Viewing PDFs and viewing preferences

The initial view of the PDF depends on how its creator set the document properties. For example, a document may open at a particular page or magnification.

When you’re reading a document, you can hide all the toolbars and task panes to maximize the viewing area on your screen.

The basic reading controls, such as page navigation and zoom, appear in a semi-transparent floating toolbar near the bottom of the window.

• To open Read mode, go to hamburger menu   (Windows) > View, or View (macOS). Then select Read Mode. Alternately, select the Read Mode button in the floating toolbar.

• To restore the work area to its previous view, choose hamburger menu   (Windows) > View or  View (macOS), then select Read Mode again. You can also select the collapse button in the floating toolbar.

View PDFs in Full Screen mode

In Full Screen mode, only the document appears; the menu bar, toolbars, task panes, and window controls are hidden. A PDF creator can set a PDF to open in Full Screen mode, or you can set the view yourself. Full Screen mode is often used for presentations, sometimes with automatic page advancement and transitions.

The pointer remains active in Full Screen mode so that you can select links and open notes. There are two ways to advance through a PDF in Full Screen mode. You can use keyboard shortcuts for navigational and magnification commands, and you can set a Full Screen preference to display Full Screen navigation buttons that you select to change pages or exit Full Screen mode.

You can also open the review PDF files in Full Screen mode to keep the focus on the content and the comments you have received. To switch to Full Screen mode, use the keyboard shortcut - Ctrl + L.

Set the Full Screen navigation bar preference

The Full Screen navigation bar contains Previous Page , Next Page , and Close Full Screen View  buttons. These buttons appear in the lower-left corner of the work area.

Read a document in Full Screen mode

If the Full Screen navigation bar is not shown, you can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate through a PDF.

Retain the current state of tools pane in Acrobat Reader

Follow the steps in the article to retain the current state of the Tools pane in Acrobat Reader.

Display size in Acrobat

You can adjust the display size of your PDF for easier reading as per the device you are using. 
Choose the hamburger menu   (Windows) > View. Then select Display Size Mode and choose Small, Standard, or Large as required.
 

Display themes in Acrobat

go to View > Display Theme, 

You can change Acrobat's overall look and feel by setting the display themes. To choose the theme, select the hamburger menu   (Windows) > View or the View menu (macOS), and select Display Theme. Then select one of the themes below:

• System Theme - When you choose System Theme, Acrobat changes the UI as per the OS theme. If the OS theme is changed while Acrobat is running, then Acrobat’s theme also gets updated.
  
• Light Gray - The default theme that Acrobat uses is Light Gray. All the UI elements and the document background appear light gray.
  
• Dark Gray -  Setting the theme to Dark Gray improves visual ergonomics by reducing eye strain and improving screen usage in dark environments – all while conserving battery power. The dark theme is now extended to include the top menu, on-page context menu, scroll bar, and the comments pane.

Preferences for viewing PDFs

The Preferences dialog box defines a default page layout and customizes your application in many other ways. For viewing PDFs, examine the preferences options for Documents, Full Screen, General, Page Display, and 3D & Multimedia.

The preferences settings control how the application behaves whenever you use it; they are not associated with any particular PDF document. To access the preferences dialog, choose the hamburger menu   (Windows) > Preferences  or Acrobat / Adobe Acrobat Reader > Preferences (macOS).

Documents preferences

Open Settings

• Restore Last View Settings When Reopening Documents: Determines whether documents open automatically to the last viewed page within a work session.
• Open Cross-document Links In Same Window: Closes the current document and opens the document being linked to in the same window, minimizing the number of windows open. If the document being linked to is already open in another window, the current document is not closed when you click a link to the open document. If you do not select this option, a new window opens each time you click a link to a different document.
  
• Allow Layer State To Be Set By User Information: Allows the author of a layered PDF document to specify layer visibility based on user information.
  
• Allow Documents To Hide The Menu Bar, Toolbars, And Window Controls: Allows the PDF to determine whether the menu bar, toolbar, and window controls are hidden when the PDF is opened.
• Always use filename as document title: Allows you to use the filename as the document title. (Not selected by default.)
  
• Documents In Recently Used List: Sets the maximum number of documents listed in the File menu.
  

