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Participating Frequently
May 5, 2023
Question

Highlighting in a large pdf file takes forever

  • May 5, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 2506 views

When I highlight in a 2500 page textbook in Acrobat Reader, it suddenly takes a long time. This didn't use to be the case with the same pdf, it started happening recently, and it's very frustrating.

 

My system is an M1 Macbook Air and my Acrobat Reader version is 23.001.20093

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2 replies

Participant
July 19, 2023

I have the same problem here.

 

1600+ pages textbook with multiple images (260 MB). Each highlight took ~3-5s which is way too long if you're highlighting as you read.

 

Has always been an issue with certain larger pdf files.

 

I solved the issue by opening the file with Apple's Preview, and then export as a linearlised pdf.

 

I tried with Acrobat's "save as optimised pdf" function - while it does improve the speed of highlighting, Preview's version was faster (despite the larger file size).

 

Hope this helps.

Amal.
Legend
May 5, 2023

Hi @Mads26746233e3qw 

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that.

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check. Also, update the application to the recent version 23.01.20143. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer.

 

Regards

Amal

Participating Frequently
May 5, 2023

This is a particular PDF file, but the problem did occur initially with this file, it is a problem that has suddely appeared. I just updated to 23.01.20143 but the problem persists. This is not a problem with other pdf-files, but this problem didn't exist initially with the current large problematic one. I don't know if it matters how many highlights I have done in the document already? There is quite a significant delay after I try to highlight something, before the highlight is finally being applied and it really ruins the "workflow"