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Active3 years, 6 months ago
I am looking for an application to compare two PDF files.
Application must:
- be able to highlight differences between the two documents
- be mac-compatible as I will be using it on a mac
- be free, I do not want to spend any money
This article compares computer software tools that compare files, and in many cases directories or folders, whether it is their main purpose or as part of more general file management. A file comparison utility helps you visually compare and merge the differences between two (or more) different versions of the same file, or detect the variations between two different sets of data. These types of utilities are often called 'Diff' programs. A file comparison utility helps you visually compare and merge the differences between two (or more) different versions of the same file, or detect the variations between two different sets of data. These types of utilities are often called 'Diff' programs.
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I will be mostly using this for comparing the new versions of the apple developer license agreements (since I am an apple developer who is too lazy to read a 40+ page document every time a minor change is made)
The application does not need to be from the App Store, nor does it need to need to be official (some knockoff from GitHub will be fine as long as it does not contain any viruses or bundled crapware) all I need is for it to do what it is intended to do (compare PDF's) very well.
If you would like to go above and beyond, free to take on the challenge of developing the application yourself (or modifying an existing one).
I won't use this application very often and will accept it in any of the following formats:
- Mac app store app
- Java app
- Web app
- AppleScript file (I will need to see the source code)
- Automator workflow
- basically anything that will run on Mac OS X Yosemite (non-beta) and perform the intended task effectively
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5 Answers
You can use DiffNow:
- it's free
- web-app diff tool
- works via pasting text; uploading files; using URLs
The only limitation is that files must be < 2048kb.
The sample on their site (first pdf vs. second pdf):
Tom5,85388 gold badges2828 silver badges5656 bronze badges
ᔕᖺᘎᕊᔕᖺᘎᕊ4,62366 gold badges2929 silver badges5959 bronze badges
compare
(command from ImageMagick)
If you want to compare the visual appearance of page 4 of
a.pdf
with page 6 of b.pdf
, you can use ImageMagick's command line tool compare
. Here is a variation of commands to try:(ImageMagick's frame/page counting is zero-based; so '
[3]
' means 'page 4'..) This will create 'delta' documents, where each pixel that is different between the pages is painted in red:- The first variant keeps a pale version of
a.pdf
as a background image to the page. - The second variant uses a resolution of
300 PPI
(instead of the default72 PPI
). - The third variant creates a white+red delta only (leaving away the pale background).
- The fourth variant does mark as red only those pixels which have a color difference of more than 5%.
It should be noted, that the comparison only works if the respective page sizes for the compared files are exactly identical.
diffpdf
(GUI application)
DiffPDF
is a GUI application which can process 2 or 3 PDF input and show the differences:- There is a mode that compares text content only, highlighting word and character differences.
- There is another mode that compares visual differences and highlights them.
The home page only offers a paying Windows version now, but earlier versions were free. You can grab the source code e.g. from Debian, it includes compilation instructions for OS X.
unor5,13344 gold badges2828 silver badges8585 bronze badges
Kurt PfeifleKurt Pfeifle
DiffPDF nowadays is an paid software for Windows only, but it was previously free and also available for OS X. You can still download such a previous version.
It allows both visual and textual comparison.
![File File](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126016372/448540281.png)
Michael SchmidMichael Schmid
When comparing PDF files, you have the choice between:
- comparing the contents (i.e. the actual text)
- comparing the pages as a whole (visual comparison).
While you might be looking for the first type of comparison, I wanted to offer a way to compare two PDF files page-by-page.
As I've had this requirement regularly in the past, and couldn't find the necessary software to perform the comparison, I wrote my own and made it available on GitHub. It's called pyPdfCompare and is available free of charge.
It runs fine on OS X and Windows but does require you to install Python 3, Ghostscript and ImageMagick. Furthermore, you'll need to perform a
pip install
for the libraries it uses.It may be a little too technical and/or not exactly what you were looking for, but I wanted to offer the option anyway, for the sake of completeness.
Tom5,85388 gold badges2828 silver badges5656 bronze badges
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For your use case, comparing the text and discarding all formatting and non-text elements would work well. You can run the
pdftotext
utility on each file and then a text comparison tool on the result. On OS X, you can install pdftotext
from various free software distribution channels such as Brew or MacPorts, it's part of the poppler
package.Cas Cremers's
pdfdiff.py
script automates the running of pdftotext
(which needs to be installed separately) and of a diff viewer (ditto).The result is similar to DiffNow cited by ᔕᖺᘎᕊ, I think they use
pdftotext
internally and plug the output into a text diff webapp.Community♦
GillesGilles3,90133 gold badges2323 silver badges4242 bronze badges
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged osxpdfcomparison or ask your own question.
Active3 years, 9 months ago
votes
My favorite file comparison tool was Beyond Compare but since I recently switched to OS X, i'm no longer able to use it and I'm looking for an alternative, preferably a free one.
Update: I made the mistake not to specify that I am also looking for a tool that does directory comparison, not only files. Because this could make the already answers invalid I made another question for this What directory comparison tools can I use on OS X?
