Compare PDFs
Compare the text of two PDFs page by page. Words that were removed or added are marked side by side, listed under each page, and can be downloaded as a list.
About This Tool
Compare PDFs reads the text of two PDF documents and shows their pages side by side. Words that are in the first file and not in the second are marked in red on the first file's page; words that are only in the second are marked in green on its page. Under each page the same differences are listed as text, and the whole list can be downloaded.
Each page is paired with the page of the other file that shares most of its words, so a page that was added or taken out is shown on its own and the pages after it still line up. Words are compared in the order they are read, and where a line happens to break makes no difference: a paragraph that was only re-flowed counts as unchanged. Only the text is compared: pictures, drawings, fonts, sizes, colours and layout are not.
All comparison happens in your browser, ensuring your documents remain private.
How to Use
Upload Two PDFs
Add the earlier version under "First PDF" and the later one under "Second PDF". They need not have the same number of pages.
Compare
Click "Compare". A summary says how many pages differ and how many words were removed and added, and names any page that is only in one of the files.
Go Through the Differences
Use "Previous" and "Next" to move from one pair of pages to the next; untick "Show only the pages that differ" to see every page. "Download the list of differences" saves them as a text file.
Use Cases
Contract Review
See which words changed between two versions of a contract, clause by clause.
Document Revision
Check what an editor changed in a report, and keep the list of changes.
Quality Assurance
Make sure wording did not change where none should have. Changes to pictures and layout are not shown.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of differences are detected?
Words that were removed and words that were added; a word that was changed shows as one removed and one added. A capital letter put for a small one counts, and so does a digit written in another script. Arabic vowel marks are not compared, and neither are pictures, fonts, colours, sizes or layout.
Can I compare scanned documents?
Not as they are. A scanned page is a picture of its words and has no text to compare; the tool names the pages like that. Put the file through OCR PDF first and compare the result.
Is visual comparison available?
No. The pictures of the pages are not compared, and there is no overlay. The two versions are shown side by side with the differences in their text marked.
What if text was moved?
A paragraph moved to another place on the same page shows as removed where it was and added where it is now. Moved to another page, it shows as removed on the one and added on the other.