pdfcraft/docs/file-format-parity.md

File format parity

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)

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 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)
XDP opened as a document	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, 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
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: 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

Export PDF to

Target	Acrobat	PdfCraft	Fidelity	Tests and evidence
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
Word 97–2003 (.doc)	yes	no	none
Excel (.xlsx), XML Spreadsheet 2003	yes	no	none	create.export-xlsx planned
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
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
2026-10-12	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.
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.
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