STREAMdiff Data Stream Comparison Tool
Product Overview

STREAMdiff is a competitively priced, high speed print stream comparison software tool that support AFP, Line Data, Metacode, PDF, PostScript and PCL5 and runs on a Windows platform.

Who would need this?

• Change control testers
• Document development teams
• User acceptance testing areas
• Regression testing
• Application development teams
• Anyone who is involved in creating and changing a document application that needs to ensure the changes have not effected and other parts of the page or document flow.

What does STREAMdiff do?

STREAMdiff allows you to say goodbye to eyeball comparisons, wasted printouts of old and new documents, the tedium of manually comparing 2 pieces of paper and the risk of missing an important difference.

STREAMdiff compares AFP, Metacode, PDF, Postscript and PCL5 print data streams in a fraction of the time a manual approach would take. Comparing two print data streams is carried out at a PEL positioning level while providing you with the ability to define acceptance rules for valid changes at a page and global level.

How does STREAMdiff compare documents?

This is done in an easy to use GUI with side by side actual pages from your control and test print output streams. Setup your two input files, define your resources (STREAMdiff uses your resources either inline or in a separate resource file) and start the viewer. All differences recorded in an audit trail and can be reported in text or PDF format for feeding back to your development teams. There's even a simple light box feature for a quick visual check.

The ROI on this software is compelling as it reduces your document testing cycle, decreases time to market and lowers your overall production costs.

STREAMdiff inspects the visual output of two print data streams to ensure that there are no unexpected differences. Interrogating print stream structures, STREAMdiff provides a detailed list of specific changes and pinpoints the exact location of items that have changed.

With STREAMdiff, print streams are visually compared side-by-side with font, image, and graphics changes easily identified by user-defined change marks such as circles or arrows. The cause of each difference is explained in detail and a drag and drop operation allows for easy acceptance of selected changes.

With changes isolated, immediate action can be taken to resolve differences.

STREAMdiff automatically and intuitively creates the input data stream configuration files in one easy step. A Print Preview component lets you review data before comparing it. STREAMdiff includes graphical user interface components for:

• Automatic setup and configuration
• Input print preview
• Side by side view of two compared print data streams displaying visually different text, images, and graphics and the reason for each difference
• Drag and drop acceptance of selected changes

STREAMdiff includes a batch engine so large jobs can be run independently of the viewer. Below is a screenshot showing a font size difference.