Participating Frequently

Question

Acrobat Pro DC comparison issue

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
August 17, 2020
5 replies
9124 views

Hi,

I am having trouble in comparing PDF files.

First, some details about my OS and Acrobat software:-

- Windows 10 Pro, i5, 16GB RAM, 64-bit

- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, version 2020.012,20041

I am trying to compare the first and second versions of a legal contract. The only difference between the first and second versions of this contract are some addition / deletion of words / paragraphs. After I ran the comparison, the results only showed: whole page deleted and whole page inserted (which shouldn't be right, as only minor changes were made to the text).

Some information about the first and second versions of the document:-

- First Version: this document was sent to me by e-mail by ABC Ltd. Under properties, it shows that the PDF producer is "Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 19.21.20049". When I open this first version, I am able to select and copy text.

- Second Version: ABC Ltd printed this document, signed it, and delivered the hardcopy to me. I scanned this into my PC using my office scanner (RICOH). Under properties, it shows that the PDF producer is "Adobe PSL 1.3e for Canon". When I scanned this document, I adjusted the settings, so that the scanned document would be OCR. When I open this second version, I am able to select and copy text.

Further, information:-

- AfterI pressed the "Compare Files" button, and selected both Old and New Files, a yellow interrogation mark would appear under the New File, and when I put my mouse cursor over it, the following message would appear: "Selected document is a scanned PDF and contains no text. Acrobat will perform image to image comparison only."

- I have tried printing this Second Version using Acrobat by selecting "Adobe PDF" as the printer. Let's call this print out as "new Second Version. Then, I tried running a comparison between the First Version and the new Second Version, but still have the same problem mentioned above.

Please help. Checking and comparing documents is big part of my daily job, and this is the main reason I purchased Acrobat Pro DC. Thank you very much

This topic has been closed for replies.

S

SunnySky88Author

Participating Frequently

Update:

After numerous rounds of attemps and hours of research and asking around, I have been getting better comparison results by further adjusting scan settings.

Just one more question: The New File is a scanned document with binding / punched holes, whereas the Old File has no binding / punched holes. So, when I run a comparison between the old and new file, the holes are detected as text changes. This is confusing as there are 21 holes on each page, and there are 50 pages, and the comparison would show there are 1,050 text changes.

Thank you.

A

adeep93

Adobe Employee

Hi,

Are you getting the punch holes as differences in 'Compare Text only' mode as well?

Using the 'Filter' option on the Compare app toolbar might help you in this regard in filtering/ignoring the various types of differences.

PS: The better the quality of the scanned file, the better will be the OCR output. And that should improve the quality of results as well.

Regards

Adobe Acrobat DC Team

S

SunnySky88Author

Participating Frequently

Hi,

Yes, I selected "Compare Text only". The compare function treats the binding / punched holes as letters "I", "L", "t", "i".

By "Filter", do you mean the "Settings" where I check various boxes under "Show in Report"? If that's what you are referring to, I checked the box "text" only. Further, I don't see any filter for ignoring punched holes.

Please advise. Thanks.

A

Aakash Deep

Adobe Employee

Hi,

Could you please try comparing the using option shown below in the screenshot?

Let us know if you're facing the same issue.

Regards

Adobe Acrobat DC Team

S

SunnySky88Author

Participating Frequently

Hi aakash4,

I have tried your settings, and it still doesn't work. I cannot share the whole file (as it contain confidential information). But I can share one page of the New File and Old File:-

1. Old File

2. New File

Thank you.

A

adeep93

Adobe Employee

Hi,

Have you tried comparing the files using 'Compare Text only' mode?

Regards

Adobe Acrobat DC Team

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Good job, to spot the scammer. This message "Selected document is a scanned PDF and contains no text. " seems clear. There IS no text, OCR was not done or AT LEAST ONE of the documents. If you think the message is wrong, please check by trying to select and copy text in BOTH files. OCR must be done, well and correctly, if you want to compare text.

S

SunnySky88Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you for your reply.

I am able to select and copy texts in both files. I believe the problem is with the New / Second File (which was scanned). But I believe that the scan was done properly. I set OCR to precision mode, and it took 25 minutes to for the scan / OCR to complete.

I have even tried doing (1) enhance scan, and (2) text recoginition on the both files, and tried running the comparison again. But still same problem. The comparison couldn't detect any text.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

In Acrobat try the OCR option "Editable Text and Images"

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

What OCR settings does you use?

S

SunnySky88Author

Participating Frequently

I can't remember. I can check tomorrow to confirm. But I had two options: (1) OCR fast, and (2) OCR precision. I chose OCR precision, and it took about 25 minutes for the scan to complete. The document had 50 pages.

S

SunnySky88Author

Participating Frequently

Apparently, I was approached by a scammer after making the above post, asking me to contact the e-mail below for adobe customer support:-

Adobecare.Experts@protonmail.com

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded