A comparison profile bundles the comparison mode, the compared content types, tolerances, and optional processing steps of i-net PDFC. You can select and adapt it directly in the profile sidebar of a comparison. The visible values depend on the selected profile and on the installed and available plugins.

Optional groups and fields are shown only when the associated plugin and, where applicable, the required resources are available. No specific profile configuration represents a general default; the visible values depend on the selected profile and the available extensions.

The profile sidebar contains the current profile selection, the Create profile action, and the Actions menu in its header. The available actions depend on the profile origin, write protection, server restrictions, Drive availability, and permissions, so an action is not necessarily visible or enabled in every situation.

Depending on these conditions, the Actions menu can provide the following actions:

• Rename... and Edit description... change the profile data shown in the selector. These actions are not available for specifically identified standard profiles.
• Duplicate... creates a personal variant and is the intended way to adapt a profile that is not editable.
• Delete is available for personal profiles. For published profiles, the action requires the appropriate administration and editability.
• Publish is available only to configuration administrators when the server policy allows publishing. You can select users or groups for the publication.
• Load defaults resets a customized derivative of a provided profile to its default values.
• Restore deleted profiles appears only when a centrally provided template can be restored.
• Import offers Upload file... and, where available, From Drive....
• Export offers Download and, where available, Save to Drive.
• Show recommendations appears only when recommendations were previously hidden.

The server-side publication and permission settings for comparison profiles are described on the comparison profiles configuration page.

The profile selector groups entries by origin:

• Provided profiles: Profiles delivered with the installation are offered in a defined order.
• Shared profiles: Profiles published for specific users or groups are available according to the applicable permissions.
• Own profiles: These include personal profiles and, where applicable, the User Defined Settings of a comparison instance.

The selector shows the profile name and description. The Customized marker identifies a personal derivative of a provided profile. The Centrally provided marker identifies a centrally managed entry.

A warning marker indicates invalid or no longer resolvable profile values. If the interface offers a cleanup action, it removes or replaces those invalid values so that the profile can be used again. Duplicate a profile before changing it when it is not editable, published, or provided.

The Filter settings field filters the visible groups and options. When no visible setting matches the search text, the sidebar shows an empty result state.

Changes to individual sidebar fields are saved after a short delay directly in the profile or in the comparison's custom settings. When automatic re-comparison is enabled, i-net PDFC schedules a new comparison afterwards.

When automatic re-comparison is disabled, the sidebar marks the comparison settings as changed and shows Apply in the footer. This action is available only for a comparison that has already started and is editable. Validation errors are shown at the affected field and prevent that value from being saved or re-compared.

In the desktop interface, the sidebar can be pinned or shown when needed. In small layouts, it is displayed as an overlay dialog.

i-net PDFC can recommend suitable profile values during document analysis. Recommendations appear in their groups and only when the recommended value differs from the current profile value. Not every option produces recommendations; their scope and timing depend on installed recommendation-capable filters and on document analysis.

Select the checkbox next to a recommendation to apply its value. The change is saved like a normal profile change and starts a new comparison when automatic re-comparison is enabled or is marked for Apply otherwise.

Hide temporarily hides a recommendation. Never show stores the suppression locally for that setting. Use Actions → Show recommendations to show hidden recommendations individually or all at once.

Profiles are exported as XML and can be imported into i-net PDFC again. Import replaces the affected profile settings. Duplicate a provided or published profile when you want to test an import in an editable variant first.

The Paging and sections group defines how content and spatial arrangement are determined for the comparison.

The following values are available:

• Continuous documents compares content across document boundaries and ignores page boundaries. Position-based tolerances do not apply in this mode.
• Page by Page evaluates pages and positions against each other, making position-dependent settings available.

Combine large text replacements combines related large text changes into larger difference units instead of displaying many individual differences.

The optional selected pages, area filter, and header and footer extensions add their controls to this group when they are available.

The Area filter in i-net PDFC defines rectangular page areas that are removed from the comparison basis or used as the only comparison areas. The interface edits these areas visually in the document once the required page views are available.

Use Comparison scope to choose how the configured areas are used:

• Ignore content inside areas removes content inside the areas from the comparison basis. The remaining page content is compared.
• Compare only content inside areas ignores everything outside the areas. Only content inside the areas is compared.

Edit areas becomes available only when page views for the comparison are available. Select Add area and then drag the desired rectangle onto a document page. You can move existing areas and change their size.

