File format parity
Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Change: minor (encrypted output opens in Acrobat, #774; XFDF fixes #807, #809, #819) · Target: Adobe Acrobat Pro (Acrobat DC, continuous track 26.002.21931, macOS)
Every format Acrobat Pro reads or writes, and PdfCraft's support for it. Acrobat's list comes from
its bundle's Info.plist CFBundleDocumentTypes (what it opens) and its public documentation
(Create PDF and Export PDF). PdfCraft's support comes from the code and
parity/acrobat-features.toml. Summary in target-app-parity.md; gaps
in gaps.md.
Legend: R read/import, W write/export. Fidelity: high (tested against an external oracle
or round-trips exactly), good (tested, known limits), basic (works, visibly lossy), none.
File formats and conversion ≈ 40% ready (estimated): PDF itself is strong except encrypted
output interoperability; the conversion formats users reach for most (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Office to PDF, OCR beyond English) are weak or missing. 120–220 h to parity (within the
features total).
PDF
| Format |
Acrobat |
PdfCraft |
Fidelity |
Tests and evidence |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| Certificate-encrypted PDF (public-key handler) |
R W |
none (clear message) |
none |
core.unsupported-handlers |
| Linearized PDF (Fast Web View) |
R W |
R (as normal PDF); no W |
none for W |
core.linearization planned |
| Damaged PDF |
R (repair) |
R (repair, logged) |
high |
core.repair-broken-files, nightly fuzzing |
| 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 |
| PDF/X, PDF/UA, PDF/E, PDF/VT |
R W, verify |
R only |
none |
pdf-spec-parity.md |
| PDF Portfolio (collection) |
R W |
R as a PDF with attachments; no portfolio view |
none |
organize.portfolio-* planned |
| XFA forms (in PDF) |
R W (fill) |
R, lay out dynamic forms, fill, save datasets (partial) |
basic |
form.xfa-* partial; crates/xfa tests |
Data and interchange formats
| Format |
Acrobat |
PdfCraft |
Fidelity |
Tests and evidence |
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) |
XFDF (.xfdf, ISO 19444-1) |
R W |
R W |
good |
as above |
| XML form data |
R W |
R W |
good |
form.data-xml-csv-txt |
XDP (.xdp, XFA data package) |
R |
none |
none |
Acrobat opens .xdp as a document type |
| CSV / tab-delimited form data |
W (merge to spreadsheet) |
R W; merge to spreadsheet |
good |
form.merge-to-spreadsheet |
| Comment summary (PDF) |
W |
W (comments only layout) |
basic |
comment.summarize partial |
| Measurement CSV |
W |
W |
good |
comment.measure-export |
| Compare report (PDF) |
W |
W |
good |
misc.compare-report |
Action Wizard sequences (.sequ) |
R W |
own JSON actions; no .sequ |
none for .sequ |
misc.action-wizard-* |
Security settings (.acrobatsecuritysettings), .apf profiles, .secstore |
R W |
none |
none |
out of scope unless asked |
Search index (.pdx) |
R W |
none |
none |
view.search-index planned |
| JDF / MJD job definitions |
R |
none |
none |
print.jdf planned (P3) |
Preflight profiles (.kfp) and reports |
R W |
none |
none |
gap 9 |
PDF Optimizer settings (.optimize) |
R W |
none (dialog settings not saved as presets) |
none |
optimize.optimizer-presets planned |
Certificates and keys
| Format |
Acrobat |
PdfCraft |
Fidelity |
Tests and evidence |
PKCS #12 digital IDs (.p12, .pfx) |
R W |
R W (self-signed IDs) |
high |
OpenSSL-made fixtures (crates/sign/tests/data/README.md) |
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 |
