[Tex/LaTex] way to make standard LaTex PDF output look good on screen as well

pdfrenderingscreen

While LaTeX-based PDFs are generally very good when printed, I find most of them really hard and annoying to read on-screen when viewing the full page. Most line widths are very small, which results in badly rendered screen fonts or e.g. boxes with some non-displayed lines. Documents produced with other software don't suffer so much from this.

For example:

try reading this letter on screen in a PDF reader such as Adobe Reader.
or see the box in this document on page 2, at certain zoom levels the left line of the box is not shown)

Besides zooming in in the PDF reader (I don't like that, because I loose overview), or changing the default Latex font, is there an easy way to make LaTeX PDFs more on-screen readable?

(PS: I use Windows)

Best Answer

The first document has no scalable fonts, it uses the default ComputerModern. A

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}

will help. And for the second document it is always a problem with the viewer and the magnification.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Automatic “Zoom in” hypertext boxes in PDF

The following code (for use with pdfLaTeX) defines the command \zoombox[box line width]{contents}. It creates a click-to-zoom box for fitting the second argument 'contents' into the AdobeReader window. A dotted line is drawn around the box if the optional 'box line width' is >0.

EDIT: The code has been optimized for presentation PDFs (such as beamer generated ones) looked at in full screen mode. The zoom-to box is now centred on the screen when clicked, as requested by @alfC.

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{mwe}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%
%  \zoombox[box line width]{contents}
%
%  optimized version for beamer: in full screen, zoom boxes are centred
%  in the viewer; useable with any documenclass
%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\makeatletter
\newsavebox\zb@x
\newcounter{z@@m}
\usepackage{calc}
\newdimen\B@r\newdimen\P@r
\newdimen\@zw\newdimen\@zh\newdimen\@zd

\newcommand{\zoombox}[2][0]{%
  \leavevmode%
  \sbox\zb@x{#2}%
  \setlength\B@r{1pt*\ratio{\wd\zb@x}{\ht\zb@x+\dp\zb@x}}%
  \setlength\P@r{1pt*\ratio{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}%
  \ifdim\B@r>\P@r\relax%
    \setlength\@zw{\wd\zb@x}\setlength\@zh{\@zw*\ratio{\paperheight}{\paperwidth}}%
    \setlength\@zd{(\@zh-\ht\zb@x-\dp\zb@x)*\real{0.5}+\dp\zb@x}%
    \setlength\@zh{\@zh-\@zd}%
  \else%
    \setlength\@zh{\ht\zb@x+\dp\zb@x}%
    \setlength\@zw{\@zh*\ratio{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}%
    \setlength\@zh{\ht\zb@x}\setlength\@zd{\dp\zb@x}%
  \fi%
  \makebox[0pt][l]{\makebox[\wd\zb@x][c]{\makebox[\@zw][l]{%
    \pdfdest name {zbfs\thez@@m} fitr
      width  \@zw\space
      height \@zh\space
      depth  \@zd\space
  }}}%
  \pdfdest name {zb\thez@@m} fitr
    width  \wd\zb@x\space
    height \ht\zb@x\space
    depth  \dp\zb@x\space
  \immediate\pdfannot 
    width  \wd\zb@x\space
    height \ht\zb@x\space
    depth  \dp\zb@x\space
  {%
    /Subtype/Link/H/N
    /Border [0 0 #1 [1 2]]
    /A <<
      /S/JavaScript
      /JS (
        if(typeof(zoomed)=='undefined'||!zoomed){
          var lastView=this.viewState;
          if(app.fs.isFullScreen) this.gotoNamedDest('zbfs\thez@@m');
          else this.gotoNamedDest('zb\thez@@m');
          zoomed=true;
        }else{
          this.viewState=lastView;
          zoomed=false;
        }
      )
    >>
  }%
  \usebox{\zb@x}%
  \stepcounter{z@@m}%
} 
\makeatother
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-a}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-b}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-c}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[height=1cm]{example-image-golden}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-golden-upright}}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

The second example defines pairs of commands for marking opposing corners (lower left & upper right .OR. upper left & lower right) of a zoom box, and commands for marking text sequences/entire paragraphs.

