HiDPI, Retina display support | Acrobat, Reader

Windows 8.1 64-bit HiDPI and Mac Retina screens scale application user interfaces differently than lower- resolution screens. On these machines, Acrobat and Adobe Reader versions earlier than 11.0.07 can show blurry icons, dialog box edges going off the screen, object misalignment, and blurry text and controls.

These problems are significantly reduced with the 11.0.07 update.

For more detail, see the Release Notes. 10.x products do not support the Retina display on Mac.

11.0.07 scaling settings

Acrobat and Reader now take advantage of HiDPI monitors and can scale the user interface to 200%. This scaling is automatically enabled using system settings, and you can customize it by choosing Preferences > General > Scale for screen resolution. The value is set to Auto by default, but you can force it to 100% or 200%. The user’s system control panel manages other items such as the font size, menu items, and drop-down lists, rather than the application’s preferences.

11.0.07 scaling settings options and behavior are as follows:

• Auto
  • For settings up to 150%, display the UI at 100%.
  • For settings 150% or higher, display the UI at 200%.
• 100%
• 200%

Registry configuration

If you need scaling settings other than 100% or 200%, you can fine-tune your configuration by editing a registry preference.

Caution: Editing the registry is for advanced users and requires administrator privileges. Errors can cause serious problems that can require you to reinstall Windows. Edit the registry at your own risk.

The UI icons are designed to look good at settings of 100% and 200%. At other settings, some icons can appear stretched.

To configure your scaling settings:

1. Click Start.
2. Type regedit.exe and press Return to open the registry editor.
3. Navigate to one of the following:

Reader: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\11.0\AVGeneral
Acrobat: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat \11.0\AVGeneral

4. If dDPIScaling does not exist in the right pane, right-click and choose New > String Value.
5. Right-click dDPIScaling and choose Modify.
6. Set the value as needed. For example, 1.2 = 120%, 1.5 = 150%, 1.7 = 170%, and so on. A value of 0.0 means that the application chooses what setting to use.
7. Restart the product.

Machine settings for 11.x Mac users

Some installations earlier than 11.0.07 are low resolution by default. To verify your setting, select the Acrobat or Reader application, go to File/Get Info and determine whether the Open in low resolution setting is dimmed.

Workaround 1

1. Open Applications/Adobe Acrobat XI Pro/Adobe Acrobat Pro.app/Contents/Info.plist.
2. Find NSHighResolutionCapable.
3. If the value is false, change it to true.
4. Restart the product.

Workaround 2

1. Open a terminal window. 
2. Enter touch /Applications/Adobe\ Acrobat\ XI\ Pro/Adobe\ Acrobat\ Pro.app/
3. Deselect Open in low resolution so that the application opens in high resolution.