IOS app: PDF annotations periodically unreadable (opaque)

MandyKatz
When I open annotated PDFs to review in Zotero, they look fine at first, but as soon as I manipulate them - moving them to a split screen, eg, or zooming in - then highlights on the visible page often morph into solid blocks of color, sometimes different from the original annotation color, and the underlying text becomes unreadable. [I haven't yet deduced if this happens *only* to PDFs I've annotated in PDFExpert and then imported into Zotero, or if it also affects those I've marked up in the Zotero app itself.]

At Google Drive link below are screenshots of (1) a messed-up page; (2) a comparison of normal page and messed-up page on same screen; (3) how the normal page looks after it was moved around and it, too, got messed-up:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-v_Cp6j-cRMIybjU6ZewK6tt7QNOS7-4

I'm sorry I couldn't describe this more clearly. It's been happening pretty consistently.
  • dstillman
    What's the eight-character item key that appears in the URL when you view that attachment online? (You won't see the annotations online, but that will let us check what's going on.)
  • MandyKatz
    I think this may be the URL you are asking for (reached via web library on my browser):
    https://files.zotero.net/eyJleHBpcmVzIjoxNjUxNDU2MzAxLCJoYXNoIjoiNWE1ZWNjMDkxNjYxNjgzODM3NmM4OGEwNWM0YTdkMTYiLCJjb250ZW50VHlwZSI6ImFwcGxpY2F0aW9uXC9wZGYiLCJjaGFyc2V0IjoiIiwiZmlsZW5hbWUiOiJoaWdnaW5ib3RoYW0ucGRmIn0=/287c0e1746201d5123a1380abcbe201a3c653ddf5d1a18dc51fb88e106b4d67b/higginbotham.pdf

    And here is the URL for the larger entry to which the PDF is attached:
    https://www.zotero.org/mandykatz/collections/7X9V6FJY/items/KAC5QFJ2/item-details

    Thank you.
  • dstillman
    It looks like these are ink annotations in the file itself, made in an external program — you'll see a lock icon in the annotation sidebar indicating that they're not editable. (Note that, unlike with actual highlights, it's not possible to extract highlighted text from ink annotations like this.)

    Are you seeing this every time you open the file? What if you force-quit the app from the app switcher and reopen it?

    Are there any particular steps you can take to get it to happen?

    Also, just to confirm, are you running version 1.0.3 of the app? (You can check at the bottom of the Settings pane, accessible from the library list.) 1.0.3 did fix some issues with the coloring of annotations.
  • MandyKatz
    The app version is 1.0.3. And returning to this in the morning has suggested a theory of how I may be tripping myself up: *Perhaps I am saving the PDFs to my Zotero library the wrong way.* They don't naturally populate when I add from web, eg from JSTOR entries, so I have been creating PDFs via "print" command. But (doh?!) does that turn them into screenshots and render them uneditable? What series of commands SHOULD I use to acquire an editable download from JSTOR and other databases/sites in the ios app?



    Here's the response I was writing before this ^^ idea occurred to me:

    TYPE OF ANNOTATIONS (TOOLS): You are correct that, in the screenshotted doc, I was inking only. This is because I am finding older PDFs (pre-2010 or so) un-annotatable even when using the appropriate highlight tool. But odd things are happening with newer docs, too, and even with highlighting tool, as shown in screenshots linked below.

    Why I'm not highlighting: Could be user error, but in older docs, neither Zotero nor PDF Expert can "read" line breaks or recognize text for copy-paste. Pasted text and extractions look like code/gibberish. I have assumed this is due to the PDFs' having been scanned, in an earlier era of digitizal archiving, rather than digitally created...?

    Screenshots of the recent doc, edited w/HIGHLIGHT tool and IN ZOTERO: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-wowlwCumyoXTcydMgOw2arsYJiWK_-a

    RECREATING THE BEHAVIOR + FORCE-QUITS: As mentioned, the corrupted annotations seem to result from manipulating the opened PDF on my iPad screen – resizing or moving to split screen. Closing and reopening does not restore the original appearance, but force-quitting Zotero does seem to reset to original.
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