Formatting pdf file--looks clear on desktop, but blurry on iPad.

[kemfer217]

I have been struggling with this pdf file of mine. It is a pdf of scanned pages from a book. It looks clear and good on my desktop, but when I upload to my iPad it appears blurry/distorted. I have used GoodReader, Notability and PDF Reader apps, on the iPad, to view the pdf and it looks the same throughout them. I uploaded a screenshot from my iPad to better show what it is I'm trying to describe.

It is a large pdf file and I thought the file size may be causing the issue. So I tried uploading only one page from the pdf, but there is the same clarity issue. If I convert the file to a .epub and view it in iBooks it appears clear and well. Though, it is difficult to browse the entire file since you need to zoom in and out turn the pages. I also converted one page from the pdf to a .png, which produced clear text and images. Since the file contains a few hundred pages it is not that practical to turn every individual page into a .png.

I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the dpi or resolution? But I wondering if anyone here has encountered a similar problem or could lend some advice or help.

 

[twerppoet]

Did you create this PDF book yourself?

If so, all I can suggest is that you look at the quality and export settings of whatever app you used.

Or if you can (legally) supply the file, I'd be happy to look at it and see if I can figure out what's going on.

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for the file.

From what I can see the quality is the same on the computer and iPad. I used PDF Expert to view the file, but it looked the same when I downloaded and viewed in it Safari. It looked better on the iMac at first, because the text was smaller, but when I zoomed in on both the iPad and Mac documents for a similar physical text size they looked almost identical.


iMac Screenshot



iPad Screenshot

If you are seeing something significantly different, please let me know what app(s) and your iPad model. I'm using an iPad 3. With it's retina display it may look better than it would on an iPad 2; though it should be as bad as the screenshot you showed.

 

[kemfer217]

Thanks again. I have iPad 3, with retina, running 5.1.1 and have tried it with Notability, Quickoffice and PDF Reader apps. I just bought PDF Expert and uploaded to it, but I still have the same crummy clarity issue. It looks perfectly normal on your screen, strange. How did you upload the file onto your iPad? I uploaded it to PDF Expert via itunes and over wifi directly to the app, but both still aren't clear. I was thinking maybe itunes performs some kind of compression or file modification before sending to the app, but it still looks bad over wifi. I had closed out all other applications and have plenty of free ram, so I'm assuming that isn't the issue.

 

[twerppoet]

I downloaded it directly from your DropBox link by opening it in the Mail app and then using Open In to copy it to PDF Expert. You should be able to do the same thing using Safari or the DropBox app.

PDF Expert can also be connected to your DropBox account for a direct download (or even sync).

iTunes will optimize photos when syncing, but this is the first I've heard of it doing so with a PDF file. Please let me know if bypassing it with DropBox or another method makes a differnce.

 

[kemfer217]

Nope, no difference. I put the link into safari and tried the open in method. I also linked my dropbox and opened it through there. Same clarity issue and it appears equally blurry/distorted with each method. What iOS version are you running?

 

[twerppoet]

I'm running the most current version, 6.1.3.

If you're not jailbroken there isn't any reason not to upgrade. It works well on iPad 3.

 

[kemfer217]

Unfortunately I am jailbroken and that's what is holding me back from updating. I appreciate the help thus far. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some help or adivce.

 

[twerppoet]

Ok. Sorry I couldn't solve it.

Strange though. I wouldn't think the iOS 5.x PDF viewer would be much different than iOS 6. You might check through your tweaks, though I can't imagine one that would change the quality of a PDF's images.

 

[kemfer217]

It is weird. Hopefully today I can play around with my buddy's stock Pad and maybe figure something out. I also booted mine into safe mode, so all tweaks were disabled, and opened it, but still no good.

 

[twerppoet]

Oh well. I assume the file looked ok on your friend's iPad?

Please let us know if you find a solution.