Use Document to assign each area to the required documents: Both documents, First document, or Second document. Use Pages to define its scope: All pages, Odd pages, Even pages, Single page, First pages, or Last pages. For a single page or a first or last page group, you can specify the page or the Count.

The Show, Highlight, and Delete actions help you inspect and manage the defined areas. Select Finish editing to leave the visual editing mode.

Important: Incorrect or oversized areas can remove real differences completely from the comparison basis.

The following options are available for each document:

• Page range: Enter one-based page numbers or inclusive ranges separated by commas, for example 1-5,8,11-13. A range includes both its first and last page.
• Last pages: Enter how many pages should additionally be excluded from the end of the selected page range.

• Page range: Enter one-based page numbers or inclusive ranges separated by commas, for example 1-5,8,11-13. A range includes both its first and last page.
• Last pages: Enter how many pages should additionally be excluded from the end of the selected page range.

The page range is determined first. The number entered for Last pages is then excluded from the end of that result. An empty field or the value 0 excludes no pages from the end.

The inputs are validated. For Last pages, enter an integer from 0 to 99999; negative values and values outside this range are invalid. A valid page range consists of one-based page numbers and inclusive ranges separated by commas. A validation error is shown at the affected field and prevents the value from being saved.

The Header and Footer filter detects recurring areas at the top and bottom page edges or lets you define their sizes manually. This allows header and footer areas without relevant differences to be excluded from the comparison.

The selection provides the following values:

• Don't detect disables header and footer detection and processing by this filter.
• Auto detect analyzes the documents and tries to detect stable header and footer areas automatically.
• Set manually shows the separate Header Size and Footer Size controls. You can set both values from 0 to 200 pixels.

Automatic detection can be used independently of the comparison mode. If the preview shows edges or handles for the area boundaries, drag the respective handle to adjust the header or footer size.

Important: Define the areas no larger than necessary. Header or footer areas that are too large can exclude relevant document content near the page edges from the comparison.

The Compare text group switch enables or disables text comparison. The child settings have no effect while text comparison is disabled.

Text alignment tolerance (%) determines how much relative deviation in text alignment may be allowed when text is matched. The range is 0 to 30 percent in 0.5 percent steps. This setting is separate from position checking.

Check text positions is shown only in Page by Page mode. When enabled, Position tolerance (px) becomes available. You can use any value from 0 to 100 pixels within the permitted range; this setting has no fixed step.

The following checks are available under Show additional text options:

• Compare case-sensitively considers differences between uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Check font size considers differences in font size.
• Check text color considers differences in text color.
• Check font family considers differences in font family.
• Check text style considers differences in text style.
• Whitespace comparison determines how whitespace is considered:
  • Ignore whitespace details ignores details of individual whitespace characters.
  • Check layout whitespace considers whitespace resulting from the layout.
  • Check every whitespace considers every individual whitespace character.

The optional Ignore rotated text and Filter content extensions are also placed among the advanced text options.

Ignore rotated text is located under the advanced text options. When enabled, rotated text is excluded from the comparison result. This is useful for watermarks, printer marks, or other rotated content that should not create differences.

The option has an effect only when text comparison is enabled. When Compare text is disabled, it has no effect.

Filter content is located under Show additional text options. It can be used only when Compare text is enabled. After activation, the detail fields for filter patterns become visible.

Filter Patterns contains a list of entries. The list is grouped by status and contains Active filters and Inactive filters (count). Inactive patterns remain stored as drafts but are not applied to the comparison.

Use Add filter ... to create a new entry as Plain text or RegEx. For each entry, you can Enable filter, choose the Type, and enter a multiline Pattern. A pattern may contain line breaks.

Use the row action menu to Duplicate or Delete entries. A duplicated entry retains its pattern text, type, and active status and can then be edited independently.

Exclude whole words determines how a match is removed:

• Whole words removes every complete word touched by a match. For example, when a pattern matches only part of Format, this selection removes the complete word.
• Partial matches removes only the characters matched by the pattern.

For a Plain text entry, the pattern is matched literally. A RegEx entry is evaluated as a Java regular expression. The As plain text and As regular expression actions choose the type when a new entry is created.

Active entries must not be empty. Active RegEx entries must contain valid Java regular expressions. Errors are shown directly at the affected pattern and prevent saving.

