Switching between low/retina resolution on Preview?

February 4, 2013 2:38 PM

I spend a lot of time reading academic PDFs, and have found that using a retina Macbook Pro has significantly reduced eyestrain. However, many papers have complex vector images which cause Preview to hang/crash. A workaround is to run Preview in low resolution mode, but I have to constantly close the program and check/uncheck the box for subsequent PDFs in a reading session. Is there a way to set the resolution on a file-by-file basis, or a terminal command/script I can run to change Preview’s resolution?
posted by angst to technology (4 answers total)

Make a copy of Preview, change the setting on the copy and not on the original?
posted by kindall at 4:14 PM on February 4

Have you tried using Acrobat Reader instead of Preview?
posted by and for no one at 4:18 PM on February 4

If you do try kindall's tip, make sure you leave one of the copies with the regular name Preview.app just to make sure future OS updates don't screw something up. (There were some grody issues years ago with renamed or moved system applications that have long been resolved, but it's always best not to tempt fate.)
posted by bcwinters at 4:37 PM on February 4

You could wait. The 10.8.3 release should be out soon (weeks probably) and might fix your problem. You should also report the bug at bugreport.apple.com.
posted by chairface at 5:40 PM on February 5