Choose Tools > Compare Files.
Quickly pinpoint changes by comparing two versions of a PDF file. Acrobat analyzes the files and presents a report detailing differences between the documents.
If you have Acrobat DC subscription or Acrobat 2017, see Compare files below. If you have an older desktop-only Acrobat DC Classic version, see Compare files in Acrobat DC Classic below.
Available in: Acrobat DC Continuous (subscription), Acrobat 2017
With the all-new Compare Files tool, you can now quickly and accurately detect differences between two versions of a PDF file.
Choose Tools > Compare Files.
Click Select File at left to choose the older file version you want to compare. Click Select File at right to choose the newer file version you want to compare.
Click Change File and then choose an already opened file or browse to select your desired file. Click the Swap arrows icon between the thumbnails to swap the position of the old and new files.
To ignore differences between the graphic elements, select the Compare Text Only checkbox.
You can modify settings by clicking the Settings gear icon, which opens the following dialog box.
Click Compare.
Acrobat displays the results in a new document. The first page provides an easy-to-scan summary of all file differences.
Click the Go to First Change button to begin reviewing each difference in detail.
Select how you want to review the differences.
Right-click a change or its pop-up and set an appropriate status for the change.
To review all the changes:
By default, annotations, formatting, and background differences are turned off. To see these changes in the report, select these options from the Filter menu in the toolbar. You can also filter comparison results by selecting specific types of changes in the Filter menu. From the Show menu, you can select an option to show or hide legends, row highlights, or results.
The Previous Change and the Next Change button are also available in the pop-up notes detailing the changes.
Save the Compare Results file (File > Save). Click the cross button at the top right of the toolbar to close the Compare Files tools.
You can print a comparison report along with the summary of changes.
Available in: Acrobat DC Classic (desktop only)
If you have desktop-only Acrobat DC Classic version, follow the steps below. If you have Acrobat DC subscription or Acrobat 2017, see Compare files in Acrobat DC Continuous and Acrobat 2017 above.
You can use the Compare Documents tool to find differences between two versions of PDF files. After comparing two files, Acrobat provides a detailed report of every change, including text, fonts, images, and even the order of the pages.
Choose Tools > Compare Documents.
Choose the documents to compare. You can limit the comparison to a portion of the documents by entering the page numbers in the First and Last page fields under each filename.
Under Document Description, select the type of documents that you are comparing. To ignore
differences between the graphic elements, select Compare Text Only. Click OK.
Acrobat displays the results in a new document. The first page summarizes the file comparison results.
Select how to review the differences.
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