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thoroughly frustrating problem with Preview

Hi,


I'm new to the forum and tried to hold out as long as possible, but the problem I'm having has so thoroughly frustrated me I had to post this. Let me try to be as clear as possible.


I have a Mac (OS 10.8.2, upgraded from a late-2009 Macbook running Snow Leopard - 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 gb RAM, 1067 MHz DDR3). I have Adobe Acrobat Pro XI installed. I also have Microsoft Office 2011. Both Acrobat, M. Office, and all my software is fully updated and current. I have no font conflicts, as I have just clean re-installed my OS because this problem is so frustrating.


The issue is with pdfs I make of books I own. Sometimes I will use my iphone 4 (latest iOS 6.1.2) with apps like "CamScanner+" or "GeniusScan+" to copy chapters and make pdfs. (CamScanner+ has built in OCR capability.) I then upload them to my WebDAV bibliography storage cloud on Box.net to access from my Mac laptop. Sometimes I use the University's big overhead scanner to make monochrome pdfs, and run OCR thru Acrobat Pro XI. Sometimes I will use the Canon scanners in the computer labs, and do OCR in Acrobat Pro XI then. In each case, I use Zotero to handle attaching pdfs to bib entries and sync it all up to my WebDAV account. (Zotero has a plugin I use called "Zotfile," which also allows one to extract notes, highlighting, annotations, etc., and store them on Zotero while also keeping them on the pdf.) In either case, though, I always run the pdf thru Acrobat Pro XI to optimize, at the least.


When I access the pdfs for notetaking, research, etc., I tend to use Mac's Preview built-in app. I find it easier to streamline, scroll, view and add notes, less clutery, etc. I see that this new Mountain Lion Preview is much different than Snow Leopard's, which is very regrettable. In this version, Preview saves as you go, it seems.


The problem is that everytime I save the pdf I've been working on from File>Save (and even when Preview saves as I go), it does a number of nasty, unwanted things. First, it somehow doubles the filesize (e.g., from 30mb to 67mb). Second, and MOST HATED, it takes the OCR'ed texts/fonts and converts them all to alien faces, square boxes, or just blanks. (God it's making me angry just thinking about it now - I've spent two full weeks now trying to fix this!!!!) This happens regardless of whether I ClearScan the OCR, Searchable text the OCR, or Searchable text (exact) the OCR. It happens regardless of whether the OCR'ed fonts are embedded, embedded subsets, etc. Every option on Acrobat Pro XI, I feel I have tried and exhausted and Preview still f$&#s it up. As far as I can tell, this happens regardless of what kind of font is used in the OCR'ed pdf (e.g., TrueType, CID, etc.). In every single instance, Preview will 1) double the file size and 2) screw up the fonts upon saving. If I take this newly ruined pdf back into Acrobat Pro, highlight text, copy and try to paste into Word, Chrome, or any other app it produces the same result. However, if I right click and "copy with formatting" from Acrobat Pro, it copies the actual words/font. The newly ruined Preview pdf doesn't return any word searches either. And annotations like highlighting, once extracted or even viewed in the notes&highlighting box, show blanks. I have downloaded and tried a Mac app called Skim, and it is the exact same effect, unless I File>Export...


I know this is not a problem with my Mac's fonts since I just did a clean re-install. Font Book tells me everything is alright too. This occurs regardless of what save settings I choose in Preview (e.g., the default settings, the quartz settings, reduce file size, etc.).


The strange part, though, is that when I take this newly ruined Preview'ed pdf, highlight text, go to font inspector, it says the highlighted font is exactly what it was when Acrobat saved it (e.g., Arial). And if I take this same document back to Acrobat and view properties, it says the fonts are the same as they were when Acrobat Pro originally processed it.


SO... I hope someone can help me with a fix for this. I truly do not want to use Acrobat Pro XI as my research pdf tool. It doesn't scroll smoothly, the layout is clunky, etc. It just isn't conducive to research/reading/notetaking. Preview, I think, is, and so I want to be able to have a fix for this so that Preview will quit ruining my life.


