Scrolling through PDF files is slow using Adobe Reader on MY MACBOOK pro with retina

Are you using 10.7?

Most of the folks at Apple say the GPU acceleration in Mountain Lion has resolved this for Retina displays. If you're running 10.8, there are things you might want to "tweak" in the Reader Page Display Preferences.

Setting a custom resolution, and Turning off text smoothing are the ones that come to mind. My Mini is connected to an HD LCD (not Retina) display, so changiung those really doesn't do much for me and I'm still a few weeks away from a new Retina MBP

This is not resolved. Scrolling on some PDFs is very slow using Adobe Reader 11.0.03 on a 3.4Ghz i7 iMac with 16GB RAM and 3TB Fusion drive, with GTX 675MX GPU and 1GB video RAM.

It is not slow on the same machine using PDF preview. It is not slow using Adobe Reader 11.0.03 on a 2.4 Ghz i7 Windows 7 machine with 8GB RAM and a much slower disk drive and GPU.

There is something wrong with the Mac OS version of Adobe Reader. You can test it with this 2MB PDF file. This is a scanned PDF which has been OCR'd and contains searchable text. It is not that big.

2MB NASA .PDF: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/nasa-tnd-6846pt.1.pdf

You're right. This is something that Adobe needs to work out in a future update. Nearly EVERY software developer (including Apple) has had to make major changes to their software so it will work with Retina displays. Preview works with Retina displays but it doesn't handle all types of PDFs as well as it should. 

Additional: Tried using OpenGL 1.4 as preferred renderer in Adobe Reader\Preferences\3D & Multimedia. Tried changing to software rendering in case it's an OpenGL or GPU device driver bug. No difference seen.

Adobe Reader\Preferences\Page Display\Resolution is set to "use system setting: 108 pixels/inch". Smooth Text is set to "For Laptop/LCD screens". Tried changing to "none" -- no difference seen.

I am not using a Retina display, but a 27" 2012 i7 iMac 16GB.

Problem replication scenario: Successive page down/up operations via fn + down arrow or fn + up arrow are very slow. You can easily stack up commands where Adobe Reader keeps trying to process them long after removing your hands from the keyboard.

This is a serious problem and I have no idea how people who use large PDF files for professional work can endure this. There should be a knowledgebase article written by an Adobe Support Engineer which is the first item returned by a Google query on these symptoms. It should state the problem symptoms, cause (if known), any workarounds, and the current investigative status.

It's kind of hard to write a KB article on a fix when there isn't one yet. My first post on this (nearly two weeks ago) was prior to researching this a lot further. Since then I've learned that Apple (Final Cut, Aperture), Microsoft (Office), and Adobe (Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator) have ALL reworked software to better function with Retina displays. Acrobat and Reader both have this problem, and as far as I've read, they haven't updated them to fix it yet. I've read (nothing that could be confirmed) that the next update (or the one after that) to both Acrobat and Reader should have the fix. Being as I'm self employed and not an Adobe employee I have no more info than that.

C F McBlob wrote:

 

It's kind of hard to write a KB article on a fix when there isn't one yet. My first post on this (nearly two weeks ago) was prior to researching this a lot further. Since then I've learned that Apple (Final Cut, Aperture), Microsoft (Office), and Adobe (Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator) have ALL reworked software to better function with Retina displays.

Thanks for the work you did. The purpose of a KB article is to document a common problem, whether a fix exists or not.  Even if no fix exists, it succinctly describes the problem scope. This expedites symptom search by the user base, which reduces overall support burden to the manufacturer. It increases customer satisfaction since they receive quick feedback the software vendor is working on the problem, even if not fixed. It prevents squandered effort and speculative, unproductive wild goose chases by frustrated users seeking a solution.

Adobe has over 10,000 employees. Their support organization should be able to write a KB article for common problems. We have already provided most of the info needed in this thread.

BTW this problem cannot be unique to Retina displays since my iMac doesn't have one. It might be an OpenGL problem, or an efficiency issue related to running a 32-bit app (Adobe Reader) on  64-bit Mac OS X. However AcroRd32.exe is also 32-bits on Windows and the slowdown doesn't exist there.

My Mini has no problem with gigantic (I have one that's more than half a gig - 27,000 pages) PDFs and I'm running split 23" LCD HD monitors, Acrobat X and Reader XI.  Nearly EVERYTHING I read on this was either an MBP Retina or a T-bolt Retina display.

