PDF in Preview is blurry on scrolling

I believe they changed it to how iOS renders PDFs.

I'm noticing this too, but it doesn't bother me at all. Considering how sluggish Acrobat XI is on my system when scrolling any PDF file, I prefer whatever tricks Preview does to make the scrolling as smooth as possible.

Is there any way to change this? I search around in PDFs in Preview a lot and it bothers me.

sadscroller said:

Is there any way to change this? I search around in PDFs in Preview a lot and it bothers me.

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I agree that it is very annoying. You may want to have a look at Skim.app as an alternative on Mavericks, until Apple (hopefully?) improves Preview.app's new scrolling behavior. It will also be a good idea to provide feedback or file a bug report.

Preview blurring in Mavericks is annoying!!

I agree-this is making me what to go back in my operating system to Mountain Lion. I read a lot of PDF's and like to scroll through as I am reading. It blurring bothers my eyes and makes it hard for me to keep track of where I am. This is a change that breaks something that used to work well.

I hate to say this, but short of uninstalling Mavericks I might just have to switch my default PDF reader to Adobe. I know it doesn't do this blurring thing.

I don't have that on my 2008 Dual Mac Pro with a ATI 5700 video card. What Macs are you all having this problem on?

I'm seeing a similar behaviour since I've upgraded to Mavericks. However that only happens when I scroll a PDF using two fingers. The problem is that it scrolls sideways by just 1 pixel when I don't make a perfectly vertical motion with my fingers, therefore blurring the text. This blurring doesn't disappear before I lift my fingers from the touchpad. It seems like you didn't have Mavericks at the time you posted this, but is that maybe what you're seeing?

Vacuumcleaner said:

I'm seeing a similar behaviour since I've upgraded to Mavericks. However that only happens when I scroll a PDF using two fingers. The problem is that it scrolls sideways by just 1 pixel when I don't make a perfectly vertical motion with my fingers, therefore blurring the text. This blurring doesn't disappear before I lift my fingers from the touchpad. It seems like you didn't have Mavericks at the time you posted this, but is that maybe what you're seeing?

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Again I ask what Macs do you have? If more people list the Macs they are having this problem on then maybe a suggestion can be suggested to Apple support Apple Feedback. This way they are aware of the problem. So please include you Mac model when posting about this problem.

I got the late 2009 white Macbook. You might indeed be right that this is a graphics card issue.

- Mid 2010 13" mbp
- Late 2008 13" mb (Aluminum)

Mid 2012 11" Air on 10.9 with the same problem and I would rather stick to Preview.

tkermit said:

- Mid 2010 13" mbp
- Late 2008 13" mb (Aluminum)

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Try to make a test account to see if happens there. If it does then backup and try a reinstall and if it doesn't then something might have went wrong during the "upgrade" (as you can tell I dislike""upgrades" because some older incompatible extensions might be left behind).

satcomer said:

Try to make a test account to see if happens there. If it does then backup and try a reinstall and if it doesn't then something might have went wrong during the "upgrade" (as you can tell I dislike""upgrades" because some older incompatible extensions might be left behind).

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Done and done. It has nothing to do with that, trust me.

I have this problem too - 5,1 mbp

Just so we're all on the same page, here's a screen recording of what I'm seeing. Notice that once the page has turned blurry, it stays that way until one takes their finger off the trackpad. That's actually the part that is especially annoying to me.

satcomer said:

Try to make a test account to see if happens there. If it does then backup and try a reinstall and if it doesn't then something might have went wrong during the "upgrade" (as you can tell I dislike""upgrades" because some older incompatible extensions might be left behind).

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Coming from a clean install and I get this too.

3bs said:

Coming from a clean install and I get this too.

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I getting to understand this might be related to trackpad Macs. I don't see that problem on My 2008 Mac Pro (in my Signature) or on friend other Macs that don't use a trackpad. So if you have a spare wired mouse se if that makes a difference.

Vacuumcleaner said:

I'm seeing a similar behaviour since I've upgraded to Mavericks. However that only happens when I scroll a PDF using two fingers. The problem is that it scrolls sideways by just 1 pixel when I don't make a perfectly vertical motion with my fingers, therefore blurring the text. This blurring doesn't disappear before I lift my fingers from the touchpad. It seems like you didn't have Mavericks at the time you posted this, but is that maybe what you're seeing?

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This. When I scroll really carefully just vertically it doesn't blur anything.

No issues here. MBA 2012 13".

Isamilis said:

No issues here. MBA 2012 13".

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Likewise. OS X 10.9

I have the same problem on 2010 MBA running Mavericks. It's quite annoying, but zooming out slightly makes it not so noticeable. I'll check my other machines later.

Happen to me as well, but my eyes are more custom to it so I am not finding it annoying. But it would be nice if they disable that.

I've seen this type of effect on a number of systems and hardware. I think what the software does is create a lower resolution image of the page and uses tat to display when scrolling. This lower resolution image takes less calculation to show the movement of the scroll or zoom, and possibly allows free CPU timeto calculate and pre render what is about to appear in the scroll. When the movement is stopped, it'll then do a complete screen redraw at full resolution.

This type of procedure probably comes from mobile type devices where CPU resource can be limited and a balance struck between smoothness and image quality.