About Add-ons (Optional Compare Options)

Compare Options includes optional controls—called Add-ons—that allow users to refine how the system evaluates artwork differences. These add-ons modify or narrow down what is compared, giving users more precision based on their workflow needs.

There are two available add-ons:

• Remove Some Layers Before Comparing
• Choose Specific Pages to Compare

Remove Some Layers Before Comparing

This add-on allows users to exclude non-essential layers—such as dielines, braille, measurements, or background layers—before running the comparison. This is especially useful when changes in those layers introduce unnecessary noise in the comparison output.

Availability: This add-on is available for all comparison combinations except when Compare Mode = Multi Up.

How It Works

When this add-on is selected:

1. Selecting Compare or Manual Compare opens the Layer Panel.
2. The panel lists all layers detected in both the Master and Sample files.
3. You can uncheck the layers you want to exclude from the comparison.
4. After deselecting layers, select Compare from the toolbar near Single File Mode.
   
   
    
5. The system analyzes only the remaining visible layers and shows deviations in the Deviation Panel.

This add-on is helpful when you want to focus comparison results on critical artwork content and avoid changes caused by dielines, measurement or background layers.

Choose Specific Pages to Compare

This add-on allows users to define custom page mappings between the Master and Sample files, enabling more control over which pages should be compared in multi-page documents.

Availability: This add-on is enabled only when all conditions below are met: Both Master and Sample files contain more than one page. Only Pixel Compare is selected (the add-on is disabled if Text Compare is selected). Neither file is in .docx format (the add-on is disabled if either file is a Word document).

How It Works

When Choose specific pages to compare is selected:

1. A new section titled Custom Page Compare appears.
2. The Compare or Manual Compare button is replaced by Proceed and Cancel buttons.
3. All pages from the Master file are listed. These remain fixed.
4. For each Master page, you can select a corresponding Sample page using the dropdown.
5. The number of rows equals the number of pages in the Master file.
6. Check the Select column checkbox associated with the row you want to include in the comparison.
7. Select Proceed.
   Note: The Proceed button is enabled only when at least one row is selected.
8. The system compares only the selected page pairs.
9. Results are displayed in the Deviation Panel, just like a regular comparison.

This add-on is useful when the Master and Sample files have matching content but are arranged differently, or when only specific pages need to be validated.