If your PDFs appear distorted in SmartDocs, the issue is caused by your hardware. This occurs on some PCs depending on hardware type or device age.
The PDF may look unclear on your screen, but your colleagues will see it normally, and your clients will also receive a readable document.
Disable Hardware Acceleration in Google Chrome
The current fix is to disable Hardware Acceleration in Google Chrome. This issue also appears in Microsoft Edge. Alternatively, you can install Firefox, which will display the documents normally because it does not use the same Hardware Acceleration features as Chrome and Edge.
What is Hardware Acceleration?
Hardware Acceleration allows your browser to borrow processing power from your graphics and sound card to increase efficiency. This helps support demanding websites or pages with advanced features, animations or high‑quality video. However, on some devices, this function can cause display issues such as those seen in SmartDocs.
What happens if you turn off Hardware Acceleration?
Your PC may run slightly slower when opening certain websites because your CPU must do more of the processing on its own.
This may be a temporary issue. Google Chrome may release a fix, allowing you to re‑enable Hardware Acceleration later.
Turn off Hardware Acceleration
In Chrome, click the three dots in the top right corner.
Go to Settings > System.
On the right‑hand panel, turn off Use hardware acceleration when available.