pdfcraft/docs/gaps.md

Where PdfCraft falls short of Acrobat Pro

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-10 · Change: minor (alpha markers removed after the gate was re-judged: no gap blocks alpha) · Target: Adobe Acrobat Pro (Acrobat DC, continuous track 26.002.21931, macOS)

Every known shortfall, one entry each, ranked by what it costs users. This is the work list: agents choose from the top unless the owner says otherwise, and prefer these over new P2/P3 checklist features. The numbers behind it are in target-app-parity.md; the per-feature detail is in parity/acrobat-features.toml (cargo xtask parity --partial lists what each partial feature lacks).

No gap blocks the alpha gate; gaps 1 and 8 hold the convert-and-share workflow's partial sub-cases and are the first beta items.

Hours are Opus 5.5 agent wall-clock hours. "Doc" names the parity document the gap belongs to. When a gap closes, delete its entry, note it in the ROADMAP.md progress log and update the numbers.

Summary

#	Gap	Kind	Hours	Doc
1	Encrypted files we write don't open in Acrobat	file format	8–15	file-format-parity.md
2	Rendering is borrowed and its fidelity unmeasured	feature, spec	110–190	pdf-spec-parity.md
3	Editing existing text is fragile on real files	feature	100–180	target-app-parity.md
4	No printing on Windows or the web	feature, platform	15–30	hardware-parity.md
5	Chinese UI shows missing-glyph boxes in releases	localization	6–12	localization-parity.md
6	Open-issue backlog of wrong results in shipped features	stability	45–80	this file
7	OCR reads only unaccented Latin	feature	40–75	file-format-parity.md
8	Office export weak, Office import absent	file format	55–100	file-format-parity.md
9	No Preflight; PDF/A partial; PDF/X and PDF/UA absent	standards	65–115	pdf-spec-parity.md
10	Signatures: no PKCS #11, timestamp servers or online revocation	feature, hardware	40–70	pdf-spec-parity.md
11	Accessibility: checker only, no tagging tools	feature	40–70	target-app-parity.md
12	No measured fidelity harness against Acrobat	quality	(in 2)	target-app-parity.md
13	Performance budgets and lazy loading of very large files	performance	25–45	this file
14	Arabic not mirrored; no Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese	localization	30–50	localization-parity.md
15	Forms: JavaScript object model, actions, submit, XFA depth	feature	40–75	pdf-spec-parity.md
16	UI precision gaps (multi-select move, rulers, accelerators, windows)	UI/UX	30–60	ui-parity.md
17	Certificate security and other protect gaps	feature, spec	15–30	pdf-spec-parity.md
18	Print production tools absent	feature	25–45	target-app-parity.md
19	Preferences mostly missing	UI/UX	15–25	ui-parity.md
20	Scanners, GPU page rendering, pen pressure, Read Out Loud	hardware	25–50	hardware-parity.md
21	Compare: no side-by-side view or filters	feature	10–20	target-app-parity.md
22	PDF 2.0 extras, linearization, Arlington validation	spec	20–35	pdf-spec-parity.md
23	Local AI provider (summarize, ask, alt text, redaction suggestions)	AI	20–40	target-app-parity.md
24	Checklist not diffed against Acrobat's own menus	measurement	4–8	target-app-parity.md

The gaps

1. Encrypted files we write don't open in Acrobat

• Missing: interoperable encryption output. A document protected with a password in PdfCraft opens in PdfCraft, SumatraPDF, PDF24 and LibreOffice, but Adobe Reader, Acrobat and PDF-XChange report it as damaged.
• Evidence: #774 (2026-10-10, confirmed by a second user). Our encryption tests round-trip through our own reader and qpdf --check, which is more lenient than Acrobat.
• Impact: blocking. Passwords are the most common reason to touch security; a file a recipient can't open is data loss in practice. Partial sub-case of the convert-and-share gate row (unencrypted sharing works), so not an alpha blocker; the first beta item.
• Fix: find the divergence (likely /Encrypt dictionary or R6 /Perms//OE//UE details, or a string/stream encrypted that must not be), then add an interop suite that opens every kind of output we write in other readers (pdf.js, MuPDF and Poppler as oracle processes; Acrobat by hand on the owner's Mac).
• Estimate: 8–15 h. Doc: file-format-parity.md.

