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Adjusting PDF views

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPG
    6. Convert PDF to PNG
    7. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    8. File format options for PDF export
    9. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

Before you begin

We're rolling out a new, more intuitive product experience. If the screen shown here doesn’t match your product interface, select help for your current experience.

In the new experience, the tools appear on the left side of the screen.

Adjust page magnification

If you want a clear and detaield view of a PDF page, want to focus on specific areas, or improve accessibility, you can use Acrobat's magnification feature.

Adjust magnification using quick tool in the right panel

You can change the magnification of PDF documents using the tools at the bottom of the right panel.

  • To magnify a page or zoom in, select Zoom in 
  • To zoom out a page, select Zoom out 
  • You can use the up and down arrows to navigate the pages.
  • To jump to a page, type the desired page number in the box.
  • To rotate the page, select the rotate icon.
  • To change the page display settings, select Display the page at 100% magnification  and then from the menu that appears, select the desired tool.
Page view menu in Acrobat Desktop

Adjust page magnification using Pan & Zoom tool

  1. (Windows) Select the hamburger menu   > View > Zoom > Pan & zoom.

    (For macOS) Select View > Zoom > Pan & zoom.

  2. Drag the box handles in the Pan & Zoom window to change the document's magnification.

  3. Drag the center of the box to pan across the desired area of the document. 

  4. You can also select the navigation buttons in the Pan & Zoom dialog box to move to a different page.

Tip:

You can also adjust the magnification by preset levels by either entering a value in the zoom text box or selecting the plus or minus buttons.

By following these simple steps, you can easily modify the magnification of your document, pan across different areas, navigate to other pages, and adjust the zoom level to your desired preferences.

Adjust page magnification using Loupe zoom tool

  1. (Windows) Select the hamburger menu > View > Zoom > Loupe zoom.

    (macOS) Select View > Zoom > Loupe zoom.

  2. Select the area of the document you want to examine more closely. A rectangle will appear in the document, representing the area displayed in the Loupe Tool window.

  3. Drag or resize the rectangle to adjust the Loupe Tool's view.

  4. To change the Loupe Tool's magnification, drag the slider to adjust the magnification level or select the plus or minus buttons. You can also enter a value in the Loupe Tools dialog box to set a specific magnification.

    Loupe tool to magnify document area
    Use the Loupe tool to view a magnified area of the document.

  5. (Optional) To change the color of the Loupe tool rectangle, select Line Color pop-up menu in the lower-right corner of the Loupe Tool window, and select a new color.

By following these steps, you can easily use the Loupe Tool in Acrobat Reader to view specific areas of your document in closer detail. You have the flexibility to adjust the view by dragging or resizing the rectangle, and you can change the magnification level using the slider, plus or minus buttons, or by entering a specific value in the zoom text box.

Adjust page magnification using page thumbnail

  1. From the right panel, select the page thumbnail button  

  2. Locate the thumbnail for the desired page. Then, position the pointer over the lower-right corner of the page-view box until the pointer changes into a double-headed arrow.

  3. Drag the corner of the box to decrease or increase the view of the page, adjusting the size according to your preference.

  4. If necessary, hover the pointer over the zoom box frame within the thumbnail until it changes into a Hand icon. Then, drag the frame to explore a different area of the page within the document.

    Page view box in a page thumbnail
    A page-view box in a page thumbnail indicates the area of the page currently showing in the document pane.

By following these steps, you can easily access and manipulate page thumbnails in Acrobat Reader. Adjust the view of the page by resizing the page-view box, and explore different areas of the page by dragging the zoom box frame.

Change the default magnification

  1. (Windows) Go to hamburger menu  > Preferences, then select Page Display under Categories.

    (macOS) Go to Acrobat in the top left. Select Preferences. In the Preferences dialog box, select Page Display, listed under Categories. 

  2. Select Zoom drop-down list and then select a desired magnification level.

Display offscreen areas of a magnified page

When viewing a page at a high magnification, you may encounter a situation where only a portion of the page is visible. Fortunately, you can adjust the view to display other areas of the page without altering the magnification level.

To achieve this, you have two options:

  • From the bottom of the right navigation, use the up and down arrows to move up and down the pages, or the horizontal scroll bars to move across the page horizontally. These scroll bars allow you to shift the view and explore different sections of the page while maintaining the current magnification.

  • Alternatively, select the Hand tool in the Common Tools toolbar. With this tool activated, you can simply drag the page as if you were moving a piece of paper on a table. This action enables you to move the page within the viewing area, providing flexibility in examining different areas of the page.

Set the page view and scrolling

To adjust the page layout and orientation in Acrobat, follow these steps:

  1. (Windows) Select the hamburger menu > View > Page display to access the page layout options.

    (macOS) Select View > Page display.

  2. Choose from the following page layouts based on your preference:

    • Single page view: Displays one page at a time, without any portion of other pages visible.
    • Enable scrolling: Displays pages in a continuous vertical column, allowing you to scroll through the document smoothly.
    • Two page view: Displays each two-page spread, without any portion of other pages visible.
    • Two page scrolling: Displays facing pages side by side in a continuous vertical column.
Note:

If the document contains more than two pages and you want to ensure the first page appears alone on the right side of the document pane, select either Two page view or Two page scrolling.
Additionally, for Windows, select the hamburger menu  >View > Page display > Show cover page in two page view for or for macOS, select View > Page display > Show cover page in two page view for macOS. 

