Upgrade StorageCritical PDF Text Selection Offset / Misalignment Bug (Even with All Add-ons Disabled)
Zotero Version: 8.0.4
Operating System: Windows 11 25H2
Add-ons: All disabled (Issue persists in vanilla Zotero)
Issue Description:
I am experiencing a severe text selection rendering bug within the Zotero PDF reader. This issue occurs even after disabling all add-ons, indicating it is likely a core rendering or text layer mapping issue.
The specific behavior is as follows:
Text Selection Misalignment: When I attempt to select/highlight text in a PDF, the selected text does not correspond to the text I am hovering over or clicking.
Offset Mapping: The selection cursor (caret) appears to be offset from the mouse pointer, or the text selection snaps to incorrect lines/words that are not visually selected.
Impact: This makes accurate highlighting, note-taking, and word lookup impossible. The selection logic seems to be using incorrect coordinates relative to the rendered page.
Steps to Reproduce:
Open any PDF in the Zotero reader.
Attempt to select a specific word or sentence.
Observe that the highlighted text is different from the intended selection (e.g., selecting text above/below the cursor, or selecting random chunks of text).
Troubleshooting Already Attempted:
Disabled all add-ons (including the previously suspected PDF Translate).
Cleared cache/storage folders.
Verified PDF integrity (other readers work fine).
Tested with different zoom levels.
Additional Notes:
This feels like a coordinate mapping issue between the mouse event and the PDF text layer (similar to bugs seen in PDF.js when scaling is involved). Since it happens without any add-ons, it suggests a potential issue with how Zotero handles text layer rendering or DPI scaling on certain displays.
Operating System: Windows 11 25H2
Add-ons: All disabled (Issue persists in vanilla Zotero)
Issue Description:
I am experiencing a severe text selection rendering bug within the Zotero PDF reader. This issue occurs even after disabling all add-ons, indicating it is likely a core rendering or text layer mapping issue.
The specific behavior is as follows:
Text Selection Misalignment: When I attempt to select/highlight text in a PDF, the selected text does not correspond to the text I am hovering over or clicking.
Offset Mapping: The selection cursor (caret) appears to be offset from the mouse pointer, or the text selection snaps to incorrect lines/words that are not visually selected.
Impact: This makes accurate highlighting, note-taking, and word lookup impossible. The selection logic seems to be using incorrect coordinates relative to the rendered page.
Steps to Reproduce:
Open any PDF in the Zotero reader.
Attempt to select a specific word or sentence.
Observe that the highlighted text is different from the intended selection (e.g., selecting text above/below the cursor, or selecting random chunks of text).
Troubleshooting Already Attempted:
Disabled all add-ons (including the previously suspected PDF Translate).
Cleared cache/storage folders.
Verified PDF integrity (other readers work fine).
Tested with different zoom levels.
Additional Notes:
This feels like a coordinate mapping issue between the mouse event and the PDF text layer (similar to bugs seen in PDF.js when scaling is involved). Since it happens without any add-ons, it suggests a potential issue with how Zotero handles text layer rendering or DPI scaling on certain displays.
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dstillman Zotero TeamInstead of using AI to generate a post, please just explain the problem in your own words and share some screenshots and a link to the PDF so we can understand what you're actually describing. This is very likely just due to a bad text layer in a particular file.