| CMS / PKCS #7 signatures, RFC 3161 tokens, OCSP, CRL |
R W |
R W |
high |
pdfsig and OpenSSL oracles |
Create PDF from
| Source |
Acrobat |
PdfCraft |
Fidelity |
Tests and evidence |
| JPEG, PNG, TIFF (multipage), GIF, BMP, JPEG 2000 |
yes |
yes (ICC profiles kept; DPI choices) |
good |
create.from-images, create.from-multipage-tiff |
| PCX |
yes |
no |
none |
in Acrobat's document types |
| Plain text |
yes |
yes |
good |
create.from-text |
| Clipboard (image or text) |
yes |
yes |
good |
create.from-clipboard |
| Screenshot |
yes |
no |
none |
create.from-screenshot planned |
| Word, Excel, PowerPoint (and Visio, Publisher on Windows) |
yes |
no |
none |
create.from-office planned (LibreOffice sidecar) |
| HTML file, web page URL |
yes |
no |
none |
create.from-html, create.from-web-page planned |
| RTF |
yes |
no |
none |
|
| PostScript / EPS (Distiller) |
yes |
no |
none |
create.distiller planned (P3) |
| Markdown |
no |
no |
none |
create.from-markdown planned (P2; not an Acrobat feature) |
| Scanner |
yes |
no |
none |
ocr.scanner-acquire planned |
| Several files at once |
yes |
yes (PDFs, images and text) |
good |
create.create-multiple |
Export PDF to
| Target |
Acrobat |
PdfCraft |
Fidelity |
Tests and evidence |
Word (.docx) |
yes, layout-preserving |
flowing document: paragraphs, headings, bold/italic, colour, images, tables |
basic (#773: layout lost, fake borders, duplicated pages) |
create.export-docx partial |
Word 97–2003 (.doc) |
yes |
no |
none |
|
Excel (.xlsx), XML Spreadsheet 2003 |
yes |
no |
none |
create.export-xlsx planned |
PowerPoint (.pptx) |
yes |
no |
none |
create.export-pptx planned |
| RTF |
yes |
yes |
basic |
create.export-rtf |
| HTML (single page, multiple pages) |
yes |
single file with headings, paragraphs, images, tables |
basic |
create.export-html partial |
| Plain text |
yes |
yes (reading order) |
good (word-F1 0.98 vs pdftotext) |
create.export-text, xtask text-oracle |
| Accessible text (from tags) |
yes |
no |
none |
create.export-accessible-text planned |
| PNG, JPEG, TIFF |
yes |
yes |
good |
create.export-png, create.export-jpeg-tiff |
| JPEG 2000 |
yes |
no |
none |
create.export-jpeg2000 planned |
| All embedded images |
yes |
yes |
good |
create.export-all-images |
| XML 1.0 |
yes |
no |
none |
create.export-xml planned |
| SVG |
no (dropped by Adobe) |
no |
none |
create.export-svg planned |
| PostScript, EPS |
yes |
no |
none |
create.export-ps, create.export-eps planned |
OCR (scans to searchable PDF)
| Capability |
Acrobat |
PdfCraft |
Fidelity |
| Searchable image (invisible text layer) |
yes |
yes (Tr 3 text fitted to word boxes) |
good for English |
| Editable text and images output |
yes |
no |
none |
| Languages |
dozens (Latin with accents, Cyrillic, Greek, CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, Indic) |
Latin without accents only (ocrs models) |
basic (#744) |
| Deskew, rotation, despeckle, background and halo removal, descreen |
yes |
no |
none |
| Camera images (edges, perspective, whiteboard, card) |
yes |
no |
none |
| MRC (adaptive) compression, PDF/A output of scans |
yes |
no |
none |
Revision history
| Date |
Change |
Summary |
| 2026-10-11 |
minor |
Encrypted PDF row: written files open in Acrobat DC (#774, fixed by #836). FDF row: #807, #809 and #819 fixed |
| 2026-10-10 |
major |
Created from Acrobat 26.002.21931's CFBundleDocumentTypes, Acrobat's public Create/Export documentation, and PdfCraft's code and checklist |
