[Android] Blurry/Broken PDF Text Since Flutter 3.27.X

[estien]

Describe the bug
PDF rendering quality has significantly degraded on Android devices since Flutter 3.27.X. PDFs now display with blurry, pixelated text that becomes increasingly unreadable when zooming in. This appears to be a regression in the PDF rendering engine affecting text clarity and resolution.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Deploy the example app from the package repository
2. Open any PDF file using the basic PDF viewer example
3. Try to read the text and zoom in
4. Observe the blurry, pixelated text rendering

Expected behavior
PDF text should render crisp and clear at all zoom levels, maintaining readability and proper resolution scaling. Text should remain sharp when zooming in, similar to the rendering quality in versions prior to Flutter 3.27.X.

Screenshots

Smartphone (please complete the following information):

Device: Samsung Galaxy S10
OS: Android 12
Flutter Version: 3.27.3
pdfx Version: 2.8.0

Additional context

This issue appears to be Android-specific
The problem is consistent across different PDF files
Text rendering quality is particularly degraded when zooming in
The issue began appearing specifically after updating to Flutter 3.27.X

[twklessor]

We are observing the same issue after upgrading to 3.27. It does not affect the emulator but only actual devices.

[jgaugeritc]

I got the exact same problem.

[mcagrigoktas]

I have the same problem. Has anyone found a temporary solution?

[ZoftPranav]

#543 I think the issue is related to this, when will this pr will be approved?

[coder-with-a-bushido]

Looks like this issue is related to impeller renderer becoming the default from flutter v3.27. The only quick fix I can think of (and it WORKS!) is to override the default setting and use skia like it was the case with previous flutter versions.

Temporary solution

Add the following meta tag in your AndroidManifest.xml:

        <meta-data
            android:name="io.flutter.embedding.android.EnableImpeller"
            android:value="false" />

Refer: https://docs.flutter.dev/perf/impeller

Don't forget to remove this meta tag after #543 is merged and a new release is available since support for skia will be dropped soon afaik