Blurry PDF Rendering in Preview

[CMT]

Since I updated to High Sierra reading PDFs on Preview is basically impossible. The program renders lines and fonts in a very blurry manner.

I also found this reddit discussion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/72lxjx/macos_high_sierra_blurry_pdfs_in_preview/

Is anyone else experiencing it? I'm on a 2012 MacBook Pro.

I downloaded 10.13.1 public beta with hopes of fixing but it did not happen. I'm really annoyed by this. Makes it unusable.

As a comparison, here is the same PDF in Preview and Adobe Reader, side by side:

 

[Transgredi]

Fortunately, Apple is aware of the issue: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/high-sierra-issue-with-preview-acknowledged-by-apple.2074597/

No sure how quickly they will provide the fix, though. It looks like it's not part of the 10.13.1

 

[ashleykaryl]

I've seen this problem with previous versions of Preview and OS X as well, but it's back for me with High Sierra. I don't really want to have Adobe Reader on my computer but Preview clearly has rendering issues.

 

[CMT]

Fortunately, Apple is aware of the issue:

Thank you for your reply, Transgredi. And sorry for kind of duplicating your post. I searched but somehow missed it.

Well, if it helps, I filled another bug report. Hopefully if they see more of these they will give this the attention that's necessary. I will keep you updated if they reply.
[doublepost=1507214563][/doublepost]

I've seen this problem with previous versions of Preview and OS X as well, but it's back for me with High Sierra. I don't really want to have Adobe Reader on my computer but Preview clearly has rendering issues.

That's my opinion as well, I just installed adobe reader to compare. But Preview on Sierra was perfect, has always been perfect.

Yes, searching I found reports of this happening in previous systems as well. This is disgusting, and terrible. I'm deeply annoyed by the bad quality of this system overall.

 

[ashleykaryl]

I'm deeply annoyed by the bad quality of this system overall.

I'm inclined to think that Apple rushed out this update to meet an arbitrary deadline, rather than waiting until it was ready. I just see too many basic issues that should have been fixed. More optimistically, there is no reason why most of these glitches cannot be fixed over the next month or two.

 

[CMT]

Just a small update:

Apple marked my bug report as duplicate. However, it's not a duplicate of the same Transgredi had. Mine says "DUPLICATE OF 32297343".

They didn't post any reply, not sure if they will.

 

[inarush]

I was just wondering if by any chance a fix (or workaround) has ever been found for this very annoying issue? It's been a while since it's been reported to Apple...

 

[Infrared]

The kerning also seems questionable:

Preview (OS X):

Foxit Reader (Ubuntu Virtual Machine):

Note the spacing between "y" and "t".

 

[Infrared]

Is this issue related to non-retina displays in particular?

[EDIT] Here's another example:

Two consecutive lines in the viewed document begin with the same word. The rendering of the two instances is markedly different.

For comparison:

 

[w4z]

i wrote a post a while ago, but nobody interested.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-pdf-issues.2123611/

test pdf; https://www.dropbox.com/s/ucv0i2gpcdlq7ah/macos_test_pdf.pdf?dl=1

i created a pdf file for testing. you can compare that with preview and acrobat reader, acrobat reader has no differences between converted and unconverted text but if you open in preview unconverted text looks bolder ( in sierra too )

i think its not just related to high sierra, i found similar issues on el capitan on my search

they changed pdfkit and anti-aliasing system, this caused too many issues. Also my pdf pages loading slower than sierra, images and backgrounds loading piece by piece like slow loading web page

 

[Infrared]

Thanks for your comment, w4z.

After posting yesterday I checked some PDF documents on an iPhone 5S. I found that the same or a similar rendering issue is present there, but it seems to particularly affect small text. On the 5S this text is too small to be read (it really is tiny) and the issues with rendering can only be properly seen after a screenshot is magnified. For text that is presented at a size that is normally legible, the rendering seems to be acceptable.

 

[epetrovski]

This is still an issue in Mac OS Mojave (10.14.0). Here is my thread on the issue: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pdfs-and-preview-—-why-so-blurry.2145687/

 

[Spectrum]

Waking up an old thread - but at least for those running non-retina screens, I have a solution:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...non-retina-screen-from-2018-mac-mini.2160537/

 

[mister_bod]

Thanks all for the details on this issue. I filled a bug report to apple that was flagged shortly thereafter as duplicate.
Can someone check whether this issue disappeared in the beta of 10.15 Catalina?

 

[flowrider]

Since I never use Preview, I never noticed if I had the problem. I use PDF Expert. But, I just opened a PDF in Preview and opened the same document in PDF Expert, and yes I have the issue in Preview

This is in Mojave on a cMP 5,1.

Lou

 

[Ritsuka]

Preview has been fixed at last in 10.15.

 

[mister_bod]

Finally! Thanks Ritsuka.

 

[w4z]

i forgot to paste my video link here, its showing how pages loading slowly like a web page and causing blinks/flashings, i cant use preview on presentations due to this problems, is this fixed in catalina?

also i purchased edge view from app store, its an image viewer app that support multiple image formats like pdf, jpeg, gif... with tab support, highly recommended

 

[Adoeete]

Thank god, they really fixed it on Catalina 10.15. I thought Sierra would be my last stop on this machine. Now both quick view and preview looks just as sharp as on Sierra and it's blazing fast on mid 2012 MBP non-retina.
🌞💯