diff --git a/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/components/pdf-js-viewer.tsx b/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/components/pdf-js-viewer.tsx
index 63a3774d5c..4822cf794f 100644
--- a/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/components/pdf-js-viewer.tsx
+++ b/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/components/pdf-js-viewer.tsx
@@ -114,6 +114,9 @@ function PdfJsViewer({ url, pdfFile }: PdfJsViewerProps) {
     }
 
     const handlePagesinit = () => {
+      // Set scale immediately to avoid a one-frame flash at PDF.js's default
+      // 1.333 scale (96/72 DPI) before the React restore effect can correct it.
+      pdfJsWrapper.viewer.currentScaleValue = scaleRef.current
       setInitialised(true)
       timePDFFetched = performance.now()
       if (document.hidden) {
diff --git a/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/util/pdf-js-wrapper.ts b/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/util/pdf-js-wrapper.ts
index 45e7a322db..730ac476da 100644
--- a/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/util/pdf-js-wrapper.ts
+++ b/services/web/frontend/js/features/pdf-preview/util/pdf-js-wrapper.ts
@@ -86,8 +86,36 @@ export default class PDFJSWrapper {
         return
       }
 
-      this.viewer.setDocument(doc)
-      this.linkService.setDocument(doc)
+      // Hold the .pdfViewer element's height steady across the synchronous page-clear
+      // that setDocument() triggers, so the viewer doesn't visually collapse while the
+      // new pages are being initialised. The min-height is released on pagesinit.
+      const viewerEl = this.container.querySelector('.pdfViewer') as HTMLElement
+      const currentHeight = viewerEl.getBoundingClientRect().height
+      if (currentHeight > 0) {
+        viewerEl.style.minHeight = `${currentHeight}px`
+        const clearMinHeight = () => {
+          viewerEl.style.minHeight = ''
+          this.eventBus.off('pagesinit', clearMinHeight)
+        }
+        this.eventBus.on('pagesinit', clearMinHeight)
+      }
+
+      const container = this.container as typeof this.container & {
+        // supported since Chrome 147
+        startViewTransition?: (cb: () => void | Promise<void>) => unknown
+      }
+      if (
+        container.startViewTransition &&
+        typeof container.startViewTransition === 'function'
+      ) {
+        container.startViewTransition(() => {
+          this.viewer.setDocument(doc)
+          this.linkService.setDocument(doc)
+        })
+      } else {
+        this.viewer.setDocument(doc)
+        this.linkService.setDocument(doc)
+      }
 
       return doc
     } catch (error: any) {
@@ -206,14 +234,16 @@ export default class PDFJSWrapper {
       destArray,
     })
 
-    // scroll the page left and down by an extra few pixels to account for the pdf.js viewer page border
+    // scrollPageIntoView aligns PDF content to the container top, ignoring the page margin.
+    // For a top-of-document position this leaves scrollTop = marginTop (margin hidden).
+    // Snap back to 0 so the margin is visible, but only when we are in that margin band —
+    // for any real mid-document scrollTop this condition is false and we leave it untouched.
     const pageIndex = this.viewer.currentPageNumber - 1
     const pageView = this.viewer.getPageView(pageIndex)
-    const offset = parseFloat(getComputedStyle(pageView.div).borderWidth)
-    this.viewer.container.scrollBy({
-      top: -offset,
-      left: -offset,
-    })
+    const marginTop = parseFloat(getComputedStyle(pageView.div).marginTop)
+    if (this.viewer.container.scrollTop <= marginTop) {
+      this.viewer.container.scrollTop = 0
+    }
   }
 
   isVisible() {
diff --git a/services/web/frontend/stylesheets/pages/editor/pdf.scss b/services/web/frontend/stylesheets/pages/editor/pdf.scss
index f1a5e122a3..4a7a286705 100644
--- a/services/web/frontend/stylesheets/pages/editor/pdf.scss
+++ b/services/web/frontend/stylesheets/pages/editor/pdf.scss
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@
 
 .pdf-viewer {
   isolation: isolate;
+  view-transition-name: pdf-viewer;
 
   iframe {
     width: 100%;
@@ -255,6 +256,7 @@
     }
 
     .page {
+      display: block; // prevent Overleaf's .loading class (display:inline-flex) from affecting PDF.js page state
       box-sizing: content-box;
       margin: var(--spacing-05) auto;
       box-shadow:
@@ -262,6 +264,13 @@
         0 3px 14px 0 #23282f08,
         0 8px 10px 0 #23282f14;
       border: none;
+
+      // Overleaf has its own loading state UI; suppress the PDF.js page-level loading
+      // spinner so the loadingIcon/loading classes have no layout or visual effect.
+      /* stylelint-disable-next-line selector-class-pattern */
+      &.loadingIcon::after {
+        display: none;
+      }
     }
 
     .pdfjs-viewer-inner {
@@ -316,6 +325,11 @@
   }
 }
 
+::view-transition-old(pdf-viewer),
+::view-transition-new(pdf-viewer) {
+  animation-duration: 0.25s;
+}
+
 .pdfjs-viewer-controls {
   display: flex;
   align-items: center;