When you submit a revision, editors usually ask for a version that highlights what changed. In Word that's Track Changes; in LaTeX the equivalent is latexdiff, which compares two .tex files and produces a marked-up PDF. Our free LaTeX diff tool runs it for you - upload the old and new versions and get the annotated PDF back.
What latexdiff marks
- Added text is underlined (and usually shown in blue).
- Deleted text is struck through (and usually shown in red).
- The document still compiles, so you get a real PDF a reviewer can read.
How to use it
- Keep your old (submitted) version and your new (revised) version as separate
.texfiles. - Upload both to the diff tool, old first, new second.
- Download the marked-up PDF and include it alongside your revision.
Common pitfalls
- Tables can corrupt. latexdiff sometimes mangles
tabularenvironments. Good tools treat tables as opaque blocks to avoid "Missing \cr" errors - ours does. - Moved blocks look like delete + add. If you relocate a paragraph, it shows as removed in one place and added in another.
- Heavy macro use can confuse the diff; flatten complex macros if the output looks wrong.
For most revisions, latexdiff gives editors exactly the change-tracked PDF they expect, with no manual highlighting.