2. Rendering is borrowed and its fidelity unmeasured

• Missing: our own renderer (M2: model crate, font engine, DisplayList devices, ADR-0004), or an owner decision to adopt another engine; and any measurement of rendering against Acrobat.
• Evidence: pages are drawn by vendored hayro 0.7 with 22 local patches to hayro-interpret, 9 to hayro, 3 to hayro-jbig2 and 13 to hayro-syntax (vendor/README.md); lopdf still backs document inspection. All 7 rendering P0 features are partial. User reports: TikZ pattern fills drawn wrong (#794), blurry text at 1080p/1440p (#730), fixed zoom sizes differ from Acrobat (#739). An outside author proposes his MIT/Apache renderer as the bridge (#841).
• Impact: every page a user sees. Wrong glyphs, shadings or blend modes erode trust faster than any missing feature.
• Fix: first a fidelity harness (gap 12), then the renderer: own devices (150–250 h in the old plan) or an adopted engine plus our own font and text layers.
• Estimate: 110–190 h (includes the harness). Owner decision needed on #841 vs M2. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

3. Editing existing text is fragile on real files

• Missing: robust in-place editing of text PdfCraft didn't write: subset fonts without the needed glyphs, CJK and right-to-left text, rotated text, lists, superscript/subscript, keeping structure tags, find and replace in edit mode; vector and object editing; arrange and align.
• Evidence: edit.text-edit is partial (font reused or Helvetica substituted); edit.rtl-cjk-editing, edit.rotated-text-editing, edit.keep-tags-on-edit, edit.vector-edit, edit.edit-object-tool are planned. Users: #766 (editing Arabic text), #844 (can't move several elements), #787 (move images between pages), #791.
• Impact: "Edit PDF" is one of Acrobat Pro's top reasons to buy. Substituting Helvetica changes how a document looks.
• Estimate: 100–180 h (the longest feature pole, M7). Doc: target-app-parity.md.

4. No printing on Windows or the web

• Missing: a Windows spooler (and printer properties), browser printing.
• Evidence: #756: on Windows 11 the Print dialog only saves a PDF. crates/print/README.md: "Not yet: Windows and web spoolers".
• Impact: Windows is most of Acrobat's market. Printing is a P0 workflow.
• Estimate: 15–30 h. Doc: hardware-parity.md.

5. Chinese UI shows missing-glyph boxes in releases

• Missing: a Simplified Chinese (Hans) UI face in release builds and a working fallback.
• Evidence: #826, #688, #728, #758, #689 (Flatpak). AGENTS.md §1.1 bars Noto CJK (Source Han rebranded), so craft-fonts needs another openly licensed Hans face.
• Impact: the second-largest language group sees a broken interface although the catalog is 97% translated.
• Estimate: 6–12 h (font sourcing in craft-fonts plus the fallback chain). Doc: localization-parity.md.

6. Open-issue backlog of wrong results in shipped features

• Missing: fixes for ≈ 25 filed reports of features marked shipped that give wrong results, plus triage of ≈ 220 other open issues.
• Evidence: 245 open issues on 2026-10-10, e.g. XFDF exchange loses polygon vertices and turns callouts into text boxes (#809, #819), page deletion leaves null destinations (#817, #821), automatic URL linking panics on Unicode text (#816), autosave skips new unsaved PDFs (#815), saving ignores typing in an open paragraph (#811), automation reports success after replacing an earlier result (#799, #800), Shift-Cmd-G goes forward (#810).
• Impact: every one is a user who lost trust. #816 is a crash, which outranks feature work (AGENTS.md §4).
• Estimate: 45–80 h (≈ 0.2–0.4 h per issue). Doc: this file.

7. OCR reads only unaccented Latin

• Missing: every other script and accented Latin; editable-text output; deskew, rotation, despeckle, background and camera clean-up; MRC compression; pluggable engines; OCR in the browser; scanner input.
• Evidence: ocr.ocr-languages partial ("the models read only the Latin alphabet without accents"); 19 of 26 OCR features planned; #744 (Dutch). Acrobat ships on-device recognition for dozens of languages.
• Impact: scanned documents are a core Pro workflow outside English.
• Estimate: 40–75 h, partly blocked on openly licensed models. Doc: file-format-parity.md.

