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michaelw60234426
Participant
Nov 19, 2017 4:24 AM UTC
Question

Turn off line smoothing in Acrobat DC

When I write a comment to students on their papers, my handwriting is smoothed by Acrobat, and often distorted beyond recognition, sometimes taking my letters and spiking them above and below the word. I've turned off the "smooth line art" in preferences.  I am using a Wacom CTL 490 tablet. I'm sure it's not the tablet because it works perfectly in Onenote and Photoshop. Even if I could tone the smoothing down a little so it my handwriting is still readable, that would be fine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

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    6 replies

    Ismael5C8B
    Participant
    Dec 2, 2021 2:05 AM UTC

    Here is a link to a thread with the solution.

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-disable-automatic-smoothing-of-the-pencil-tool/td-p/9886747

    I will warn you that it requires creating a registry which can be confusing if you don't know how to do that. I didn't but I figured it out using those instructions so it's definitely not impossible. Also, pencil lines will be more pixelated  as the program is no longer smoothing them out. Best of luck, let me know if I can help with anything.

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    patrickd25117684
    Participant
    Sep 3, 2021 5:28 PM UTC

    I too have been suffering with this problem for years! Handwriting comments/marking up PDF documents in Acrobat is terrible when compared with competing products. Please, Adobe! Help!

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      Ismael5C8B
      Participant
      Dec 2, 2021 2:05 AM UTC

      Here is a link to a thread with the solution.

      https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-disable-automatic-smoothing-of-the-pencil-...

      I will warn you that it requires creating a registry which can be confusing if you don't know how to do that. I didn't but I figured it out using those instructions so it's definitely not impossible. Also, pencil lines will be more pixelated  as the program is no longer smoothing them out. Best of luck, let me know if I can help with anything.

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      nur development
      Known Participant
      Sep 15, 2020 4:56 PM UTC

      I echo this issue. The handwriting indeed gets spiked and is unprofessional. Adobe - please provide a solution!

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        andrews16180
        Participant
        Mar 28, 2018 5:49 PM UTC

        I have the same issue.

        I tried going to Preferences > Page Display > uncheck "Smooth Line Art" and restarted the application. It still smooths my handwriting.

        I am running on a mac version 10.13.1 and there are no new updates for Adobe Acrobat Pro. I have a similar Wacom tablet that draws fine with other applications like Photoshop.

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        Timmareddy24928199sjkm
        Participant
        Jun 20, 2022 9:58 AM UTC

        Me too

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