comparepdf
==========

comparepdf is used to compare two PDF files.

The default comparison mode is text mode where the text of each
corresponding pair of pages is compared. As soon as a difference is
detected the program terminates with a message (unless -v0 is set) and
an indicative return code.

The options are -ct or --compare=text (the default) for text mode
comparisons or -ca or --compare=appearance for visual comparisons
(useful if diagrams or other images have changed), and -v=1 or
--verbose=1 for reporting differences (and saying nothing for matching
files): use -v=0 for no reporting or -v=2 for reporting both different
and matching files.

(For a GUI tool for showing the detailed differences between PDF files
see http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html.)

Home page: http://www.qtrac.eu/comparepdf.html


Compiling and Installing comparepdf
===================================

Prerequisites: A C++ compiler, the Qt 4 libraries (I test with Qt 4.7
and Qt 4.6. Earlier Qt's may work although Qt 4.4 and 4.5 will at least
need a compiler with tr1 support), and the Poppler libraries (at least
version 0.14.0 and including Poppler's C++ and Qt 4 headers). Linux and
BSD users should be able to get everything through their package
management system---and some distros already include comparepdf so you
don't even have to build it. Mac OS X users can get a compiler by
installing Xcode; you'll need to get Qt and Poppler separately.

1. Unpack the archive file, comparepdf-XXX.tar.gz
2. Change directory to comparepdf-XXX
3. Run qmake # On some systems, e.g., Fedora or Ubuntu, run qmake-qt4
   On Mac OS X use: qmake spec=macx-g++
4. Run make
5. Copy or soft-link the comparepdf executable to somewhere on your PATH

That's it!


License
=======

This program was written by Mark Summerfield.
Copyright (c) 2011-12 Qtrac Ltd. All rights reserved.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option), any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that
it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License (in file gpl-2.0.txt) for more details.
