Products · Product
Raised as a usability problem by 240 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 201 threads.
- 1PDFs are hard to read on small displaysUnreviewed
- 1PDFs are hard to read on small displaysUnreviewed
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- 1PDFs are hard to read on small displaysUnreviewed
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- 13Document font is hard to readUnreviewed
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Every issue, all time, most people first
PDFs are hard to read on small displaysUnreviewed
20092026- PDFs cannot resize fonts while keeping page width fixed, so text doesn't adapt to different screens2026-05-08
- Most PDF scanner apps feel clunky to use2026-01-19
- PDFs are a terrible experience to view on mobile2025-12-02
Two-column PDFs force constant scrolling on small screensUnreviewed
20092026- Two-column PDF forces constant scrolling up, down and sideways on small screens2026-05-08
- Two-column PDFs get read or copied in the wrong order2025-11-11
- PDFs force constant zooming and scrolling, making long reading tiring2024-01-26
PDF content has no logical structure, so editing or reflowing is painfulUnreviewed
20092026- Building PDFs directly is non-intuitive for developers2025-10-01
- PDF is painful to work with programmatically2025-09-18
- PDF content is hard to edit because it stores fixed drawn boxes and images, not reflowable text2025-07-18
Browser PDF viewers often won't let people type into form fieldsUnreviewed
20092026- USCIS XFA PDFs won't let people edit fields in most browsers, and fields break even with Adobe2026-02-04
- USCIS XFA PDF forms won't edit in most browsers and fields break even in Adobe2026-01-04
- XFA PDF forms don't let people edit in most browsers and fields break2025-12-14
Scanned PDFs can't be searched or copied because text is an imageUnreviewed
20092026- Scanned PDFs can't be searched or copied because the text is an image2025-10-12
- Scanned PDF pages are image-only, so text is tiny and hard to read2023-10-10
- Scanned 300-page agenda PDFs are hard to search and understand2023-09-25
Copied PDF text gets ligatures, missing spaces or extra spacesUnreviewed
20092026- Copy and search return garbled text because the selectable layer is scrambled2025-12-24
- Copied text from PDFs gets ligatures, missing spaces or extra spaces2024-08-29
- Copying names gives garbled characters, so text can't be searched2023-08-27
Opening PDF links on mobile means downloading and switching appsUnreviewed
20092026- Opening PDF links on phone eats data and gives a terrible reading experience2025-06-02
- Forces a file download instead of opening the PDF in the browser, cluttering the downloads folder2023-09-20
- Opening PDF links on mobile means downloading and switching to another app2022-10-12
PDF text selection highlights extra lines, hiding what gets copiedUnreviewed
20092026- Text selection in PDFs highlights extra lines, so user can't tell what gets copied2026-05-08
- Hard to get anything extra from a PDF that duplicates the email text2025-07-31
- Reader creates many duplicate 'MyPdf (2).pdf' copies, making the notes-bearing version impossible to identify2022-06-28
Hard to sign PDFs cryptographically with anything besides Adobe toolsUnreviewed
20092026- Linux PDF viewers can't handle filling out forms and digitally signing them2026-03-01
- Hard to cryptographically sign PDFs with anything besides Adobe's tools2024-05-03
- Signing a PDF on Linux takes far more effort than on macOS Preview2022-02-17
Non-fillable PDFs with blank lines are hard to fill digitallyUnreviewed
20092026- Non-fillable PDFs with blank lines are hard to fill digitally; must handwrite or use poor tools2022-11-18
- Scanned or non-fillable PDF forms can't be filled in digitally, forcing workarounds2022-08-17
- Filling and signing writable PDFs on Android is very painful and hard to complete2015-08-07
Going back after a PDF link jumps to the first pageUnreviewed
20092026- Going back reloads the PDF and drops the reader at the top2021-07-19
- Going back after a PDF link jumps to the first page, not the linking page2021-07-19
- Clicking a link in a PDF permanently zooms the document with no way to revert2014-07-19
Hard to find how to download the PDF instead of viewing itUnreviewed
20092026- Can't figure out how to download the PDF instead of viewing it in the page2024-07-09
- Can't figure out how to view the PDF full-screen without downloading2020-05-19
- PDF button doesn't work and the PDF link can't be found2011-07-23
Document font is hard to readUnreviewed
20092026- The document's font is too hard to read2021-11-23
- Font is hard to read; some strokes appear invisible in Firefox2018-03-15
- Document shows garbled text, user can't tell if it's readable2014-06-17