\documentclass{article}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\makeatletter
\InputIfFileExists{\jobname.zom}{}{}                                                                         
\newwrite\zoomdat
\immediate\openout\zoomdat=\jobname.zom                                                                      
\newcommand{\startzoombox}[2][0]{%                                                                           
  \leavevmode%                                                                                               
  \pdfsavepos%
  \protected@write\zoomdat{}{%
  \string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#2.ulx\string\endcsname{%                             
    \noexpand\number\pdflastxpos}%
  \string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#2.uly\string\endcsname{%                             
    \noexpand\number\pdflastypos}%                                                                           
  }%
  \ifcsname zb#2.ulx\endcsname\ifcsname zb#2.lrx\endcsname%
    \edef\zoomwd{\dimexpr \csname zb#2.lrx\endcsname sp- \csname zb#2.ulx\endcsname sp\relax}%               
    \edef\zoomdp{\dimexpr \csname zb#2.uly\endcsname sp- \csname zb#2.lry\endcsname sp\relax}%               
    \pdfdest name {zb#2.in} fitr                                                                             
      width \zoomwd                                                                                          
      height 0pt
      depth \zoomdp
    \immediate\pdfannot                                                                                      
      width \zoomwd                                                                                          
      height 0pt
      depth \zoomdp                                                                                          
    {%
      /Subtype/Link/H/N 
      /Border [0 0 1 [1 2]]                                                                                  
      /A <<
        /S/JavaScript                                                                                        
        /JS (
          if(typeof(zoomed)=='undefined'||!zoomed){                                                          
            var lastView=this.viewState;                                                                     
            zoomed=true;
            this.gotoNamedDest('zb#2.in');                                                                   
          }else{
            this.viewState=lastView;                                                                         
            zoomed=false;                                                                                    
          }                                                                                                  
        )                                                                                                    
      >>                                                                                                     
    }%
  \fi\fi%                                                                                                    
}
\def\stopzoombox#1{%\leavevmode%                                                                             
  \leavevmode%                                                                                               
  \pdfsavepos%
  \protected@write\zoomdat{}{%
  \string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#1.lrx\string\endcsname{%                             
    \noexpand\number\pdflastxpos}%
  \string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#1.lry\string\endcsname{%                             
    \noexpand\number\pdflastypos}%                                                                           
  }%                                                                                                         
}
\def\startzoom{%
  \stepcounter{@zb@id}%
  \xdef\@lblStack{\the@zb@id.\@lblStack}%
  \@ifstar\@startzoomstar\@startzoom%                                                                        
}

\newcommand{\@startzoom}[1][0]{%
  \raisebox{\baselineskip}[0pt][0pt]{\startzoombox[#1]{.\the@zb@id}}%                                                 
}
\newcommand{\@startzoomstar}[1][0]{%
  \makebox[0pt][r]{\raisebox{\baselineskip}[0pt][0pt]{\startzoombox[#1]{.\the@zb@id}}%                                
  \hspace{\parindent}}%                                                                                      
}
\def\stopzoom{%
  \@ifstar\@stopzoomstar\@stopzoom%                                                                          
}
\def\@stopzoom{%
  \@popStack\@lblStack%
  \raisebox{-1ex}[0pt][0pt]{\stopzoombox{.\@lblCur}}%
  \xspace%
}
\def\@stopzoomstar{%
  \@popStack\@lblStack%
  \hfill\raisebox{-1ex}[0pt][0pt]{\stopzoombox{.\@lblCur}}%
  \xspace%
}
\newcounter{@zb@id}
\def\@lblStack{}
\def\@popStack#1{\expandafter\@@popStack#1\nil}
\def\@@popStack#1.#2\nil{\gdef\@lblCur{#1}\gdef\@lblStack{#2}}
\RequirePackage{xspace}
\makeatother
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{document}
\section{Paragraph zooming}
\startzoom[1]First paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first \startzoom[1]\emph{Do not miss this one.}\stopzoom First paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph.\stopzoom*

\startzoom*[1]Second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph.\stopzoom*
\end{document}

The two commands for marking the corners of a zoom area are

\startzoombox[line width]{label}

and

\stopzoombox{label}

They are meant to be used in picture-making environments, such as pspicture or tikzpicture. Associated command pairs must be identified by unique labels.

For marking text and paragraphs the following commands have been provided:

\startzoom[lwidth]
\startzoom*[lwidth]
\stopzoom
\stopzoom*

The starred versions insert horizontal space (negative \parindent on first line, \hfill at the end of the paragraph).

Zoom areas may be nested. However, smaller ones should be placed on top of bigger ones (i.e. to appear later in the code), in order not to be obscured.

Note that at least two pdflatex runs are necessary.

EDIT:

A dvipdfmx/XeLaTeX version of the \zoombox macro is given in: How do I include a click-to-zoom thumbnail picture in a non-beamer document?

[Tex/LaTex] PDFs are not printed with the correct fonts

I do not know which is your system --- in TeXLive pdftex should embed all fonts by default since ages. In the linked article you can see it.

To check, I used this MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathpazo}
\begin{document}
This is just an example $a^b-\sqrt{c}$.
\end{document}

and with the utility pdffonts:

[romano:~/tmp] pdffonts example.pdf
name                                 type              encoding         emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- --- --- --- ---------
ZEXUQE+URWPalladioL-Roma             Type 1            Custom           yes yes no       4  0
QCVMKP+URWPalladioL-Ital             Type 1            Custom           yes yes no       5  0
SVEOTC+CMSY10                        Type 1            Builtin          yes yes no       6  0

which seems to give the correct answer --- look at the "emb" (embedded) column.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Automatic “Zoom in” hypertext boxes in PDF

[Tex/LaTex] PDFs are not printed with the correct fonts

Related Question