Community♦
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16 Answers
votes
Beyond Compare 4 now runs also on OSX. Visit http://www.scootersoftware.com/beta.php?zz=beta4_whatsnew
orangebreezeorangebreeze
votes
This is an aggregation of the answers posted on SO's deleted clone, Graphical diff for Mac OS X. It includes links to each product, and the current price since last edit in USD.
Note that any links to SO will only be visible to users who can view deleted content, which requires either moderator privileges or 10k reputation on that site.
- Sourcegear's DiffMerge, shareware
- Joachim Eibl's KDiff3, free
- Black Pixel's Kaleidoscope, $69.99
- Bare Bones Software's TextWrangler, free
- Araxis's Merge, $129 + $29/year
- Deltopia's DeltaWalker, $39.95/$75.95
- Kai Willadsen's Meld, free
- Weipin Xia's DiffFork, $26
- Biscade's RoaringDiff, free
- tkdiff, free
There were some other suggestions, which were not diff tools in their own right, which I will list below:
- It (Beyond Compare) runs well in Wine, but I miss the shell integration. - Danyal Aytekin, May 11 '12, 13:01
- Eclipse also has a fairly decent comparison mechanism. - JeeBee, Oct 9 '08, 12:45
- P4Merge that comes with Perforce is pretty good and comes for free with perforce client. Both terminal and GUI version. - amok, Jul 7 '10, 23:19
- I had to use Vim because most of diffs mentioned here do not understand UTF-8. - user184880, Oct 6 '09, 9:56
That about wraps up that thread's merge into this one, as covered here.
votes
FileMerge is bundled with XCode, but I prefer Kaleidoscope which is not free.
Jason Salaz17.1k1616 gold badges8383 silver badges136136 bronze badges
nucnuc4,21822 gold badges2121 silver badges3737 bronze badges
votes
I use Kaleidoscope. Or just plain, old
diff
from the CLIryanprayogoryanprayogo
votes
It is not great, but the FileMerge bundled with the OS can be launched from the command line as
opendiff a.txt b.txt
.Other than that, CleanUp comes packed with a lot of other features such as the option to hide desktop files and folders, partition a folder, create a second desktop, etc. Its main function is to help users sort all the files into different folders automatically according to their file extension. Outlook cleanup utility. The app is very easy to use and straightforward when it comes to functionality.
ThiloThilo2,35099 gold badges2929 silver badges4343 bronze badges
votes
nthonygreennthonygreen
votes
You can use
diff
if you're using the command-line.![Ripp Ripp](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126016372/764347567.jpg)
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HarvHarv
votes
Changes.app has a great reputation and lots of features. Kaleidoscope is great too, and has a beautifully designed UI.
It's also worth mentioning if you're doing programming that Xcode 4 has visual diff tools built in now too.
Marc CharbonneauMarc Charbonneau
votes
There's also DeltaWalker.
It's $40, and there's a trial available.
Nathan Greenstein21.2k2121 gold badges8686 silver badges127127 bronze badges
user4393
votes
Here are which I've found:
- FileMerge (opendiff)It's bundled with Xcode with Command Line Tools installed
- DiffMergeIt's bundled with Xcode with Command Line Tools installed
- It's free and open source. Install by:
brew install vim
. - Can be installed using Homebrew via command:
brew install meld
, but probably it won't work. - Can be installed using Homebrew via command:
brew install kdiff3
- Can be installed using Homebrew via command:
brew install tkdiff
- Available at App Store
- Commercial with free trial.
- Commercial with free trial.
- Commercial with free trial.
Check also Comparison of file comparison tools at Wikipediafor the full list.
Community♦
kenorbkenorb7,66299 gold badges5454 silver badges103103 bronze badges
votes
There are a great many comparison tools available. Many do directories and files. Some even perform as merge tools (2 and 3 way). Of these some have already been mentioned in other answers and your choice will depend on what features you require, and how much you are prepared to pay for the tool. There is a good Wikipedia page with a comparison of many of the better known ones.
KevinKevin
File Compare Tool For Mac
votes
I use Folder Sync It costs $8.99 on the Mac App Store. It works really nicely.
sacisaci
vote
P4Merge is a free, very nice diff and merge tool. It can:
- Diff files
- Do 3 way merges
- Do Folder diffs
- Visually diff 2 image files!
Some screenshots:
Visual diff of an image:
Brad ParksBrad Parks
vote
This tool https://filecomparisontool.com
- Web based, so it is compatible
- Mobile friendly
- Save comparison up to 6 months
- Share comparison via URL
- It is free!
MattMatt
votes
vim also has built-in support for side-by-side diff -
Mac Compare Tool
Here is a page describing vim diff mode in detail -
Mac Folder Compare
HarmeetHarmeet
votes
GitX-dev is a fork (variant) of GitX, a long-defunct GUI for the git version-control system. It has been maintained and enhanced with productivity and friendliness oriented changes, with effort focused on making a first-class, maintainable tool for today's active developers.
AbramAbram