8. Office export weak, Office import absent

• Missing: Word export that keeps layout; Excel and PowerPoint export; creating PDFs from Office, HTML, web pages and PostScript; SVG/XML/EPS/PS/JPEG 2000 export.
• Evidence: create.export-docx partial; #773 (an invoice converted to Word loses its layout, gains table borders and duplicates pages); create.export-xlsx, create.export-pptx, create.from-office, create.from-html planned.
• Impact: "Export PDF" and "Create PDF" are two of Acrobat's most used tools.
• Gate: lossy or missing sub-cases of the convert-and-share workflow (partial, not blocking). First beta items: Create PDF from Office (LibreOffice sidecar, 10–20 h) and a Word export that keeps layout (20–35 h).
• Estimate: 55–100 h. Doc: file-format-parity.md.

9. No Preflight; PDF/A partial; PDF/X and PDF/UA absent

• Missing: Preflight (profiles, single checks and fixups, results tree, reports, droplets); PDF/A-1, PDF/A-4 and conformance levels a/u; PDF/X verify and convert; PDF/UA-1/2 verify; PDF/E, PDF/VT; output-intent choice; transparency flattening.
• Evidence: 12 Preflight features and 9 standards features planned; optimize.pdfa-validate, optimize.pdfa-convert partial (2b/3b structural rules; CMYK documents get no output intent). Acrobat ships hundreds of built-in Preflight profiles.
• Impact: blocks print shops, archives and accessibility compliance work.
• Estimate: 65–115 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

10. Signatures: no PKCS #11, timestamp servers or online revocation

• Missing: PKCS #11 tokens and smart cards on macOS and Linux; timestamp-server preferences; fetching OCSP/CRL online for LTV; FieldMDP and locking fields on signing; the OS trust store; EU Trusted Lists; signature graphics and saved appearances; compare signed version; signing in the browser.
• Evidence: sign.pkcs11, sign.timestamp-servers, sign.field-mdp, sign.os-trust, sign.eutl planned; sign.pades-bt, sign.ltv, sign.ocsp-crl partial (caller-supplied evidence). Users ask for Acrobat-like validation (#824, #775, #718).
• Impact: government and legal users sign with tokens and need B-LT/B-LTA.
• Estimate: 40–70 h; tokens need hardware to test. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

11. Accessibility: checker only, no tagging tools

• Missing: autotag (document and fields), Tags, Order and Content panels, tag properties, Reading Order tool, artifact marking, table editor, role map, Make Accessible action, Read Out Loud; full keyboard operation of PdfCraft itself and a screen-reader audit.
• Evidence: all 32 checker rules shipped, but 21 tagging and reading features planned; a11y.keyboard-only (P0) planned, a11y.app-screen-reader partial.
• Impact: remediation work is impossible; PdfCraft itself is not yet usable without a mouse.
• Estimate: 40–70 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

12. No measured fidelity harness against Acrobat

• Missing: side-by-side comparison of rendering, text extraction, form calculation and signature validation against Acrobat on synthetic fixtures.
• Evidence: none exists; only text extraction has an oracle (word-F1 0.98 against pdftotext). Acrobat captures must stay local in plan/acrobat/ (clean-room, AGENTS.md §1.1).
• Impact: until it exists, every quality number here is a judgement.
• Estimate: counted in gap 2 (≈ 20–30 h of it). Doc: target-app-parity.md.

13. Performance budgets and lazy loading of very large files

• Missing: misc.performance-budgets (P0) and core.lazy-loading (P0): open GB files within a memory budget, with budgets checked on Tier-1 platforms.
• Evidence: #307 brought a 9,156-page file from > 10 GiB to ≈ 500 MiB inspection, but file-backed input and global memory budgets remain open; blurry fonts at common resolutions (#730).
• Estimate: 25–45 h. Doc: this file.

