so a paragraph moved elsewhere may look unchanged.
• Repeated lines. Identical lines are treated as one, so an extra copy of a line may not show.
• Scanned PDFs. Without text there is nothing to compare. Run OCR PDF on each file first, and expect some noise from recognition errors.

For contracts and other important documents

Use the report as a checklist, not as a final answer. Read the flagged lines, check numbers by eye, and have a person review anything legally or financially binding. If a comparison shows no differences, that means the extracted text matches, not that the documents are identical.

Get cleaner results

• Compare files created the same way. A Word export against a scanned copy will produce a lot of noise.
• Remove cover pages or page numbers first if they differ, using Delete Pages.
• If you only need a section, use Extract Pages to compare just those pages.
• Pull the raw text out with Extract Text if you prefer to use your own comparison software.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it show differences visually on the page?

No. It creates a text report of the differences.

Can it compare more than two files?

It compares two at a time.

Will it catch a changed number?

Yes, if the line containing it changed. Confirm each number against the documents.

Is it accurate for scanned files?

Only after OCR, and OCR errors will show up as differences.