Page view for page layout and orientation
Single Page View, Enable Scrolling, Two Page View, Two Page Scrolling layouts

Rotate the page view

You can change the view of a page in 90-degree increments. This changes the view of the page, not its actual orientation.

  • To temporarily rotate the page view, for Windows, select the hamburger menu  > View > Rotate view > Rotate view right or Rotate view left, Or for macOS, select View > Rotate view > Rotate view right or Rotate view left. You can’t save this change.

  • To save the rotation with the document, from the All tools menu, select Organize pages, and then from the left panel, select Rotate page right for clockwise 90° rotation  or  Rotate page left for counterclockwise 90° rotation.

Change the default page layout (initial view)

You specify the default initial view settings in the Preferences dialog box. See Set Preferences.

  1. (Windows) Go to the hamburger menu > Preferences, and then from under Categories, select Page Display.

    (macOS) Select Acrobat from the top left and then select Preferences. Then from the Preferences dialog box, select Page Display under Categories. 

  2. Open the Page layout drop-down list and select one of the available options: Automatic, Single Page, Single Page Continuous, Two-Up, or Two-Up Continuous.

Note:

By default, the PDF opens with the page layout specified in Preferences. However, if a different page layout is set in document Properties (for Windows hamburger menu  > Document properties > Initial View, and for macOS, select File > Document properties > Initial View), it will override the Preferences setting. If you want to use document properties, make sure to save and close the document for the changes to take effect. Please note that Acrobat users have the ability to change the initial view, unless there are security settings in place preventing changes. However, Acrobat Reader users can't change the initial view.

Use split-window view

Split view allows you to divide the document pane into two panes or four panes, offering enhanced navigation capabilities.

In Split view, you can independently scroll, change the magnification level, or switch to a different page in the active pane without affecting the other pane.

Spreadsheet Split view is ideal for large spreadsheets or tables, where column headings and row labels remain visible while scrolling. Changing the magnification in one pane applies to all panes, and scrolling is coordinated between them.

  1. To create Split view:

    • To split the view into two panes, either select Window > Split or drag the gray box above the vertical scroll bar.

    • To split the view into four panes with synchronized scrolling and zoom levels, select Window > Spreadsheet split.

    • Adjust the size of the panes by dragging the splitter bars up, down, left, or right as needed.

  2. To adjust Zoom levels:

    • In Split view, click a pane to activate it and modify the zoom level for that specific pane only.

    • In Spreadsheet Split view, adjusting the zoom level will change the displays in all four panes simultaneously.

  3. For scrolling:

    • In Split view, click a pane to make it active and scroll to change the content of that pane exclusively.

    • In Spreadsheet split view, click a pane and scroll vertically to change the views in the active pane and the adjacent pane. Scroll horizontally to modify the views in the active pane and the pane above or below it.

  4. To restore single-pane view, choose Window > Remove split.

View a document in multiple windows

To create multiple windows for the same document in Acrobat Reader, follow these steps:

  1. Use the New Window command to open more windows. Each new window will have the same size, magnification, and layout as the original window. The new window opens on top of the original window and at the same page.

  2. When a new window is opened, Acrobat appends the suffix "1" to the original filename. Subsequent new windows are assigned suffixes incrementally, such as "2" for the second window, "3" for the third, and so on. This allows you to easily identify and differentiate between multiple windows of the same document.

  3. If you decide to close a window, the remaining windows will be renumbered sequentially. For example, if you have five windows open and you close the third window you opened, the remaining windows will be renumbered with the suffixes "1" to "4". This renumbering ensures consistent and organized window management.

  4. To open a new window, select Window > New window.

By using the New Window command, you can conveniently create and manage multiple windows for the same document in Acrobat Reader. Each new window retains the original window's settings, and you can easily track and close individual windows while maintaining sequential numbering for the remaining windows.

Note:

This feature isn’t available when PDFs are viewed in a browser.

Close windows

  1. To close a window, for Windows, select Close X from the top right. For macOS, select Close from the top left. 

    It prompts you to save any changes. Closing a window doesn’t close a document if more than one open window.

  2. To close all windows for a document, select File > Close. You are prompted to save any changes before each window is closed.

Adjust zoom in PDF

You can adjust the zoom in a PDF to fit a specific height, width, or actual size or zoom to the page level.

  1. (Windows) From the upper left, select the hamburger menu   and then select View > Zoom.

    (macOS) From the upper left, select View > Zoom.

  2. Select any of the following as required:

    • Actual size: Resizes the page to its original zoom level.
    • Zoom to page level: Adjusts the page to fit the entire page in view.
    • Fit to width: Scales the page to match the window's width.
    • Fit height: Adjusts the page to fit the window's height.
    • Fit visible content: Zooms in to display all visible text clearly.
    • Marquee zoom: Allows you to enlarge a specific area of a PDF by selecting and dragging.
    • Dynamic zoom: Allows you to zoom in or out. Select the area you want to zoom and move the mouse to zoom in or out. 

Pin tools in the right tools pane

You can pin tools in the right toolbar for easy access. 

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat. 

  2. From the right pane, select Display the page at 100% magnification above the zoom icon. 

  3. Select Pin items to the right pane  .

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