PDFs are blurry in the Preview app.

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thunder&milkshakes

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When I view a PDF in the Preview app, text appears very blurry, as though it's being rendered at a much lower resolution. When I am scrolling down slowly on the trackpad using single page view, the PDF is shown correctly, but as soon as I 'let go', it goes back to the blurry version. I tried changing settings in the preview app, and some people on other forums suggested to "turn off smoothing line art and text" but that option doesn't appear in my preview app. All viewing modes (single page, 2 page, and continous scrolling) show the blurred version.
 
Seylan said:
When I view a PDF in the Preview app, text appears very blurry, as though it's being rendered at a much lower resolution. When I am scrolling down slowly on the trackpad using single page view, the PDF is shown correctly, but as soon as I 'let go', it goes back to the blurry version. I tried changing settings in the preview app, and some people on other forums suggested to "turn off smoothing line art and text" but that option doesn't appear in my preview app. All viewing modes (single page, 2 page, and continous scrolling) show the blurred version.
Click to expand...

What macOS are you on? Sierra?
 
All PDFs or just a specific PDF?
What OS X version? (and which updates installed)
Screen setup? Are using the optimised settings or custom.
 
I'm on Sierra, Version 10.12.6. MacBook Pro 13" (2017, touchbar).
Screen resolution is set to default. The other scaling options didn't change anything.
Yes, all PDFs I tried are blurry: sometimes they will look clear/normal at first, but if I change the viewing mode(to single page for example) they will become blurry. Sometimes the first few pages look clear, but the rest would be blurry.
 
Seylan said:
I'm on Sierra, Version 10.12.6. MacBook Pro 13" (2017, touchbar).
Screen resolution is set to default. The other scaling options didn't change anything.
Yes, all PDFs I tried are blurry: sometimes they will look clear/normal at first, but if I change the viewing mode(to single page for example) they will become blurry. Sometimes the first few pages look clear, but the rest would be blurry.
Click to expand...

There have been widespread complaints about the PDFKit(?) in Sierra, and how it has been causing issues with PDFs across the board. AFIAK, some software use proprietary kits, but many are built on the underlying macOS system. I have seen quirky behaviour on many PDFs - but given how much my work involves PDFs, it hasn't been too problematic.

Sometimes a roundtrip to iOS fixes the issue with particular PDFs, sometimes rebooting or force-quitting Preview does the trick.

My primary data/information-manager software that I use, even went so far as to completely rewrite their own viewer, to get around the problem. I'm not aware of a magic-bullet solution to fix everything, unfortunately, but would suggest that you google a bit to see what options might be available.
 
I tested this on a 2015 12" MacBook with Sierra 10.12.6 and it renders pdfs in Preview perfectly. I used a high res magazine, a pdf of plain text and one two others without issue. I tried disabling font smoothing to see if it would make a difference but it still rendered fine.
 
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