High Sierra 10.13.1 Blurry Preview in Preview

I am having a problem with Preview app in High Sierra 10.13.1. The preview in preview became noticably and irritatingly blurry after my upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra. I am attaching the comparison between the rendering in Google Chrome and Preview below:

Chrome

Preview:

This is such a dealbreaker, since I use my Mac mostly for reading pdfs and other academic purposes. I would like to solve this without reverting to Sierra. I would appreciate any tips or solutions.

Thanks.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.1), null

Posted on Nov 15, 2017 5:26 AM

40 replies

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Nov 15, 2017 5:54 AM in response to huseyingungor

Well its where we are with High Sierra along with a few other niggles.

You can always tell Apple your frustrations, Product Feedback - Apple

dialabrain

Level 10

135,947 points

Nov 15, 2017 8:29 AM in response to huseyingungor

Only by staying in Safe Mode.

Nov 15, 2017 5:42 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Thanks for the reply. I edited the post as you requested.

How could something like this be status quo, though? One of the main functions of Macs are to ease academic work. This is simply unacceptable and should be high on the list of things-to-repair.

Nov 15, 2017 8:19 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you very much! Here is the diagnostics:

EtreCheck version: 3.4.6 (460)
Report generated 2017-11-15 19:15:42
Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.comRuntime: 2:32
Performance: Excellent

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities. Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Other problem Description: Preview app has blurry rendering.

Hardware Information: i MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015) [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service] MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir7,2
1 1,6 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-5250U) CPU: 2-core
8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported
Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 105 iCloud Quota: 4.55 GB available

Video Information: i Intel HD Graphics 6000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900

Disk Information: i APPLE SSD SM0128G disk0: (121,33 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes) [Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB (disk0s2) <not mounted> [APFS Container]: 121.12 GB

USB Information: i USB30Bus

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: i Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Virtual disks: i Macintosh HD (disk1s1 - APFS) / [Startup]: 121.12 GB (60.71 GB free)

Encrypted: Yes (Unlocked)

Physical disk: disk0s2 121.12 GB (60.71 GB free)

(disk1s2) <not mounted> [Preboot]: 121.12 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 121.12 GB

(disk1s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 121.12 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 121.12 GB (disk1s4) /private/var/vm [VM]: 121.12 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 121.12 GB

System Software: i macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 (17B48) - Time since boot: less than an hour

Gatekeeper: i Mac App Store and identified developers

System Launch Agents: i [not loaded] 8 Apple tasks [loaded] 176 Apple tasks [running] 104 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: i [not loaded] 36 Apple tasks [loaded] 188 Apple tasks [running] 105 Apple tasks

Launch Daemons: i [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 defea098 - installed 2017-10-26) [Lookup] [not loaded] com.apple.installer.cleanupinstaller.plist (? 1963bf56 0 - installed 2017-11-09)

[loaded]

[loaded] [Lookup]

[running]

com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-06-23) com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-

me.hide.osxhelper.plist (EVENTURE LTD. - installed 2017-06-30) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents: i [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-09-28) [Lookup] [running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist (Spotify - installed 2017-11-15) [Lookup]

User Login Items: i Spotify Application

(/Applications/Spotify.app)

Internet Plug-ins: i FlashPlayer-10.6: 27.0.0.187 (installed 2017-11-14) [Lookup] QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-10-25)
Flash Player: 27.0.0.187 (installed 2017-11-14) [Lookup]

Safari Extensions: i [enabled] AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com(installed 2017-08-14)

3rd Party Preference Panes: i Flash Player (installed 2017-10-26) [Lookup]

Time Machine: i Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: i 12% Google Chrome 10% WindowServer

6% kernel_task
5% Google Chrome Helper 2% Microsoft Word

Top Processes by Memory: i

638 MB 340 MB 276 MB 214 MB 212 MB

kernel_task
Google Chrome Google Chrome Helper Google Chrome Helper Google Chrome Helper

Top Processes by Network Use: i

Input

16 KB 6 KB 8 KB 7 KB 5 KB

Output

8KB 15 KB 8KB 2KB 2KB

Process name

mDNSResponder apsd
WhatsApp cloudd

netbiosd

Top Processes by Energy Use: i 6.16 Google Chrome
4.26 WindowServer
3.56 Google Chrome Helper 2.84 Google Chrome Helper 1.48 Microsoft Word

Virtual Memory Information: i

3.32 GB
1.13 GB
4.68 GB
2.19 GB
0 B Swap Used

Available RAM Free RAM Used RAM Cached files

Software installs (last 30 days): i Hotspot Shield: 2.0.0 (installed 2017-10-17) Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-10-26) WhatsApp: 0.2.6430 (installed 2017-10-29) WhatsApp: 0.2.6969 (installed 2017-11-10) Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-11-14)

Install information may not be complete.

Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events): i 2017-11-13 18:20:58 Hearthstone.app High CPU use [Open] [Details]

Nov 15, 2017 10:54 AM in response to dialabrain

I don't understand this denial and I don't care for it. I didn't open this thread to seek alternatives for pdf reader, since Chrome works just fine for that. Preview is a more minimal tool and it should work. If you have any tips for solving this, please state; if not, I do not need suggestions for alternative pdf readers.

Thanks.

Old Toad

Level 10

215,394 points

Nov 15, 2017 11:05 AM in response to huseyingungor

Personally I don't see that much difference in the two samples you provided except that the text appears a bit larger in the Preview sample. You're comparing a browser to a pdf reader and that may be the difference in appearance.

Nov 16, 2017 12:07 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you very much. Though I doubt that the problem lies in a Retina vs. non-Retina screen, since Safe Mode and Sierra emends the problem, below is the link for a example pdf. I would appreciate comparison:

Young Notes.pdf - DocDroid

Nov 16, 2017 4:10 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Thank you so much for your time and analysis of the situation!

Your findings are exactly analogous to the situation reported about El Capitan, Yosemite etc. and present the problem well.

One other thing is, when you open the pdf on Preview, there is this milisecond period during which the pdf is crystal clear and sharp, yet after it, there is this apparent further rendering which causes the blur.

This is highly disappointing. I hope that developers look at these forums once in a while and take stock about what is happening with the apps. Otherwise, this will persist till the next big update and maybe won't be solved even then.

Again, thanks for your time.

Dec 5, 2017 1:13 PM in response to huseyingungor

Hello,

I am exactly having the same problem since I updated to High Sierra a month ago. I am no longer able to read papers. Chrome renders OK. Did not try with Firefox. Will try and report in safe mode. I am on an old MBP which is non-retina.

For me, the issue is not at all "slight" difference, it's absolutely horrible.

I am attaching a comparison between Preview and Mendeley Desktop.

Dec 10, 2017 10:36 AM in response to huseyingungor

I'm really surprised that the problem of blurry text hasn't generated more outcry. In recent years, Apple Preview often rendered blurry text, but there were preferences you could adjust to make it sharp again. In High Sierra, that option disappeared.

I've started viewing PDFs in Acrobat Pro, but I prefer the overall user experience in Preview. Obviously, if the text is blurry and I can't read it, it's pointless to use Apple Preview.

I reported the issue to Apple when High Sierra first came out. Despite all of the updates, the problem hasn't been addressed. Is there any way to get Apple's attention on this?

Dec 10, 2017 1:10 PM in response to helloandyhihi

Exactly why I opened this thread and tried to hush the people claiming that it is just an extra layer of rendering. The difference is night and day, and it surprises me as much as it does you that the guys at Apple does not care about this problem.

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Nov 15, 2017 5:36 AM in response to huseyingungor

Why not just insert screenshots in your post, I couldn't get your links to work.

Anyway the blurry rendering of pdfs in High Sierra is the status quo at the moment.

dialabrain

Level 10

135,947 points

Nov 15, 2017 6:14 AM in response to huseyingungor

Perhaps there is something wrong with my eyes but I'm not seeing a difference between the two images.

Nov 15, 2017 6:17 AM in response to dialabrain

It is best illustrated, when you drag the screenshots to a separate tab in your browser and compare.

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Nov 15, 2017 6:21 AM in response to dialabrain

Yeah on here, but if you open them in Preview there is a noted difference.

Apart from the samples here, how does a pdf look to you in Preview?

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High Sierra 10.13.1 Blurry Preview in Preview