Inactive patterns remain as drafts and do not block saving. They are checked only when the respective entry is activated.

Every active pattern is applied to the complete extracted text of each page, not separately to individual text objects. Multiline patterns are supported.

Without capture groups, a regular expression removes the complete match. If the expression contains capture groups, only the participating groups are removed. This semantics applies to regular-expression matches in the extracted page text.

The following examples use no confidential document content:

• Plain text: Draft removes the literal text Draft from the comparison.
• RegEx: Version [0-9]+ matches text such as Version 12 and removes the match according to the regular-expression rules.

The Compare lines and shapes group switch enables or disables line and shape comparison.

• Position tolerance ranges from 0 to 100 pixels in 0.5 pixel steps and is active only in Page by Page mode.
• Size tolerance ranges from 0 to 100 pixels in 0.5 pixel steps.
• Line width tolerance ranges from 0 to 100 pixels in 0.1 pixel steps.

The Compare images group switch enables or disables image comparison.

• Position tolerance ranges from 0 to 10 pixels in 0.5 pixel steps and is active only in Page by Page mode.
• Size tolerance ranges from 0 to 1 in 0.01 steps.
• Color tolerance ranges from 0 to 1 in 0.01 steps.
• Check image metadata includes image metadata in the comparison.
• Show image differences in detail displays additional details about image differences.

The Compare annotations group switch enables or disables annotation comparison.

Compare annotations in detail compares additional annotation attributes.

Compare alternative texts includes PDF tags and alternative texts. This option is independent of the Compare annotations group switch, so the check can also be effective when annotation comparison is not enabled. The terms comments and annotations describe the subject matter here but are not UI labels.

The Enhancements group collects installed optimization and verification plugins. It includes basic tables, invisible elements, multi-column layouts, text normalization, external links, and content grouping. The respective pages describe the individual options and their dependencies.

The Optimize basic tables filter in i-net PDFC is intended for basic PDF tables. It recognizes repeated headers and matches table rows more reliably. Enable the option only when it improves the table structure processing of the documents being compared.

The following sub-options are shown only after the filter has been enabled:

• Filter repeated headers removes headers repeated on several pages from the comparison basis.
• Match table rows by offers Entire row, First column as key, and Automatic.
• Use AI table recognition (slow) is available only when the TATR extension and its required resources are installed and available. Recognition can significantly increase runtime, especially for large documents.

The option is intended for basic tables. It does not replace analysis of complex tables or handling of a general multi-column layout.

The Standardize text selection in i-net PDFC normalizes recognized text characters before comparison. It provides the following three values:

• Off performs no additional text normalization.
• Simplify complex characters performs the basic normalization of complex characters.
• Equalize common OCR mistakes includes the basic normalization and additionally corrects typical character confusions from text recognition.

The strongest mode is not an alias for the middle mode; it performs both processing steps. The concrete characters that are normalized depend on the recognition and document data available. Enable the setting only when this normalization is appropriate for the comparison.

Consider multi-column layout in i-net PDFC accounts for multiple text columns and improves the detected reading order or column structure. This can improve text matching and reduce the number of apparent text changes.

The option is intended for multi-column body text. It is not a table comparison and does not replace basic table optimization. Document analysis can recommend this setting depending on the document.

Ignore invisible elements removes document elements from the i-net PDFC comparison basis when they make no visible contribution during display. This can include elements outside the visible page area or elements hidden by transparency, masking, or overlap.

Only after the filter is enabled can you enable Calculate actual visibility. This more accurate calculation considers clipping and overlap among other factors. It requires considerably more processing time and should therefore be considered carefully for large documents.

This option is a heuristic optimization, not a complete rendering or accessibility check. Runtime and results can vary with the structure of the PDF file.

Group content in i-net PDFC determines the order in which PDF content is built into text blocks, paragraphs, and tables for comparison. The selection provides the following values:

• PDFC Default uses the standard PDFC detection for visual reading order and is suitable for most documents.
• Compare original PDF text order compares text in the order in which it is stored in the PDF instead of the detected layout order. This order can differ from the visible reading order.
• Use PDF structure tree uses embedded PDF structure data for tables and paragraphs when the document contains it correctly.

