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Tanish Manku
50cbf5fa19
`cargo xtask text-oracle` reported one number: word F1 against `pdftotext`. F1 is a bag of words. It catches a character read wrong, a glyph not read at all, a font we cannot map -- and it is blind to order, so a page emitted back to front scores a perfect 1.000. Reading order is most of what text extraction has left to get wrong: a column read into the middle of its neighbour (#2387), a figure's labels threaded through a paragraph (#2586), a form's value parted from its label. The hole is not hypothetical. Reviewing #2431, a change that moves text and alters nothing else, **word F1 called 26 of the 29 files whose output changed identical**, while scoring the word sequence separated 18 improvements from 6 regressions and named the shape of the regressions (forms: `prefilled_f1040.pdf` 0.672 -> 0.481, a checkbox's number parted from its label). The harness could not see the only thing that change does. So a second score per file: the longest common subsequence of the two word sequences, as a share of the longer one. It shows up in the first three corpus files -- `Test-plusminus.pdf` scores F1 1.000 and reading order 0.875, the same forty words in a title block that we read down the column and `pdftotext` reads across. Both sides are cut to the first 3,000 words, because the comparison is quadratic and three pages is plenty of signal; the run says how many files that bit, so the cap cannot quietly become the measurement. It reports; it does not gate, and like the pixel score it is a *disagreement* with Poppler rather than a verdict -- in the #2431 measurement the same split scored as a win on one file and a loss on another purely because `pdftotext` makes it in one place and not the other. The function's doc comment, `crates/oracle/README.md` and `docs/gaps.md` gap 12 all say so. `words` now takes the sequence rather than re-splitting the text, so both scores read the same tokens. `docs/file-format-parity.md` claimed plain-text export was good "(word-F1 0.98)" in a row whose own column is reading order; it now says the two are scored separately. Verified: `cargo xtask text-oracle --limit 60` end to end; `cargo test -p xtask` 49 passed; fmt and clippy clean. The unit test was watched failing with the score blinded to order (sorting both sides made it 1.000 where it must be below 0.7). The corpus-wide first reading is not in this commit: the machine is shared with a parallel build and the full sweep was stopped twice for memory. Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
117 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
117 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
# File format parity
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> **Last reviewed:** 2026-10-12 · **Last updated:** 2026-10-12 · **Change:** minor (XDP data row corrected; BigTIFF in Create PDF) · **Target:** Adobe Acrobat Pro (Acrobat DC, continuous track 26.002.21931, macOS)
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Every format Acrobat Pro reads or writes, and PdfCraft's support for it. Acrobat's list comes from
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its bundle's `Info.plist` `CFBundleDocumentTypes` (what it opens) and its public documentation
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(Create PDF and Export PDF). PdfCraft's support comes from the code and
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`parity/acrobat-features.toml`. Summary in [target-app-parity.md](target-app-parity.md); gaps
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in [gaps.md](gaps.md).
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Legend: **R** read/import, **W** write/export. Fidelity: *high* (tested against an external oracle
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or round-trips exactly), *good* (tested, known limits), *basic* (works, visibly lossy), *none*.
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**File formats and conversion ≈ 40% ready** (estimated): PDF itself is strong except encrypted
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output interoperability; the conversion formats users reach for most (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
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Office to PDF, OCR beyond English) are weak or missing. **120–220 h** to parity (within the
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features total).
