# Acrobat Reader: Why do copy-n-pasted graphics look like crap? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 18, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acrobat-reader-why-do-copy-n-pasted-graphics-look-like-crap/245836 "2004-05-18T20:32:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acrobat-reader-why-do-copy-n-pasted-graphics-look-like-crap/245836/1 "2004-05-18T20:32:57Z")
**Acrobat Reader** has a nifty function called the **Graphics Select Tool**. You can use this tool to copy graphics to the clipboard, and then paste into Microsoft Word (or whatever). But when I do this, the pasted graphic looks blurry & out of focus. Why is that? Is there a simple way to make it clearer? I mean, the graphic looks fine when it’s _in_ Acrobat Reader. And it looks fine when _printed_ from Acrobat Reader. But the copy-n-pasted version looks like crap when viewed on the monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acrobat-reader-why-do-copy-n-pasted-graphics-look-like-crap/245836/2 "2004-05-18T22:35:38Z")
Works For Me. I just did a bunch of tests on different documents and kinds of text and graphics, the results were always perfectly identical, pixel for pixel, to what I was seeing in Acrobat Reader. Try making sure that the image isn’t being resized when you paste it somewhere, and that you’re using the latest version of Acrobat Reader. Also make sure that you’re viewing both the Acrobat document and the document you’re pasting into at 100%, not zoomed or shrunk at all.