Save Settings

• Automatically Save Document Changes To Temporary File Every _ Minutes: Determines how often Acrobat automatically saves changes to an open document.
• Save As Optimizes For Fast Web View: Restructures a PDF document for page-at-a-time downloading from web servers.
• Always reduce size for files more than 10MB: Reduces the size of the PDF automatically if the file size is greater than 10MB.
  

PDF/A View Mode

• View Documents In PDF/A ModeSpecifies when to use this viewing mode: Never, or Only For PDF/A Documents.

Hidden Information

Searches the PDF for items that may not be apparent, such as metadata, file attachments, comments, and hidden text and layers. The search results appear in a dialog box, and you can remove any type of item that appears there.

• Remove Hidden Information When Closing Document (Not selected by default.)
• Remove Hidden Information When Sending Document By Email (Not selected by default.)
  

Redaction

• Adjust Filename When Saving Applied Redaction Marks: Specifies a prefix or suffix to use when saving a file to which redaction marks have been applied.
• Choose Localization For Search & Remove Text Patterns: Specifies which installed language version of Acrobat to use for the patterns. For example, if you installed both the English and German versions, then you can choose either language for the patterns. The Patterns option appears in the Search and Redaction dialog boxes.
  

Full Screen preferences

Full-Screen Setup

• Current Document Only: Specifies whether the display is limited to a single PDF.
• Fill Screen With One Page At A Time: Sets the page view to the maximum screen coverage by a single page.
  
• Alert When Document Requests Full Screen: Displays a message before going into Full-Screen mode. Selecting this option overrides a previous selection of Do Not Show This Message Again in that message.
  
• Which Monitor To Use: Specifies the monitor on which full-screen display appears (for users with multiple-monitor configurations).

Full-Screen Navigation

• Escape Key Exits: Lets you exit Full-Screen mode by pressing the Esc key. If this option is not selected, you can exit by pressing Ctrl+L.
• Show Navigation Bar: Shows a minimal navigation toolbar regardless of the document settings.
  
• Left Click To Go Forward One Page; Right Click To Go Back One Page: Lets you page through an Adobe PDF document by clicking the mouse. You can also traverse through a document by pressing Return, Shift-Return (to go backward), or the arrow keys.
  
• Loop After Last Page: Lets you page through a PDF document continuously, returning to the first page after the last. This option is typically used for setting up kiosk displays.
  
• Advance Every _ Seconds: Specifies whether to advance automatically from page to page every set number of seconds. You can page through a document using the mouse or keyboard commands even if automatic paging is selected.

Full-Screen Appearance

• Background Color: Specifies the window’s background color in Full-Screen mode. You can select a color from the color palette to customize the background color.
• Mouse Cursor: Specifies whether to show or hide the pointer when Full-Screen mode is in operation.

Full-Screen Transitions

• Disable All Page Transitions: Removes transition effects from presentations that you view in Full-Screen mode.
• Default Transition: Specifies the transition effect to display when you switch pages in Full-Screen mode and no transition effect has been set for the document.
  
• Direction: Determines the flow of the selected default transition on the screen, such as Down, Left, Horizontal, and so on. The available options vary according to the transition. If no directional options affect the selected default transition, this option is not available.
  
• Navigation Controls Direction: Mimics the user’s progress through the presentation, such as transitioning from top to bottom when the user proceeds to the next page and from bottom to top when the user backtracks to the previous page. Available only for transitions with directional options.

General preferences

Basic Tools

• Use Single Key Accelerators To Access Tools: Enables you to select tools with a single keystroke. This option is deselected by default.
• Create Links From URLs: Specifies whether links that weren’t created with Acrobat are automatically identified in the PDF document and become clickable links.
  
• Make Hand Tool Select Text & Images: Enables the Hand tool to function as the Select tool when it hovers over text in an Adobe PDF.
  
• Make Hand Tool Read Articles: Changes the appearance of the Hand tool pointer when over an article thread. Upon the first click, the article zooms to fill the document pane horizontally; subsequent clicks follow the thread of the article.
  
• Make Hand Tool Use Mouse-wheel Zooming: Changes the action of the mouse wheel from scrolling to zooming.
  
• Make Select Tool Select Images Before Text: Changes the order in which the Select tool selects.
• Show Quick actions on text selection: Display a quick action toolbar on text or image selection.
  
• Show Online Storage When Opening Files: Display the cloud storage in the file open dialog box.
• Show Online Storage When Saving Files: Display the cloud storage while saving the file.
• Open PDFs from last session on Acrobat launch: Reopen PDFs from the last session on launching Acrobat.
  
