PDFs with vector graphics very slow

tl;dr: PDFs with vector graphics are really slow but other PDFs aren't. I take notes on iPad, so I have to handle these types of files regularly. Do others have this issue, and is there any solution/workaround?


I have a late-2013 13 inch rMBP. For the most part, it's more than fast enough for what I want to do. It handles even large PDFs quite well, on preview or on other PDF handling software.

However, I've recently decided to start taking notes on iPad again, and I can't help but notice that the PDF files that I have synced through Dropbox (using Notability) are extraordinarily slow to scroll through on my Mac, especially if I try to zoom in and out as well. This reminded me that I've come across a similar issue a couple other times (PDFs of no particularly great size being extremely slow to navigate through on my mac). I hadn't ever pieced together what the problem was before, but I've gone back and sure enough, any PDF using vector graphics is super slow to navigate within. This includes each file from my years of notes on my iPad (several different note-taking programs) and notes from my old Surface Pro using OneNote.

I have no such issue on my 3rd generation iPad (to be replaced with an Air 2 soon. Yay!) or on my HTC One. In fact, I tried booting my Mac into Windows 8.1 with Bootcamp, and all of the PDFs I threw at it handled extremely smoothly.

I've tried using another PDF reader, but the issue cropped up there, too. I looked online and found that a couple other people had similar issues.

So my question to you all is... Do you have similar issues with viewing PDFs with vector graphics? And is there any solution or workaround so that I can get acceptable performance when reading them?