And I'm aware of the purpose of KB articles, I used to write them for Intuit. These forums have a really quick return on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Quite often, I'll be looking for something using an error message in a brand new post, and the FIRST result in Google is the SAME post I copied the error message from. Not more than three minutes after the O.P. put it there. Someone looking up "PDFs slow scrolling on retina display" will find this thread as the FIRST result. Try it yourself.

C F McBlob wrote:

 

My Mini has no problem with gigantic (I have one that's more than half a gig - 27,000 pages) PDFs and I'm running split 23" LCD HD monitors, Acrobat X and Reader XI.

Can you please try the 2MB PDF I posted and let us know your results? The problem might be unique to a certain internal PDF format, compression factor during authoring, etc. 

Try rapid page down/up operations and see if it starts lagging: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/nasa-tnd-6846pt.1.pdf

Thanks for your help.

Acrobat X, Reader XI:
Ran it through from page 1 to 24 and back using the hand tool, scrolling (mouse wheel and two fingers on the trackpad), clicking the up and down arrows and using keyboard shortcuts. No different than my CS5.5 manual (27000 pages)

OK thanks, let me investigate further...

C F McBlob wrote:

 

Acrobat X, Reader XI:
Ran it through from page 1 to 24 and back using the hand tool, scrolling (mouse wheel and two fingers on the trackpad), clicking the up and down arrows and using keyboard shortcuts. No different than my CS5.5 manual (27000 pages)

What exact version of Reader are you on? I just tested 10.1.3, and it is a lot faster. My initial tests were all with the latest version -- 11.0.03. There is a clear and dramatic performance regression between those two. I will test other versions; I'd just like to know what you are on.

And to make clear -- you're using stand-alone Reader, not the built-in browser viewer?

On my system the built-in .PDF viewer in Safari is very fast, also Adobe's .PDF plugin which is installed along with Reader.  It's just the stand-alone Adobe Reader that's slow.

11.0.03 - Reader   10.1.7 Acrobat  Late 2012 Mini, Core i5 2.5gHz, 16GB DDR3 RAM 10.8.4, dual AOC V2669 22.5" (1920x1080) LCD HD monitors

OK, I've done more testing and the problem started with 11.0.01, and it continues unchanged in 11.0.03.  Version 10.1.4 and earlier are OK -- the scrolling and page up/dn speed is acceptable.

I can't explain why C F McBlob doesn't see the behavior on the exact same .PDF file as I'm using. He is running Acrobat 10.1.7. I wonder if some shared files from Acrobat ver. 10 are somehow preventing the problem on his machine.

Within the next few days I'll be working with a colleague who has several different Macs. I'll take the above-mentioned .PDF with me and try it on all his machines.

Summarizing the problem specifics and versions for future readers:

There are two separate "slow scrolling" bugs in recent versions of Adobe Reader on Mac OS X. Symptoms: scrolling by mouse or fn + down arrow is very sluggish and laggy. It is not isolated to large or graphically complex documents. This 2 megabyte PDF shows illustrates the problem: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/nasa-tnd-6846pt.1.pdf

Problem 1: Adobe plug-in for Safari causes slow scrolling when viewing PDF documents within Safari. Solution: remove Adobe plugins from Mac HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin. I also deleted AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin. This will cause PDF display within Safari to revert to the built-in Apple PDF renderer, which is very fast. These files will be re-installed anytime you install or upgrade Adobe Reader.

Problem 2: Stand-alone Adobe Reader scrolling is slow starting with version 11.0.01. Version 10.1.4 and earlier are not slow. User CF McBlob did not experience this slowdown, but was also running Acrobat 10.1.7, which might have libraries which prevented the problem. I'll do further testing when possible to try and isolate more details.

Platform specifics: OS X 10.8.4, late 2012 iMac 27", i7 3.4Ghz, 16GB RAM, 3TB Fusion drive, GPU = GTX675MX, 1GB

Thank you, joema3.

I too was experiencing seriously annoying PDF scrolling problems with 10.8.4 on my new MBP.

My old Macmini running 10.7.5 has no such problems -- oh the frustration!

Based on your advice I deleted "Adobe Reader.app" version 11.0.3 from my Applications folder and installed 11.0.0 from an old DMG I happened to have lying around.

The PDF scrolling problems I was having disappeared !

Trackpad scrolling in AdobeReader and Safari are now smooth.

fn-up-arrow/dn-arrow paging are also smooth in both.

It appears Adobe Reader XI (11.0.0) is OK.

