Software to compare huge PDF files?

[SHADOWFOX]

Good Mornin Y'all,

I know a bunch of us used to or still work in IT. Anybody know of or have had experienced with a good software to use when comparing two humongous .pdf files to see if there are any differences in the context and format of each documents? Greatly appreciate any info.

Thank you,

[radhak]

I have not had the need, but I'd just go out and google and buy something off the market.

This page seems to do some sort of review - you could pick and choose.

[Uncle Cracker]

This page seems to do some sort of review - you could pick and choose.

Well, actually, they're comparing their own software to that of their competition. They recommend their own product over the others... So, although some of the feature info might be factual, you might want to look for a more objective comparison...

[Bruce Cohen]

Hey Chris,

Size alone doesn't always reflect a difference in file content. Depending how the file is distilled, (made into a PDF), can change its size radically. If the file is distilled for just on line viewing, it can be condensed greatly as there is no need for the resolution to be any greater than 72 dpi (macs) or 96 dpi (Windows).

On the other hand, a file distilled to be sent to a commercial printer is usually made to be 300 dpi, which will make the same file much larger.

So, a comparison based on size alone can be totally deceiving.

Hope this helps some. To the best of my knowledge, the only way is to look at both files.

Bruce

[Martin]

?Won't Microsoft "Briefcase" do some thing like that?

[SwingKing]

The full Adobe Acrobat product will do PDF comparisons. It works ok, but I've had problems with sometimes where it will get the two docs out of sync and then resync at section/chapter headings.

-- Ken

[SHADOWFOX]

This is going to be used to compare both the format and context of the PDF files. We're changing from one service provider to another for sending bills, statements and reports to our customers. We've sent files and samples to the new service provider and they provided us with their work and we needed to compare these with the bills, statements and reports that are currently in production to make sure that it was done correctly. Problem is we have some bills, statements and reports that are over 40 pages and to manually compare would just be impossible specially if we are checking content and format.

I have a full adobe acrobat software so I might check out what SwingKing mentioned.

Right now basically I am shopping for a software that we could use for user acceptance testing and regression testing for the huge pdf files. That is the reason why I ask if somebody have had experience using any of these type of softwares or have undergone these type of testing.

Thanks a million!