[Bug Report] Preview renders TikZ graphics in PDFs incorrectly

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[Bug Report] Preview renders TikZ graphics in PDFs incorrectly

Hej everybody!

I noticed there is a bug in the PDF rendering engine that is used by Preview, Quick Look, and other software that seems to rely on the operating system's PDF renderer (e.g. Texpadapp): In some case graphics that are created with LaTeX + TikZ are not rendered appropriately. More precisely, in some case, when a shape is filled with a pattern, the pattern does not go all the way to the border of the shape, but leaves a small margin:

How it does look like (rendered by Preview)

How it should look like (rendered by Acrobat Reader)

(Red boxes manually added to highlight the problem)

The problem does not appear in other PDF viewers, such a Acrobat Reader, or the one that is built into Chrome. If you want to check the problem yourself, here is a PDF that exhibits the problematic behavior: http://www.pdf-archive.com/2016/02/06/problematic/problematic.pdf

Apparently, this bug has been around for at least 2 years now: 2013 Thread on tex.stackexchange.com that describes basically the same problem.

Would be appreciated if this got fixed :-)

Cheers,

-- der_herr_g

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Feb 6, 2016 5:50 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 6, 2016 8:07 AM in response to der_herr_g

Apple leadership and product teams are not participating, or reading these open community posts. This is a voluntary, user-to-user community that has no more input to Apple than you do. For Preview issues, provide OS X Feedback. This will go to the OS X team. Provide a link back to your post here, and mention that it shows the rendering differences between Preview and Acrobat Reader, giving both explicit versions.

Coincidentally, your PDF is v1.5 produced by pdfTeX-1.40.16.

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Answer 2

Feb 6, 2016 8:50 AM in response to der_herr_g

It should be noted that Preview 8.1 in OS X 10.11.3, when enlarging your PDF image to 400%, shows no line gap along the left border, but one does remain along the bottom border. It renders smooth lines whereas Acrobat Reader DC v2015.010.20056 at the same magnification renders jagged lines.

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