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## PDF
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| Format | Acrobat | PdfCraft | Fidelity | Tests and evidence |
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| PDF 1.0–1.7, ISO 32000-1 | R W | R W | high for reading and unencrypted writing | 958-file pdf.js corpus open/edit/save; `qpdf --check` on saved outputs; `xtask check` baselines |
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| PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) | R W | R W (2.0-only features ignored but preserved) | good | No UTF-8 strings, `/AF`, DPart, namespaces ([pdf-spec-parity.md](pdf-spec-parity.md)) |
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| Encrypted PDF (standard security R2–R6) | R W | R W | reading high; writing opens in Acrobat DC since #836 (#774; AES-256 and RC4-128 checked by hand, no automated interop suite) | `crates/crypt`, `crates/cos` tests (`the_catalog_of_an_encrypted_document_stays_outside_object_streams`); all 7 corpus encrypted files open |
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| Certificate-encrypted PDF (public-key handler) | R W | none (clear message) | none | `core.unsupported-handlers` |
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| Linearized PDF (Fast Web View) | R W | R (as normal PDF); no W | none for W | `core.linearization` planned |
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| Damaged PDF | R (repair) | R (repair, logged) | high | `core.repair-broken-files`, nightly fuzzing |
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| PDF/A-1, 2, 3, 4 | R W, verify | R; verify/convert 2b and 3b (partial) | basic | `optimize.pdfa-*`; veraPDF not yet used as oracle |
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| PDF/X, PDF/UA, PDF/E, PDF/VT | R W, verify | R only | none | [pdf-spec-parity.md](pdf-spec-parity.md) |
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| PDF Portfolio (collection) | R W | R as a PDF with attachments; no portfolio view | none | `organize.portfolio-*` planned |
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| XFA forms (in PDF) | R W (fill) | R, lay out dynamic forms, fill, save datasets (partial) | basic | `form.xfa-*` partial; `crates/xfa` tests |
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## Data and interchange formats
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| Format | Acrobat | PdfCraft | Fidelity | Tests and evidence |
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| FDF (`.fdf`) comments and form data | R W | R W | good | `crates/xfdf`; comment-exchange fixes for popups, polygon vertices and callouts (#807, #809, #819) |
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| XFDF (`.xfdf`, ISO 19444-1) | R W | R W | good | as above |
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| XML form data | R W | R W | good | `form.data-xml-csv-txt` |
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| XDP data (`.xdp`) for XFA forms | R W | R W: Export Data writes the whole datasets as an XDP; Import Data takes an XDP, datasets or data XML | good | `form.xfa-data` (`data_exports_as_datasets_xml_or_an_xdp_and_imports_from_any_of_them`, `xfa_data_files_export_and_import_through_tools`) |
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| XDP opened as a document | R | none | none | Acrobat opens `.xdp` as a document type |
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| CSV / tab-delimited form data | W (merge to spreadsheet) | R W; merge to spreadsheet | good | `form.merge-to-spreadsheet` |
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| Comment summary (PDF) | W | W (comments only layout) | basic | `comment.summarize` partial |
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| Measurement CSV | W | W | good | `comment.measure-export` |
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| Compare report (PDF) | W | W | good | `misc.compare-report` |
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| Action Wizard sequences (`.sequ`) | R W | own JSON actions; no `.sequ` | none for `.sequ` | `misc.action-wizard-*` |
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| Security settings (`.acrobatsecuritysettings`), `.apf` profiles, `.secstore` | R W | none | none | out of scope unless asked |
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| Search index (`.pdx`) | R W | none | none | `view.search-index` planned |
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| JDF / MJD job definitions | R | none | none | `print.jdf` planned (P3) |
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| Preflight profiles (`.kfp`) and reports | R W | none | none | gap 9 |
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| PDF Optimizer settings (`.optimize`) | R W | none (dialog settings not saved as presets) | none | `optimize.optimizer-presets` planned |
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## Certificates and keys
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| Format | Acrobat | PdfCraft | Fidelity | Tests and evidence |
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| PKCS #12 digital IDs (`.p12`, `.pfx`) | R W | R W (self-signed IDs) | high | OpenSSL-made fixtures (`crates/sign/tests/data/README.md`) |
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| Certificates (`.cer`, `.der`, `.pem`, `.p7c`, `.p7b`) | R W | R (`.cer/.pem/.der/.p12` trust import); W public certificate | good; `.p7c/.p7b` bundles not read | `sign.trust-import` partial, `sign.export-certificate` |
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| CMS / PKCS #7 signatures, RFC 3161 tokens, OCSP, CRL | R W | R W | high | `pdfsig` and OpenSSL oracles |
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## Create PDF from
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| Source | Acrobat | PdfCraft | Fidelity | Tests and evidence |
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| JPEG, PNG, TIFF (multipage, and BigTIFF), GIF, BMP, JPEG 2000 | yes | yes (ICC profiles kept; DPI choices) | good | `create.from-images`, `create.from-multipage-tiff`, `bigtiff_images_become_pages` |
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| PCX | yes | no | none | in Acrobat's document types |
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| Plain text | yes | yes | good | `create.from-text` |
