40mb .pdf file unreadable with Preview

[sioannou]

Hi folks,

Is it normal that the 2011 base 15" mbp could not handle a 40mb .pdf file about 1500 pages? I forgot to check if my 4gb factory ram is full when I have the file open but I suspect that this is due to the Preview itself rather than the ram of the computer.

What do you think? Could you handle big .pdf files like this? When I open it in my computer the scrolling is not near smooth make the file actually unscrollable.

Do you have any other pdf readers to recommend?

I've tried to close all other programs (firefox etc) to save some ram and I am running lion.

Thanks

 

[fingerman]

Hi folks,

Is it normal that the 2011 base 15" mbp could not handle a 40mb .pdf file about 1500 pages? I forgot to check if my 4gb factory ram is full when I have the file open but I suspect that this is due to the Preview itself rather than the ram of the computer.

What do you think? Could you handle big .pdf files like this? When I open it in my computer the scrolling is not near smooth make the file actually unscrollable.

Do you have any other pdf readers to recommend?

I've tried to close all other programs (firefox etc) to save some ram and I am running lion.

Thanks

Do you have a link to the pdf so we can try it ?

I've never had any issues with opening pdf's on my mbp

 

[GoCubsGo]

Adobe reader for Mac is free. Try that. I've had issues with preview in the past trying to open and then maneuver throughout large PDFs. To the poster above, PDFs aren't the issue, it's the size. 40 MB is fairly large.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I can open this 42MB PDF without problems in Preview in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
It is the manual to FCP 7 and has 1990 pages and is working flawlessly on my 2009 MBP with 8GB RAM.
Maybe it is the actual PDF having the problems, due to using some strange characters or uncompressed images?
Can you link to the PDF or upload it somewhere?

 

[sioannou]

Can you link to the PDF or upload it somewhere?

I wish I could share it cause it is a book that i need for uni (compiler design) however I can't for obvious reasons I don't really remember the exact name of the book however I can find it as soon as i get to home.

Maybe I should try adobe's despite I prefer preview

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I wish I could share it cause it is a book that i need for uni (compiler design) however I can't for obvious reasons I don't really remember the exact name of the book however I can find it as soon as i get to home.

Maybe I should try adobe's despite I prefer preview

Have you tried that 42MB PDF I linked to and tested it in Preview?

 

[tinymiata]

I tested the FCP PDF you posted and that works fine on my mac mini with 4gb of ram however I have a Car Manual that is ~34mb and that chunks bad under preview.
Might be how the PDF was made. I am able to open it with adobe in mac or windows and no issues but preview chunks bad.
Hope that helps.

 

[alphaod]

I have a 167MB PDF of a textbook with color pages (if you want to know, I scanned all the textbooks I had in college and I shared them with friends), and it opens up fine.

Are you sure the PDF you have isn't the culprit?

 

[sioannou]

I know its weird however it seems that I've found the solution. Today I had firefox open along with xcode. As I was running some applications through the iphone simulator the simulator became very slow to respond. I've closed firefox and restarted the machine. Upon the fresh restart I've tried to open the pdf file before opening anything else. The .pdf file scrolls smoothly. Also I've tested the technique found in xcode and again the simulator runs smoothly.

Conclusion? : Firefox does bad memory management even if you quit it (and not restart the machine) or Lion does not like foxes?

For reference I am using firefox 7.01. Also in the activity monitor it shows that I have about 2.19 Ram free so it's not a ram issue. (with preview and firefox open).

What do you guys think?