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Elliot Kirk's avatar
Elliot Kirk
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Apr 13, 2020

Microsoft Edge extends tools for the PDF reader

The integrated PDF reader in the legacy Microsoft Edge browser is deeply loved by many of you and we have been getting feedback about the availability of those features in the new version of Microsof...
ZZYSonny's avatar
ZZYSonny
Brass Contributor
Apr 15, 2020

I am on edge dev and I would like to see the following improvement for PDF reader. 

 

1. Fix smooth scroll as in https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/4k-smooth-support-pdfs/m-p/1189931

 

2. Fix selection. Selecting one line should not break into several segment of different height. 

Chromium edge

Old edge

 

3. Fix comment display. There shouldn't be inconsistent spacing within each word.

 

4. Add support for textbox. Currently both legacy and chromium edge doesn't display such thing in PDF. This is important for reading annotation if the PDF was annotated by some other tools.

 

5. Add support for pen pressure sensitivity and annotate by pen only.

 

6. Ink looks distorted (lots of pixel!) before pen is released. 

And looks much better after pen is released.

 

 

  • matt_bits's avatar
    matt_bits
    Iron Contributor
    May 28, 2020

    ZZYSonny I support the voice to put more effort in proper text selection. It looks very messy.

     

    The ink looks like it does not profit from Windows Inking that was introduced in Windows 10. I see no point in going backwards. You can support it on the Windows devices and for the other you can keep current inking as it seems to not bother anyone using other platforms. In my opinion the software should profit from technologies available on each platform not to reinvent the wheel that will be bad and "universal".

     

    I will leave you with simple though, there is no universal tap, spigot or faucet which suites all users and all needs.

  • sauravyad500's avatar
    sauravyad500
    Iron Contributor
    May 22, 2020
    I totally agree with you, the selection, comment and drawing is very poor in edge. They are just working to bring features without even taking care of performance. The PDF although with so many options looks appealing but takes very long time just to start loading a pdf when you click on one. It takes around 3 seconds to load pdf which is very annoying. It should be instant. Also the online reader in edge doesn't show loaded pages untill all pages are loaded which it should.
  • Jude Wong's avatar
    Jude Wong
    Iron Contributor
    Apr 27, 2020

    Spot on ZZYSonny, especially points 5 and 6!  They are the reasons why I'm keeping Edge classic for PDF reading and notes taking (for web pages too).  This functionality works great (and more intuitive) in Edge classic.

  • vygadeka's avatar
    vygadeka
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Apr 26, 2020

    ZZYSonny for #4, if you are asking for ability to add text boxes, this is definitely in our roadmap for PDF annotations support. For #6 about blurred inking, what type of device you are observing this on? What are the display settings (resolution, scaling)?

    • ZZYSonny's avatar
      ZZYSonny
      Brass Contributor
      Apr 27, 2020

      I am using Surface Book 1.
      3000x2000 resolution and 200% scaling

       

      This is happening with surface pen on surface book

      and mouse drawing on external 4K 200% display.

      • Jude Wong's avatar
        Jude Wong
        Iron Contributor
        Apr 27, 2020

        Hi vygadeka,

         

        I observed the same as ZZYSonny on my Surface Pro 4 with a scaling of 200% and resolution of 2736 x 1824.  Both are the recommended settings for my device.

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