• Open Documents As New Tabs In The Same Window (requires relaunch): Groups multiple documents into tabs when opened. You can also snap or pull out tabs as individual windows. Select a tab and drag the thumbnail that appears away from the toolbar, and then release the tab. 
  
• Prompt Before Closing Multiple Tabs: Confirms from the user before closing Acrobat.
• Show Starred Files In Recent Tab: Displays the starred files as cards in Home view.
  
• Use Fixed Resolution For Snapshot Tool Images: Sets the resolution used to copy an image captured with the Snapshot tool.
• Enable PDF thumbnail preview in Windows Explorer: Select to display PDFs as thumbnail preview in Windows Explorer.
  
• Touch Mode: Sets how Acrobat enters the Touch mode, if at all, for touch enabled devices. In Touch mode, Toolbar buttons, panels, and menus shift apart slightly to accommodate selecting with your fingers. The Touch reading mode optimizes viewing and supports most common gestures.
• Scale for screen resolution (restart required): Auto-detect screen resolution and scale the PDF for viewing, or display the PDF as it is irrespective of the screen resolution.
  

Warnings

• Do Not Show Edit Warnings: Disables warning boxes that would normally appear when you delete items such as links, pages, page thumbnails, and bookmarks.
• Reset All Warnings: Restores default settings for warnings.

Messages From Adobe

• Show Me Messages When I Launch Acrobat: Allows in-product marketing messages from Adobe to appear in the Welcome Screen when you launch the application without a document open. Click a message to get information about features, updates, or online services, or to open an element in the application, such as a task pane. Deselect the option to prevent in-product marketing messages from appearing. 

Application Startup

• Use Only Certified Plug-Ins: Ensures that only Adobe-certified third-party plug-ins are loaded. The notation Currently in Certified Mode indicates either Yes or No depending on its status.
• Check 2D Graphics Accelerator (Windows only): (Appears only if your computer hardware supports 2D graphics acceleration.) When selected, allows hardware acceleration usage when the first document is opened. When deselected, hardware acceleration usage starts after the first document is opened. This option can slow startup time, so it is deselected by default.
  

• Select As Default PDF Handler (Windows only): This setting specifies which application, Reader or Acrobat, is used to open PDFs. It applies if you have both Acrobat and Reader installed on your computer.
• Tell Me If Adobe Acrobat Is Not My Default PDF Application (Windows only): If Acrobat isn't set as the default PDF handler, a dialog prompts whether to make Adobe Acrobat the default PDF application whenever you launch Acrobat.
  

Page Display preferences

Default Layout And Zoom

• Page Layout: Sets the page layout used for scrolling when you first open a document. The default setting is Automatic. The Page Layout setting in File > Properties > Initial View overrides this value.
• Zoom: Sets the magnification level for PDF documents when they are first opened. The default setting is Automatic. The Magnification setting in File > Properties > Initial View overrides this value.
  

Resolution

• Use System Setting: Uses the system settings for monitor resolution.
• Custom Resolution: Sets the monitor resolution.
  

Rendering

• Smooth Text: Specifies the type of text-smoothing to apply.
• Smooth Line Art: Applies smoothing to remove abrupt angles in lines.
  
• Smooth Images: Applies smoothing to minimize abrupt changes in images.
  
• Use Local Fonts: Specifies whether the application uses or ignores local fonts installed on your system. When deselected, substitute fonts are used for any font not embedded in the PDF. If a font cannot be substituted, the text appears as bullets, and an error message appears.
  
• Enhance Thin Lines: When selected, clarifies thin lines in the display to make them more visible.
  
• Use Page Cache: Places the next page in a buffer before the current page is viewed to reduce the time required to page through a document.
  
• Use 2D Graphics Acceleration (Windows only): (Appears only if your computer hardware supports 2D graphics acceleration.) Speeds up zooming, scrolling, and redrawing of page content, and speeds the rendering and manipulation of 2D PDF content. This option is selected by default.  
  

Page Content And Information

• Show Large Images: Displays large images. If your system is slow to display image-intensive pages, deselect this option.
• Use Smooth Zooming (Windows only): When deselected, turns off animation effects, which improves performance.
  
• Show Art, Trim, & Bleed Boxes: Displays any art, trim, or bleed boxes defined for a document.
  
