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Prepare, check, then export

Text Compare & Diff Checker

Put the original on the left and the revision on the right. Compare them to see which lines changed, then save a report or carry the revised text into the next step.

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Benefits

  • Review added and removed lines with original and revised line numbers.
  • Choose whether case and horizontal spacing should affect matching.
  • Download a full report, including differences hidden by ignore rules.

When this helps

  • Check a cleaned OCR extract against its untouched text version.
  • Review changes to amounts or references in a plain text report.
  • Compare two exported drafts before formatting the final PDF.

How to use this tool

  1. Paste two versions or import an original and revised UTF-8 TXT file.
  2. Leave ignore rules off for a strict comparison, or enable the rules needed for your review.
  3. Choose Compare texts. Review the + and − markers and any ignored original lines.
  4. Download the full report or continue with the revised text. Compare again after changing either input.

Read the differences before accepting a revision

This tool compares lines. A changed amount on an otherwise identical line appears as a removal and an addition. The original line number and revised line number help you locate the change without relying on color alone. Longest-common-subsequence matching keeps shared lines in order; moved blocks appear as removal and addition rather than a special move operation.

Windows and Unix line endings are normalized to the same line-break representation before comparison. Case and horizontal spaces remain significant unless you turn on their ignore rules. Ignoring spacing collapses spaces and tabs and trims line edges; it does not remove line breaks or combine paragraphs.

An ignored difference is still worth knowing about. When lines match only because of an ignore rule, the result also displays the original line. The downloaded report records those originals and the selected rules. “Show changed lines only” simplifies the screen; it does not cut unchanged context out of the full downloaded report.

Comparison can show that two extracts differ, but it cannot decide which extract is correct. An OCR error repeated in both versions will not appear as a difference. Check important names, dates and numbers against the actual scanned page. For visual changes to a document’s layout, use the existing PDF comparison tool rather than a plain text comparison.

Formats, limits and privacy

  • Each input: UTF-8 TXT up to 1 MiB and 100,000 UTF-16 code units.
  • At most 2,000 lines per side and 2 million line pairs. Split large files into sections.
  • Plain text comparison is not plagiarism detection, semantic review or visual PDF comparison.

These tools process text locally. There is no draft autosave. Download important work before leaving; temporary file handoffs expire after 30 minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Is my text sent to a comparison server?

The comparison runs in this browser. Continue actions store a temporary local artifact, and download saves a file to your device.

Does ignoring whitespace hide every formatting change?

No. It normalizes horizontal spaces and tabs within lines. Line breaks remain part of the comparison, and ignored originals are still included in the report.

Which version goes to the next tool?

The revised text. Use Swap before continuing if you want to carry the original instead, and compare again if you need a new report.

Continue your document workflow

Use a Continue button inside the workspace to carry your text; these links open a fresh tool.