Hard to figure out how to merge PDFs or rearrange pagesUnreviewed
20092026- Merging many documents into one long PDF makes it confusing to track and find individual files2026-06-27
- Merging PDFs was painful; sites funnel users toward paid versions2024-04-05
- Hard to figure out how to merge PDFs or rearrange pages2021-04-03
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- UI has too many buttons, feels cluttered2026-09-25
- Editing whole paragraphs or layout breaks kerning and spacing because text is split into fragments2026-09-22
- Free PDF viewers can't show comments or annotations, so feedback from reviewers is lost2026-07-20
- Couldn't work out how to verify signatures; verification code too abstract2026-07-15
- Websites claiming PDF editing only support annotations, forcing endless searching for a real editor2026-07-08
- Online PDF editors only offer annotation, not actual text editing, despite claiming otherwise2026-07-07
- Merging many documents into one long PDF makes it confusing to track and find individual files2026-06-27
- Having to stop playing violin to press keys or scroll to turn pages2026-06-27
- PDFs cannot resize fonts while keeping page width fixed, so text doesn't adapt to different screens2026-05-08
- Text selection in PDFs highlights extra lines, so user can't tell what gets copied2026-05-08
- Two-column PDF forces constant scrolling up, down and sideways on small screens2026-05-08
- Can't clip the text into notes or link directly to subsections2026-03-25
- User doesn't know what to do or how to start on the landing page2026-03-18
- Linux PDF viewers can't handle filling out forms and digitally signing them2026-03-01
- PDFs can't easily be viewed in dark mode, and workarounds have limitations2026-03-01
- USCIS XFA PDFs won't let people edit fields in most browsers, and fields break even with Adobe2026-02-04
- Most PDF scanner apps feel clunky to use2026-01-19
- USCIS XFA PDF forms won't edit in most browsers and fields break even in Adobe2026-01-04
- Users think they've redacted text but it remains extractable, with no warning on save2025-12-24
- Copy and search return garbled text because the selectable layer is scrambled2025-12-24
- Redaction looks like it removes content but the underlying text stays recoverable2025-12-24
- XFA PDF forms don't let people edit in most browsers and fields break2025-12-14
- PDFs are a terrible experience to view on mobile2025-12-02
- Two-column PDFs get read or copied in the wrong order2025-11-11
- Hard to find good tools and ends up on sketchy websites for simple edits2025-10-13
- Scanned PDFs can't be searched or copied because the text is an image2025-10-12
- Building PDFs directly is non-intuitive for developers2025-10-01
- PDF is painful to work with programmatically2025-09-18
- Redaction tool stays active in view mode, blocking scrolling until refresh2025-08-14
- Spent two hours trying to resize a PDF, which should be simple2025-08-08
- Search apps and OS indexers don't make it simple to find things in PDFs2025-08-04
- Hard to get anything extra from a PDF that duplicates the email text2025-07-31
- PDF content is hard to edit because it stores fixed drawn boxes and images, not reflowable text2025-07-18
- PDF versions have atrocious typesetting, making them hard to read2025-06-29
- Saving a page as a file via print is confusing for non-technical users2025-06-07
- Forms require printing, signing, scanning and emailing, and large scans get rejected or split emails lost2025-06-06
- Spreadsheets printed to PDF/A pages are basically unusable as-is2025-06-03
- Opening PDF links on phone eats data and gives a terrible reading experience2025-06-02
- Manually finding and comparing the same section across differently formatted annual PDFs is tedious2025-05-13
- Converters output columns instead of rows, forcing manual copy-and-paste of entries2025-05-05
- Large scanned PDFs bog down and lag on older mobile devices2025-03-14
- Screen readers can't detect form controls, so blind users can't fill forms independently2025-03-06
- Documents show only a 'Please wait' message and never load, so contents are inaccessible2025-02-06
- Reading PDFs on a phone is very difficult and frustrating2025-01-23
- Fillable forms can't be properly updated outside Adobe Acrobat, only on an old Windows machine2025-01-09
- PDFs designed for large screens force manual zooming and panning on phones2024-11-02
- PDFs are hard to read on phones due to readability and layout compromises2024-11-02
- Reading a full-page PDF on a phone is awful to use2024-11-01
- Panning in two dimensions on a fixed layout is cumbersome and inefficient for low-vision readers2024-09-28
- Fixed-format PDF pages don't reflow, so text is hard to read on tablets2024-09-25