The OCR / Text recognition group is created only when OCR or font mapping repair is available. Depending on the installed and available extensions, the following values are available:

• Inactive - faster comparison performs the comparison without OCR-assisted processing or font mapping repair.
• Recognize text in images uses text recognition for text contained in images.
• Repair incorrect font mappings reconstructs damaged or unusable font and character mappings.
• Recognize text and repair font mappings combines text recognition with font mapping repair.

Document language can appear when OCR-assisted processing is active and more than one language resource is available. Error tolerance is active only for modes with text recognition. Deactivate CMAP is active only for modes with font mapping repair.

When neither OCR nor font mapping repair is available, the entire group is removed. A language selection that is available on its own is not shown as a separate OCR group in this case. Details are provided on the pages for OCR, font mapping repair, document language, and CMap.

• Regular expressions filter
• Combine differences
• Text recognition

Deactivate CMAP ignores existing CMap mappings so that font-mapping repair can determine a new character and font mapping. In the combined sidebar, the option is shown when OCR text recognition is active with a selected normalization level. The separate Recover text with OCR checkbox is no longer kept in that combined control.

A CMap is the character table of a PDF font that translates stored character codes into text. When visible PDF text and extracted or copied text do not match, reconstruction with CMap deactivated can determine a new mapping. The technical mapping and raw values are described on the programming page.

The OCR-assisted processing selection combines the OCR and font-mapping functions of i-net PDFC. Its available modes are determined dynamically from the installed extensions and currently available resources. If a required extension or resource is unavailable, the corresponding mode is not offered; an administrative error can indicate that an extension is unavailable.

The selection provides these modes:

• Inactive - faster comparison performs no additional OCR or font-mapping processing.
• Recognize text in images performs text recognition on image content. It does not replace existing PDF text through font-mapping repair.
• Repair incorrect font mappings reconstructs the mapping between PDF character codes and readable text. This mode processes existing PDF text and does not itself recognize text in images.
• Recognize text and repair font mappings combines text recognition in images with repair of faulty font mappings.

The Document language option is shown only when OCR-assisted processing is active and more than one matching language resource is available. Tolerance for similar characters is active only in modes that recognize text. It offers No tolerance, Similar characters only, Typical OCR recognition errors, and Recognition errors in distorted text. Deactivate CMAP becomes available when OCR text recognition is active, that is when a normalization level from No tolerance to Recognition errors in distorted text is selected. The combined sidebar removes the separate Recover text with OCR checkbox that previously also revealed this option.

The additional processing can increase runtime. The visible and enabled fields depend on the selected mode and on the available extensions and language resources.

For related information, see Repair incorrect font mappings and Document language.

The Repair incorrect font mappings mode reconstructs damaged or unusable mappings between PDF character codes and readable text. It processes existing PDF text and therefore differs from Recognize text in images, which extracts text from image content. The combined Recognize text and repair font mappings mode performs both processing steps.

The Deactivate CMAP option is available only for a mode that includes font-mapping repair: Repair incorrect font mappings or the combined mode. It ignores existing CMap mappings so that text reconstruction can determine a new mapping. This can help when PDF text looks correct but copies incorrectly. In the combined sidebar, Deactivate CMAP is shown when OCR text recognition is active with a selected normalization level.

Ignoring existing mappings can increase processing time and is not required for clean PDF files. Its actual visibility depends on the available OCR and font-mapping extensions.

For the combined control, see OCR-assisted processing. The technical profile property and its GUI mapping are described on the programming page.

The Document language option is shown only when OCR-assisted processing is active and more than one matching language resource is available. No language selector is displayed when OCR-assisted processing is disabled or only one language is available.

With Detect, i-net PDFC derives the document language from the document and the available resources. The selector also lists the language resources that are actually installed and registered. The list is not maintained as a static list in the documentation; it is built at runtime from the available analysis and OCR resources. This keeps the documentation maintenance-friendly, and an erroneous entry such as "Land" is not shown.

The selected language affects text recognition, similar-character recognition, and correction of typical OCR errors. A language that does not match the document can produce additional comparison differences.

For related information, see OCR-assisted processing and the combined OCR selection.

This filter can be used to exclude headings and footers from the comparison that leads to the reduction of repeating differences. Automatic detection is only possible in non-strict mode. Three options are available.

• Do not recognize Headers and footers are not recognized
• Automatically Detect Headers and footers are automatically recognized and treated by PDFC
• Manually set Headers and footers allow you to precisely adjust pixels if the areas can not be detected automatically.