Stop PDF from Automatically Resizing Pages as You Scroll in Browser View

[Aria25760965oqje]

My document has 11 pages of the same width (8.5 in) but varying heights (8 in to 50 in).

When viewing in acrobat reader/acrobat dc pro, the view stays at a 75% zoom (which is the zoom preference I've set for the document) consistently as you scroll through the document.

When viewing in a browser the view automatically resizes to fit the height of the page you just scrolled to, making the text and images too small to be legible.

Is there a way to stop this automatic view change from happening in the browser view?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Adobe does not control any PDF viewers other than Acrobat Reader/Pro, nor necessarily optimize document code and structure for any other reader.

All the rest, including those integrated into browsers, use open-source code to implement PDF viewing the way that programmer/team/company chooses to. There are many, many variations in document handling, the more so as a document gets further from simple, equal pages of text and graphics.

The fault you are seeing lies with the browser reader, not with ID, Acrobat or PDF per se.

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[Laubender]

Hi @Aria25760965oqje ,

what's the browser and operating system where you see this behavior?

If in Firefox for Windows simply set the zoom value to an exact value, do not work with auto zoom, and you are good to go.

Screenshot from Firefox on my German Windows 10 machine. Zoom is set fixed value: 75%

Three pages are visible exported from InDesign with the same width, but different height.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There are always workarounds, at least on most variant viewers. But every user is going to have different (probably default) settings and have either no knowledge of how to change them (or maybe even that they can), or be unwilling to do so to view one document with outlier formatting.

The OP needs to choose between a more standard page layout that will display more normally on a majority of viewers, or accept that some users are going to have to deal with a wonky experience. (Or perhaps embed instructions for correcting a wonky view, but that's probably not an optimal path.)

Or — as was common with web pages for so long — note that the doc "is best viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader."

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[Laubender]

I can only state:

A modern PDF viewer, like the one in Firefox for Windows, has no issues with that when set to a fixed zoom percentage. Also when used in single-page view.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

True. But unless the document is being circulated only to a controlled reader group that is either savvy or specifically informed, you have to consider the vast number of users of these embedded, "invisible" apps that work the way they were installed, for users who either don't know their behavior can be changed or "have things set the way they like them." Reality, in other words.

Consider that some great majority of users have no idea there is more than one PDF reader — among those aware that there is a "reader" involved at all. Even among somewhat skilled users here, it's news that not all readers are the same.

Most PDF (and EPUB) readers can be adjusted to suit individual documents. Most users cannot.

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