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| Clipboard (image or text) | yes | yes | good | `create.from-clipboard` |
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| Screenshot | yes | no | none | `create.from-screenshot` planned |
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| Word, Excel, PowerPoint (and Visio, Publisher on Windows) | yes | no | none | `create.from-office` planned (LibreOffice sidecar) |
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| HTML file, web page URL | yes | no | none | `create.from-html`, `create.from-web-page` planned |
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| RTF | yes | no | none | |
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| PostScript / EPS (Distiller) | yes | no | none | `create.distiller` planned (P3) |
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| Markdown | no | no | none | `create.from-markdown` planned (P2; not an Acrobat feature) |
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| Scanner | yes | no | none | `ocr.scanner-acquire` planned |
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| Several files at once | yes | yes: combine PDFs, images and text into one document, or create a separate PDF for each non-PDF source (GUI and `doc_create_multiple mode=separate`); existing outputs get numbered names | good for supported source types | `create.create-multiple`, `separate_batch_creates_one_pdf_per_source_without_replacing_existing_files` |
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## Export PDF to
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| Target | Acrobat | PdfCraft | Fidelity | Tests and evidence |
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| Word (`.docx`) | yes, layout-preserving | flowing paragraphs and borderless inferred tables; positioned text/artwork only for pages with rotated text or text overlapping an image/watermark, with per-page sizes | **basic** (#773 synthetic invoice regression covered; exact fonts, vector rules and general layout fidelity remain incomplete) | `create.export-docx` partial |
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| Word 97–2003 (`.doc`) | yes | no | none | |
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| Excel (`.xlsx`), XML Spreadsheet 2003 | yes | no | none | `create.export-xlsx` planned |
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| PowerPoint (`.pptx`) | yes | slides per page: title from largest text, body text, images, tables (no slide overflow reflow / normAutofit; first page sets presentation dimensions) | basic | `create.export-pptx` partial |
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| RTF | yes | yes | basic | `create.export-rtf` |
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| HTML (single page, multiple pages) | yes | single file with headings, paragraphs, images, tables | basic | `create.export-html` partial |
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| Plain text | yes | yes (reading order) | good (word-F1 0.98 vs `pdftotext`; reading order is scored separately, because F1 cannot see it) | `create.export-text`, `xtask text-oracle` |
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| Accessible text (from tags) | yes | no | none | `create.export-accessible-text` planned |
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| PNG, JPEG, TIFF | yes | yes | good | `create.export-png`, `create.export-jpeg-tiff` |
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| JPEG 2000 | yes | no | none | `create.export-jpeg2000` planned |
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| All embedded images | yes | yes | good | `create.export-all-images` |
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| XML 1.0 | yes | no | none | `create.export-xml` planned |
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| SVG | no (dropped by Adobe) | no | none | `create.export-svg` planned |
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| PostScript, EPS | yes | no | none | `create.export-ps`, `create.export-eps` planned |
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## OCR (scans to searchable PDF)
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| Capability | Acrobat | PdfCraft | Fidelity |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| Searchable image (invisible text layer) | yes | yes (Tr 3 text fitted to word boxes) | good for English |
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| Editable text and images output | yes | no | none |
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| Languages | dozens (Latin with accents, Cyrillic, Greek, CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, Indic) | Latin without accents only (ocrs models) | **basic** (#744) |
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| Deskew, rotation, despeckle, background and halo removal, descreen | yes | no | none |
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| Camera images (edges, perspective, whiteboard, card) | yes | no | none |
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| MRC (adaptive) compression, PDF/A output of scans | yes | no | none |
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## Revision history
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| Date | Change | Summary |
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| 2026-10-12 | minor | XDP split into data (read and write for XFA forms, already shipped under `form.xfa-data`) and opening `.xdp` as a document (none). Create PDF reads BigTIFF; malformed GIF headers are no longer detected as images. |
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| 2026-10-11 | minor | #773: inferred tables have no invented borders; rotated or overlapping invoice pages use floating shapes and page sections. Full Office layout fidelity remains partial. |
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| 2026-10-11 | minor | Encrypted PDF row: written files open in Acrobat DC (#774, fixed by #836). FDF row: #807, #809 and #819 fixed |
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| 2026-10-10 | major | Created from Acrobat 26.002.21931's `CFBundleDocumentTypes`, Acrobat's public Create/Export documentation, and PdfCraft's code and checklist |
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