14. Arabic not mirrored; no Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese

• Missing: a right-to-left layout (panels, menus, alignment), bidirectional text in the text layout itself (wrapping, typed text); catalogs for Hindi, Indonesian, Korean and Vietnamese (Acrobat ships Korean; it ships Arabic in its Middle East edition; it ships none of the other three).
• Evidence: localization.md §Arabic; misc.rtl-ui planned.
• Estimate: 30–50 h (Arabic RTL 20–35, four catalogs 10–15 plus review). Doc: localization-parity.md.

15. Forms: JavaScript object model, actions, submit, XFA depth

• Missing: the wider Acrobat JavaScript object model (annotations, layers, dialogs), document actions, the Actions tab triggers that run JavaScript, form submission, the debugger, barcode fields, rich-text values; XFA flattening and complete dynamic-form fidelity.
• Evidence: form.js-host partial, form.document-actions, form.submit-form, edit.action-javascript, form.js-debugger, form.xfa-flatten planned; XFA layout, FormCalc and data partial.
• Estimate: 40–75 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

16. UI precision gaps

• Missing: moving several selected objects together (#844), nudging with arrow keys, single-key tool accelerators, rulers, grids and guides, loupe and dynamic zoom, multiple windows and split view, comment pop-ups that can be moved, connector lines, customisable quick tools, column text selection (#740); shortcut display and touchpad scrolling bugs (#746, #759, #721), macOS window controls (#789).
• Estimate: 30–60 h. Doc: ui-parity.md.

17. Certificate security and other protect gaps

• Missing: encrypting for certificate recipients (and opening such files), security policies, attachment-only encryption, redaction pattern locales and partial-word redaction, folder redaction, protected view, URL and attachment trust.
• Estimate: 15–30 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

18. Print production tools absent

• Missing: Output Preview, separations, total area coverage, overprint preview, ink manager, colour conversion, printer marks, fix hairlines, flattener preview, colour management settings; print as image; PostScript output.
• Evidence: 18 print-production features planned (L area).
• Estimate: 25–45 h (part of the L area's 30–55). Doc: target-app-parity.md.

19. Preferences mostly missing

• Missing: most of Acrobat's twenty or so preference pages (General, Documents, Commenting, Forms, Identity, Signatures, Security, Measuring, Units and guides, Convert, …). Today: Interface language, Documents and view, Identity, Fill & Sign, JavaScript.
• Estimate: 15–25 h. Doc: ui-parity.md.

20. Scanners, GPU page rendering, pen pressure, Read Out Loud

• Missing: TWAIN/WIA/ICA/SANE scanning; GPU-accelerated page rendering (pages are rasterized on the CPU and uploaded); pressure-sensitive ink; platform text-to-speech.
• Estimate: 25–50 h; scanners need hardware. Doc: hardware-parity.md.

21. Compare: no side-by-side view or filters

• Missing: synchronised side-by-side view, filters by change type, page ranges, scanned documents.
• Estimate: 10–20 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

22. PDF 2.0 extras, linearization, Arlington validation

• Missing: UTF-8 text strings, associated files (/AF), document parts, structure namespaces; linearized save (Fast Web View); deterministic save; structural validation against the Arlington model.
• Estimate: 20–35 h. Doc: pdf-spec-parity.md.

23. Local AI provider

• Missing: the opt-in provider interface (local model or the user's own endpoint) and the features on it: summarize, ask with page citations, alternate-text and redaction suggestions. Acrobat's AI Assistant is a cloud service and out of scope.
• Estimate: 20–40 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

24. Checklist not diffed against Acrobat's own menus

• Missing: a menu and tool listing captured from Acrobat (names only, plan/acrobat/, never committed) diffed against the checklist, so that features the checklist never listed show up. Also correct misc.localization and misc.installers, which are still planned though both ship.
• Estimate: 4–8 h. Doc: target-app-parity.md.

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-10	minor	Removed the alpha markers: with the cross-app gate rule, gaps 1 and 8 are partial sub-cases, not blockers; stage alpha
2026-10-10	minor	Marked the alpha blockers (gap 1 and the Office part of gap 8) after the core-workflow gate put the stage at pre-alpha
2026-10-10	major	Created. Ranked 24 gaps from the 2026-10-10 re-measure, the open GitHub issues and the former ROADMAP.md §Where we're lacking and where we're going (renderer, hardening, fidelity, editing, Pro workflows, 1.0 polish), which this file replaces