low-quality copy (to the clipboard) in Keynote and Pages

I managed to track down what sounds like a related, but distinct, issue.

Turns out that one of the apps I installed was "overriding" Apple's specification for vector clipboard data that broke copy & paste between totally unrelated apps. (I noticed it from Preview -> Powerpoint, but it also happened with Preview -> Keynote.)

For me, the app that was responsible was Notability. And removing Notability fixed it for me.

But it's likely others could debug other apps by following the methodology I outlined on my blog here: https://dgleich.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/fuzzy-pixelated-pdf-copy-paste-from-mac os-preview/

I do not have this issue but I know from other folks problems, this issue only happens on MacBooks.

I don't have a remedy or know why this occurs.

Happy to get your Keynote file and test how it exports on my system.

Here is the best way to remove a media asset from a Keynote file.

1) Make sure the individual file is selected

2) Click Format from the inspector tab

3) Choose the middle tab under format. It will say either Image/Movie/Whatever type of asset it is.

4) Under where it says "File Info", drag the icon out to your desktop. You will now have the full, uncompressed file extracted from your Keynote file. (without having to open the package contents)

I am observing the same behaviour. With Yosemite's version of Keynote, I am no longer able to compose a series of elements, copy and paste them into another application while preserving vector qualities. Instead I get a rasterized version, which in most cases is not useful. This is a step backwards.

I can confirm this is also a problem with Numbers. Anything copied out of the iWork apps appear to lose the ability to be pasted as a .PDF, even in applications that can accept the higher quality .PDF format. (In looking into it, there's additional weirdness I'm seeing related to iWork and the clipboard, but that's for elsewhere).

At this time, the only possible thing you can do to get high quality output from Keynote is to Export as a PDF, then open that and crop it.

Just to help a bit more, when you check Preview for how to crop a PDF, the help is incorrect. The command you're looking for is not

Choose View > Show Edit Toolbar,

it's

Choose View > Show Markup Toolbar

However, I haven't tried to see if you can get PDF's without backgrounds... checking now 🙂

I've also confirmed that Keynote '09 can still produce .PDF's from copied content. And, I am using a MacBook Pro.

UPDATE:

Ok, this can work. Use either the black or white theme, and, in Slide Layout set the Background to "No Fill"

Then, instead of Export to PDF, do File > Print... and in the Print dialog, make sure "Print slide backgrounds" is on (it defaults to on, just check it) and in the lower right, click the PDF button and choose "Open PDF in Preview"

You'll open the image you want in Preview, then commence to clipping

TThe best way is within the application's "Keynote" menu. Send feedback.

I haven't been able to confirm that this is just a MacBook issue. I'll head to an Apple store later today to try.

Dear HansSchnier,

I have exactly the same problem. Is there any progress in the solution for this issue?

Regards

No, no improvement yet. The best so far is to Print as a PDF or to export as Keynote 9, then open the file and copy. I'm HOPING this isn't expected behavior. I'd suggest that you send Feedback inside the Keynote application.

Thanks for opening this thread. I thought I was the only one with this problem.

I just recently started to use Keynote 6.5. I am using it for scientific presentations, so I have to copy a lot of pictures / graphs from pdfs.

Never had any issues with Keynote 09 but copy/paste a picture from a pdf in preview results in a blurry picture.

That is extremely annoying and prevents me from using Keynote 6.5.

I have already sent feedback to Apple but I am somehow shocked that after all this time Keynote is still so buggy.