Platform:

Mac OS X 10.8.4

MacBook Pro 13-inch Mid-2012

2.5 GHz Intel Core i5

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB

Postscript: I just filed a BUG REPORT on this problem with 11.0.3 and noted that 11.0.0 works OK.

Message was edited by: George D. Jelatis

Update: tested with latest Adobe Reader version 11.0.04 -- no change the Adobe Reader plugin for Safari is still very slow. The solution is as stated above, remove the Adobe plugin files from your Library after each update.

To clarify there are three separate pathways for viewing PDF files; the slowdown only happens on one of these:

(1) Mac OS built-in PDF preview. Access by: selecting PDF in finder, press space bar. Page up/down by: Fn + up/down arrow keys. Result: always fast.

(2) Stand-alone Adobe Reader. Access by: double-clicking on PDF in finder (if Adobe Reader is default app for this file type). Otherwise, drag/drop PDF to Adobe Reader icon. Page up/down by: Cmd + up/down arrow. Result: relatively fast; they may have improved the performance in the latest version.

(3) Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari. Access by: open PDF from Safari, or drag/drop local PDF to Safari. Result: slow page up/down. Solution: remove Adobe plugin files and revert to Safari's built-in Adobe rendering.

The situation is a problem since we must frequently install Adobe Reader updates, and each time it will install the plugin. One of most common ways users view PDF files is from Safari. Thus hitting this bug is in the "common user path", is frequently encountered, and is self-perpetuating since it comes back every time you update Adobe Reader.

Some more data on this:

Tested on a Mid-2010 Mac with 16Gb of Ram running OSX 10.9

With Acrobat Pro 11.0.04 slow page turns as described above.  In Preferences->Page Display->Rendering disable "Smooth Images".  The page turn issue goes away, though the quality of images displayed is too poor to use. Change option back, quality of images is good, page turn speed is slow.

Same documents in Acrobat Pro 9.5.5 on the same machine, no issue with page turn speed.

Uninstall 11.0.04 and install Acrobat Pro 11.0.00.  No problems with page turn speed at all.

Looks like something changed between .00 and .04 that impacts how much CPU time "Smooth Images" takes.

A

Per the above post, I tried turning off "Smooth Images". On my 2013 iMac 27 (3.5Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, 3TB Fusion Drive, GTX-780M GPU) it didn't make an obvious difference. Scrolling through a moderately-complex .pdf is very slow -- if using Adobe Reader. The built-in OS X preview is very fast, as is Safari's built-in .pdf rendering.

System: Mac OS X: 10.9, Adobe Reader 11.0.04.

Note: this is the fastest, newest iMac available with the most memory, the fastest CPU and GPU. Scrolling up/down in the pdf with a mouse is so slow and laggy, it's intolerable. By just ditching any attempt to scroll and using page up / page down (CMD + down arrow, CMD + up arrow) it's essentially usable -- on this fast machine. Whether page up/down is usable on an older machine, I don't know.

Here is a good test file to illustrate the problem (1.3 megabyte help file for Divvy screen-management utility):

mizage.com/downloads/Divvy%20Help.pdf

Any new updates on this? I haven't been able to find a fix. Scrolling in the "Preview" app works much better than Acrobat Reader 11.0.0.4.

Count me in on somebody looking for a fix. I keep a v10 version of the Reader on my MBP w/ Retina just so I can read documents. The Pro version is unusable. Even on documents with mostly text scrolling lags and pegs the CPU.

I have the same problem, it is unacceptable.  Late 2013 MBP Retina, top of the line with all features.  Either scrolling directly on the laptop's display, or on connected 27" screens it is horrendously slow, on even uncomplicated PDFs.    Currently using Acrobat XI Pro 11.0.06, FIX THIS ADOBE!  How can someone use a product that you can't even scroll on!?

Mavericks is out, and this issue is still here. How is this possible? Is there really no fix from adobe?

I'm having the same problem.  I just purchased a maxed out 13 inch Retina Macbook Pro and was getting bummed out, thinking that it couldn't even handle PDF files in adobe reader or acrobat pro!  I get that slow, almost stuttering thing going on.  But, opening them up in preview works perfectly!  How is this not fixed?

I have the same issue. I'm running Mavericks on a 13" Macbook Pro from 2011 (i.e. non-retina). However, I can't find 11.0.0.0 to download, just 11.0.0.1 and it has this issue.

here you can find the right download for your language:

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/mac/11.x/11.0.00/

That's for Reader. I think the the prior person was looing for 11.0.0.0 version of Acrobat Pro.

