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Juan Cano
Inspiring
Sep 15, 2026 12:38 PM UTC
Question

Constant redraw issues after making a change, like font size

The last couple months I’ve been experiencing what I can only describe like lag issues in redrawing my layout. Reminds me using Quark a million years ago.

If I change a font size, the layout doesn’t show the change unless I click off the text box.

When scrolling or moving the page I get large grey geometric shapes or blank spaces or colorful glitchy lines.

I’ve turned off GPU performance but it doesn’t matter.

Anyone else seeing this?

MacBook Pro M4Max 48GB RAM

    13 replies

    Juan Cano
    Juan CanoAuthor
    Inspiring
    Sep 29, 2026 2:27 PM UTC

    I’m in the latest version of everything. Still having issues. Seeing some lag issues in Illustrator as well. Could it be the Mac can’t handle it? Seems ridiculous. 

    MacBook Pro M4Max 48GB RAM Plenty of HD Space.

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    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    Sep 29, 2026 2:57 PM UTC

    Hello ​@Juan Cano 

     

    I’m sorry to hear you’re still having trouble with this. To further isolate the root cause of the problem, would you mind trying to run Illustrator under a different administrator account (macOS) and after rebooting your computer in Safe Mode (macOS) to see if it helps?

     

    Looking forward to hearing from you.
    Anubhav

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    Juan Cano
    Juan CanoAuthor
    Inspiring
    Sep 17, 2026 1:27 PM UTC

    I will check for the update but, are you seeing of have experienced any of these re-draw issues? My gut and experience says the update won’t fix the issue. I want to know WHY this is happening currently. 

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    nik.m
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    Sep 25, 2026 5:27 PM UTC

    Hi ​@Juan Cano, just wanted to follow up to see if you were able to try the latest version of InDesign (21.6) andcheck if you are still experiencing the issue? 

    We have not been able to reproduce the behavior at our end on the latest release. 

    Thanks, 

    Nikunj  

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    Community Expert
    Sep 17, 2026 5:29 AM UTC

    Sounds to me like GPU performance - try turning this off in your preferences. It’s only really needed if you have a HDIP display. You don’t need it on, it doesn’t offer any general InDesign advantage.

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    Juan Cano
    Juan CanoAuthor
    Inspiring
    Sep 17, 2026 1:12 PM UTC

    It’s been off for weeks.

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    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Sep 15, 2026 2:37 PM UTC

    Check your screen redraw preference and make sure it’s NOT set to immediate.

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    nik.m
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    Sep 15, 2026 2:29 PM UTC

    Hi, thanks for reaching out, and we're sorry about the trouble.

    Please let us know the version of InDesign you're using, along with your computer's macOS version. It would be helpful if you could share a small video recording of the behavior.

    Meanwhile, try resetting the preferences of InDesign using the steps suggested here: https://adobe.ly/4ivrBYO


    Thanks,

    Nikunj

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    Juan Cano
    Juan CanoAuthor
    Inspiring
    Sep 15, 2026 4:09 PM UTC

    MacBook Pro M4Max 48GB RAM

    InDesign 21.4.1

     

    Some screenshots of my redraw settings. Note I never touch these settings and haven’t had issues the first half of 2026 or 2025 or ever for that matter. I did not change settings recently is what I’m trying to say.

     

    Here’s a video where you see me changing the ‘space after’ and not seeing immediate results. This happens constantly. 

     

     

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    leo.r
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Sep 16, 2026 12:44 AM UTC
    InDesign 21.4.1

     

    Also, update to the latest InDesign version. InDesign 21.6 has just been released (I think it’s available in all countries by now).

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