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PDFs in Preview are basically unusable

eicca

eicca

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Oct 23, 2014
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So I have this 9MB PDF of music that will scroll JUST FINE in Quick Look, no lag, nothin'. However, if I open it in Preview, it slaughters my whole system and I have to restart. I honestly can't believe it. I can run an entire pro-grade virtual orchestra with no hitches but can't open a PDF file without lagging my computer into the ground?

Anyone else notice this issue?
 
A

Alrescha

macrumors 68020
Jan 1, 2008
2,156
317
Hyperbole much? You have one broken PDF but your title is "PDFs in Preview are basically unusable".

No, I do not notice your issue. I have 500MB+ PDFs that work just fine in Preview.

A.
 
eicca

eicca

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Oct 23, 2014
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It's not just this one, it's multiple PDFs. It's happened before but today it ran my system into the ground twice and I just can't take it anymore. What a ridiculous problem. Seriously, with their budget you'd think Apple could figure out how to make PDFs function properly.
 
eicca

eicca

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Oct 23, 2014
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This is what it does.


Again, not with just this one file, but with multiple. I tried reconverting the PDF to a smaller format, no difference. I've reinstalled my OS in the past and that made no difference.
 

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chabig

macrumors G4
Sep 6, 2002
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eicca said:
Seriously, with their budget you'd think Apple could figure out how to make PDFs function properly.
Click to expand...

Why do you fail to acknowledge that you might have a problem with your system? In my opinion, Preview is the best pdf viewer on the market.
 
eicca

eicca

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Oct 23, 2014
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chabig said:
Why do you fail to acknowledge that you might have a problem with your system? In my opinion, Preview is the best pdf viewer on the market.
Click to expand...

Because I've done everything imaginable to fix it. And I remember never having this issue before upgrading to Mavericks.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
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eicca said:
It's not just this one, it's multiple PDFs. It's happened before but today it ran my system into the ground twice and I just can't take it anymore. What a ridiculous problem. Seriously, with their budget you'd think Apple could figure out how to make PDFs function properly.
Click to expand...
PDFs do function properly in Preview. Like countless other Mac users, I've never had any issues with PDFs in Preview in the years I've been using it. Just because you have a particular problem on your particular computer doesn't mean the whole world is experiencing the same thing. Rather than try to blame Preview or Apple, why not calm down and try to do some basic troubleshooting to resolve your issue? It would be a lot more productive than an emotional rant.
 
eicca

eicca

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No seriously, I'm a fix-it-myself kind of guy, and I have done everything under the sun short of getting a new computer to try and fix this. The only variable remaining is the upgrade to Mavericks (and Yosemite).
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
eicca said:
No seriously, I'm a fix-it-myself kind of guy, and I have done everything under the sun short of getting a new computer to try and fix this. The only variable remaining is the upgrade to Mavericks (and Yosemite).
Click to expand...
There is no need to upgrade to a new version of OS X to resolve the issue. Preview has handled PDFs quite well in Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, etc. Did you try creating a new user account, then logging into that account and see if you get the same results? Did you try opening the same problem PDFs on another computer? There is nothing inherently wrong with Preview's handling of PDF files, so it's something about your particular environment or the particular files you're dealing with.
 
eicca

eicca

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Oct 23, 2014
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GGJstudios said:
There is no need to upgrade to a new version of OS X to resolve the issue. Preview has handled PDFs quite well in Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, etc. Did you try creating a new user account, then logging into that account and see if you get the same results? Did you try opening the same problem PDFs on another computer? There is nothing inherently wrong with Preview's handling of PDF files, so it's something about your particular environment or the particular files you're dealing with.
Click to expand...

What I meant is the issue only occurred after I upgraded.

I did try a fresh user, same results, unusably laggy.
 
eicca

eicca

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Oct 23, 2014
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GGJstudios said:
Then it's possible something went wrong with the upgrade process.

You didn't mention if you had tried opening the same PDFs on another computer.
Click to expand...

I will try the PDFs on another machine, but I can rule out the upgrade since I did both an upgrade and a fresh install of Yosemite and the issue persists.
 
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