Thanks! I downloaded and installed Adobe Reader 11.0.0 but to my dismay, it still does not scroll as smooth as Preview.

Not happy.

Acrobat pro 11.0.03 scroll smoothly  on MBP with Retina display but without Retina display supported.

After upgrade to 11.0.06, Retina display  is OK, scrolling slowlly Bug comes back. what a shame

Fix it please , please, please

I am running an iMac with Mavericks (everything is updated) with 32 GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM.  I'm experiencing the same issue as everyone else: Adobe Acrobat Pro XI, in my case, scrolls through pdfs unacceptably slowly, with extreme chopiness.  Clearly, this is not a hardware problem.  I do not have this problem running Acrobat in a VM Windows environment, so it is a Mac-specific problem.  Someone at Adobe needs to at least acknowledge the issue, and provide us with a timeline for a fix.  I read (and edit) many many pdf's a day, and have paid for the use of Acrobat Pro.  The software is basically useless to me as it stands, and I am left using Preview to read through pdf's, with no recourse for editing pdf documents.

I have the same problem with my mac. I would expect everything to be smooth since the subscription to CC. Everything seems to be half-baked and the issues are not being acknowledge. I also notice the Acrobat Icon is asking for an update upon opening while on the CC console, it says "up to date". It should not be the users job to find a fix. Going back to the issue, this problem has been posted online line for support since 2011, go figure....Sorry but, I just got frustrated as it has been affecting my workflow...:(

Finally fixed in the 11.0.07 release.

Oh no it isn't.

Using Adobe Reader 11.0.07 and the scroll does not work anything like acceptably, most of the time nothing happens at all when scrolling occasionally it will jump half the document. Completely unusable.

Running on a late 2013 27" iMac with 3.5 GHz Intel i7, 16 GB RAM, 3TB Fusion drive and OSX 10.9.3 (Mavericks) and Adobe Reader XI 11.0.07

mike is absolutely correct.

This issue has NOT been fixed. Given the fact that it's been an issue for well over a year now, says plenty about Adobe's lack of concern and execution in the development of Adobe Acrobat for Mac.  There are other, similar, threads in this and other forums in which an official Adobe rep patronizes the customers and promises the holy "fix" that's on the way.  Or they ask you to message them privately to take it offline.  There's no fix, and the private messaging is just as useless. They just plain don't care, period.

E

Sorry, I was replying to the comments to the tail end of this thread regarding Acrobat Pro.

My version of 10.1.10 Reader scrolled a little chunky but not bad at Retina (2880x1800) resolution, definitely better than the prior version of Acrobat Pro. I just downloaded the 11.0.07 version of Reader and am scrolling quite smoothly at the same resolution.

What is counter-intuitive is when I lowered my resolution to 1920x1400 (the "More Space" option in the Displays pref panel) the scrolling was worse, chunky. Not as bad as the prior versions of Acrobat Pro. I can also say that the larger I stretched the window the worse it got. If I kept the window at about one third/one fourth of the screen width it scrolled a lot smoother.

I'm on a mid-2012 Macbook Pro, testing on a 13 page document consisting of page scans.

I solved a scrolling problem that may or may not be the same as discussed here.

Scrolling was very slow and inconsistent in reader when "Fit One Full Page" was selected. Toggling "Fit to Width Scrolling" solved the problem.

Both of these commands show in my Toolbar. They can be added through View>Show/Hide>Toolbar Items>Page Display menus.

Adobe Reader 11.0.07

MacBook Pro

OS X 10.8.5

Using a MacBook Pro Retina with 10.9 - Acrobat Pro has some good relatively new capabilities, however scrolling is terrible. Slow and jumpy - Preview works fine, both smooth and fast as do all other programs I use . Scrolling is so bad that it makes using Acrobat nearly unusable

It is about time that Adobe fixed this bug !

Here's the best explanation (from anandtech) I've seen for why "More Space" option is slower:

If you select the 1680 x 1050 or 1920 x 1200 scaling modes, Apple actually renders the desktop at 2x the selected resolution (3360 x 2100 or 3840 x 2400, respectively), scales up the text and UI elements accordingly so they aren’t super tiny (backing scale factor = 2.0), and downscales the final image to fit on the 2880 x 1800 panel.

Still scrolling is an Adobe bug and needs to be fixed. No idea how a major software provider can release a product that works so badly and and not fix it - and still have the nerve actually charge money for it

We spend lots of time to fix performance issue in 11.0.7.  It is good to know you can use our product now after you upgrade from 11.0.6 to 11.0.7.