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If text in a PDF document appears slowly

If the text in a PDF document takes a long time to appear, you can change a few options to speed it up.

To speed up how quickly text appears:

Step 1

Choose Preview > Preferences, and then click PDF.

Step 2

Enter a larger number in the “Greeking threshold.”

Step 3

Deselect “Anti-alias text and line art.”

Text in a point size smaller than the greeking threshold appears as a gray blur. The blurred text fits the outline of what the text would actually look like, but is illegible. Displaying blurred text takes less time because Preview doesn’t need to render each character individually.

If you turn off the “Anti-alias text and line art” option, large characters and line art may appear jagged instead of smooth. Smoothing out the characters and art takes more time.

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