pdfcraft/docs/research/pdf-workflows

PDF workflow research reference

Last reviewed: 2026-10-17 · Last updated: 2026-10-17 · Status: reference documentation. Feature and roadmap snapshot: 924c4da4, dated 2026-10-16. Detailed code inspection remains pinned to 3f044b62, dated 2026-10-13.

This reference consolidates archived comparative research, public source locators and PdfCraft feature evidence. It separates documented workflows, historical observations, evaluation criteria and current feature records so contributors can assess the collected material without treating an old research claim as a present product fact.

The documentation is independent of feature implementation. It introduces no new project roadmap, implementation assignments, delivery estimates or feature-completion claims. Planning remains in ROADMAP.md and the feature checklist.

Contents

Reference	Contents
Comparative research	Nineteen product studies and eighteen workflow families, with evidence limitations and archived corrections.
Source register	180 unique public locators, their archive dates, recovered provenance and explicit verification states.
Workflow reference	Twenty research domains: existing foundations, retained findings and evaluation dimensions.
Feature mapping	124 existing parity IDs with their exact status and milestone at the pinned snapshot, linked to the research domains.
Interaction evidence	Inspected document ownership, job outcomes, save, keyboard and review foundations, distinguished from historical evaluation criteria.

Evidence and dates

The archive includes sixteen product studies, a community-demand sample, an expanded desktop/platform survey and interface investigations. Research dates span July–October 2026. Three additional desktop products appear in the expanded survey. The source register is a navigation aid rather than independent proof of any product's current behavior.

archived-not-revalidated means that the locator was recovered from a dated study; its supporting passage and current edition have not been checked for this handoff. locator-reconstructed-not-revalidated means that the original study named a source without preserving its complete URL. Neither state means a web-archive capture exists. Vendor-hosted community posts remain community reports, not vendor policy statements.

Community snippets describe questions and reported pain points. They do not establish market share, incidence or representative satisfaction. Historical pricing, licensing, legal, security and superiority assertions are excluded. No competitor was installed or benchmarked for this documentation contribution.

Reconciliation with PdfCraft

Earlier research described measurement, a command palette, visual comparison, Tags panels and reusable actions as missing. The inspected source and newer checklist already contain those foundations, including synchronized side-by-side comparison and recursive folder batches. The workflow reference records those corrections and reuses the existing oracle tools rather than describing a second implementation.

The dated mapping is not another live checklist. Current status comes from parity/acrobat-features.toml; the ranked priorities and progress remain in gaps.md, roadmap.md and ui-parity.md. An existing inconsistency in knockout-rendering evidence is identified without changing its recorded status.

Publication and verification scope

These are newly written summaries and public source links. No third-party screenshots, visual designs, source code, fonts, sample documents, private paths, account data or raw session logs are included. Historical implementation classes, toolkit choices and old effort estimates are not adopted as PdfCraft architecture.

Static checks cover the feature IDs, statuses, milestone assignments, reference IDs and local links. Evaluation scenarios are research criteria, not tests already executed. This handoff claims no native acceptance, screen-reader verification, external-reader compatibility result, vendor benchmark or compliance certification.

Revision history

Date	Change
2026-10-17	Consolidated the archived research, source register, workflow evidence and pinned feature mapping.