Compare PDF Side by Side

Adobe Acrobat Professional has the Document Compare feature, which lets you see the differences in two versions of a PDF, as well as select the type of differences you're looking for to verify that the appropriate changes have been made.

In Adobe Acrobat Professional choose Advanced > Compare Documents .
Specify the two documents to be compared. Click Choose, select the file, and then click Open. If the documents are open, you can select them from a menu.

Under Type Of Comparison , select one of the following:

  • Page By Page Visual Differences - Finds any textual or graphic differences between the documents. Select the level of detail you want from the menu.
  • Textual Differences - Shows which text has been inserted, deleted, or moved. The Include Font Information compares formatting.



Under Choose Compare Report Type , select one of the following:

  • Side By Side Report - Creates a new PDF that displays the two documents in Continuous-Facing mode.
  • Consolidated Report - Adds markups where the differences occur in the current document. When you hold the pointer over a markup in a consolidated report using the Hand tool, the differences appear.


To compare text-based documents, you may want to select Textual Differences to appear in Side By Side Report format. For technical drawings, you may want to select Page By Page Visual Differences to appear in Consolidated Report format.

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