I can provide sample pdfs if that might help. I can provide the original Acrobat Pro XI processed pdfs, as well as the newly ruined Preview pdfs. BTW, I posted this in Adobe's forums as well.

MacBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 2.26 GHz, 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Posted on Mar 6, 2013 3:40 PM

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Posted on Mar 6, 2013 4:00 PM

If you don't want autosave or resume you can copy & paste this command into Terminal at the prompt...

defaults write -app 'Preview' ApplePersistence -bool no

Press return and reboot.


If you do not want autosave or resume globally use this command


defaults write -g ApplePersistence -bool no
7 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 6, 2013 4:00 PM in response to ayiti2015

If you don't want autosave or resume you can copy & paste this command into Terminal at the prompt...

defaults write -app 'Preview' ApplePersistence -bool no

Press return and reboot.


If you do not want autosave or resume globally use this command


defaults write -g ApplePersistence -bool no

Mar 20, 2013 10:40 AM in response to ayiti2015

I'm trying to find a solution to this as well. I've found a number of other threads discussing the issue, but this appears to be the most recent.


I just wanted to add, that while all of the other problems persist regardless of the type of OCR originally performed, the most troubling problem (Preview deleting the entire OCR background layer, rendering the PDF unsearchable) only seems to be an issue with Clearscan PDF's. Unfortunately, since most of my PDF's are already in modern clearscan format, there is no way to rerun them as searchable image, even if I wanted to, and I don't. I have found a number of PDF's though that appear to be clearscan but which contain different types of fonts in the Acrobat XI properties pane, and these files do not exhibit the same behavior. But you say you've tried adjusting all the available clearscan font embedding options? Thanks for saving me the time. I hope we can find a solution.

Apr 24, 2013 1:55 PM in response to ayiti2015

I just had the same problem with a .pdf which I needed to email. I used the quartz filter reduce file and it went from 1.2 mb to 2.1 mb.


Too many un-mac glitches that don't get corrected from OS to OS and non-intuitive changes in new software products. I am not going anywhere but I am not as happy a mac user as I once was.

Aug 5, 2013 3:15 PM in response to macjack

I assume the answer by macjack would not apply in the case of Snow Leopard - Preview version 5.0.3 - but I have the same issue with OCR (not the constant autosave issue though) on my '10 MBP running osx 10.6.8 where suddenly maybe about a year ago 2 hugely annoying things changed in Preview.


  1. As first poster stated (and he/she obviously knows a LOT more about this stuff than me) Preview stopped providing accurate search results with most pdf documents (some downloaded, some created from web, etc., no idea of common thread there).
  2. I can NO LONGER COPY AND PASTE any text in any pdf opened in Preview to another application!! I used to have no problem copying pdf text from Preview to, say, text edit. Now it comes up weird boxes and dashes and no, font choice and/or conflict is not the issue.


I realize this thread is within the Mountain Lion community, and forgive me if I should start a new thread in some other area of this forum saying exactly what I have here, but I have searched and searched on this topic for months and this is the first thread I found which refers to these exact issues I'm enduring.


Any further advice or comments on the subject - or even constructive instructions if I should post elsewhere - would be greatly appreciated!

Nov 30, 2013 1:57 AM in response to Mashugana

Just tested to see if this is any better on Mavericks. Nope. Still not fixed. Still have to use the very slow Adobe Acrobat instead. For pdfs I want to consult and search on a regular basis, I have made a copy which is locked in Finder - this prevents Preview from ruining it because it can't modify it. I have this copy set to open in Preview, but by default my other PDFs open in Acrobat so I can highlight etc. I don't know whether to be angry at Adobe for failing to make a PDF reader that runs at a reasonable speed, or Apple for failing to correct this issue across 3 major OS updates... Maybe I'll look into Foxit or some other program...

thoroughly frustrating problem with Preview

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