• Show Transparency Grid: Displays the grid behind transparent objects.
  
• Use Logical Page Numbers: Enables the Number Pages command for matching the position of the page in the PDF to the number printed on the page. A page number, followed by the page position in parentheses, appears in the Page Navigation toolbar and in the Go To Page and Print dialog boxes. For example, i (1 of 1) if the printed number of the first page is i. If this option is not selected, pages are numbered with Arabic numbers starting at 1. Selecting this option helps prevent unexpected behavior when clicking Back or Go Back in your web browser.
  
• Always Show Document Page Size: Displays the page measurements beside the horizontal scroll bar.
  
• Use Overprint Preview: Specifies whether Overprint Preview mode is on only for PDF/X files, never on, always on, or set automatically. When set to Automatic, if a document contains overprints, then Overprint Preview mode is activated. The Overprint Preview mode lets you see (onscreen) the effects of ink aliasing in the printed output. For example, a printer or service provider could create an ink alias if a document contains two similar spot colors and only one is required.
  
• Default Transparency Blending Color Space: Sets the default color space, Working RGB or Working CMYK, for transparency blending.
  

Reference XObjects View Mode

• Show Reference XObject Targets: Specifies the type of documents in which reference XObjects can be viewed.
• Location Of Referenced Files (Optional): Specifies a location for the referenced documents.
  

Touch mode for tablet and mobile devices

Touch mode makes it easier to use Acrobat and Acrobat Reader on touch devices. Toolbar buttons, panels, and menus shift apart slightly to accommodate selecting with your fingers. The Touch reading mode optimizes viewing and supports most common gestures. Acrobat and Acrobat Reader automatically switch to Touch mode when on a touch-enabled device. You can change the default preference setting for Touch mode.

Change Touch Mode preference

Change the PDF/A viewing mode

PDF/A is an ISO standard for long-term archiving and preservation of electronic documents. Documents you scan to PDF are PDF/A-compliant. You can specify whether you want to view documents in this viewing mode.

When you open a PDF/A compliant document in PDF/A viewing mode, the document is opened in Read mode to prevent modification. A message is displayed in the document message bar. You will be unable to make changes and add annotations to the document. If you turn off PDF/A mode, you can edit the document.

Display PDFs in Line Weights view

The Line Weights view displays lines with the weights defined in the PDF. When Line Weights view is off, it applies a constant stroke width (one pixel) to lines, regardless of zoom. When you print the document, the stroke prints at the true width.

Show or hide toolbar items, side panels, grids, and cursor coordinates

While viewing a PDF, you can use View > Show/Hide to display the following elements in Acrobat:

• Menu Bar: (macOS) To show or hide the menu bar, select View > Show/Hide > Menu Bar. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + M.
• Customize toolbar: You can change the tools that appear on the Quick Action toolbar. For more information, view Customize quick action toolbar. 
  • (Windows) Select the hamburger menu from the upper left and then select View > Show/Hide > Customize toolbar.
  • (macOS) Select View > Show/Hide  > Customize toolbar.

• Side panels:  Side panels are vertical panes displayed on either side when you open a document in Acrobat. Learn more about Customize side panels.
  •  (Windows) Select the hamburger menu from the upper left and then select View > Show/Hide > Side panels.
  • (macOS) Select  View > Show/Hide > Side panels.

• Rulers & Grids: Use grids to accurately line up text and objects in a document. To view or hide the grid:
  • (Windows) Select the hamburger menu from the upper left and then select View > Show/Hide > Rulers & Grids > Grid.
  • (macOS) Select View >  Show/Hide > Rulers & Grids > Grid.

A check mark appears next to the command name when the grid is displayed. For more information, view PDFs of Grids, guides, and measurements. 

• Cursor Coordinates: The Cursor Coordinates show the coordinate position of the pointer within the document pane. To view x and y coordinates:
  • (Windows) Select the hamburger menu from the upper left. Select View > Show/Hide > Cursor Coordinates.
  •  (macOS) Select View > Show/Hide > Cursor Coordinates.

Learn more about how to View Cursor Coordinates.

Compare a revised PDF to an earlier version (Acrobat Pro)

Use the Compare Files feature to show the differences between two versions of a PDF. You can customize many options for displaying the compare results. For more information, see Compare two versions of a PDF file.