The Power of Preview in OS X

Posted on June 12th, 2008 in Tips and Tricks, Video Tutorials

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If you own a Mac, you’ve got to check out the Preview program. There’s more to it than I expected.

Pass it on!

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Tags: crop, levels, MacBook, OS X 10.5 Leopard, photo editing, Preview, Revver, rotate, utilities, video tutorial

This post has 7 comments

dcr
June 12th, 2008
Great tips.

BTW, Google is listening to you. While watching the video, there was an ad for MacBooks at the bottom…

dcrs last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Owee

On June 12, 2008 at 2:41 pm, pete said:

They’re sneaky little fellers, I tell you.

Glad you got something from the video. I thought I may have been the only one who didn’t know this about Preview.
Joe
June 12th, 2008
I love demos in all their forms. Alas I am a PC guy and although Macs rule this is basically a tease…thanks–tease. :D

On June 14, 2008 at 6:07 pm, pete said:

Ah but you just bought a new PC, so I guess you;ll have to wait. ;-)
dcr
June 12th, 2008
I think I might have once known about it, but I never really use Preview for anything other than, well, previewing. And, then only because it launches itself on certain files. I suppose because I haven’t changed the default behavior. Of course, sometimes it’s just faster to look at a JPEG in Preview than to launch Photoshop.

But, even with the features you mention in Preview, I’ll still need Photoshop to manipulate my images. I stick my copyright line there in the bottom, which will be even more important if Congress passes that Orphan Works Act, but I digress… Anyway, I need to be able to add text and sometimes outline it or glow it or whatever so that it shows up.

dcrs last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Owee

On June 14, 2008 at 6:09 pm, pete said:

I’m a fan of Photoshop, but finding this is a good thing for quick fixes and the like. It is much easier to do stuff in PS, but this really helps out for those minor edits.
Diane
June 13th, 2008
Do you know I have used Macs for about 10 years and never realised you could do that with Preview - it seems to be the same adjustment window that comes up in iPhoto but I have only ever used Preview for viewing images. You live and learn :-)

Dianes last blog post..Dream a little dream…

On June 14, 2008 at 6:10 pm, pete said:

Yes, I imagine that Preview borrows the iPhoto editing tools, ut no matter, it still rocks. I’m not even sure if this has been around or was just introduced.
Opal @ Vegan Momma
June 14th, 2008
If you like that you’ll love Aperture. You can try a fully functional copy for 30 days. Yes, I knew that about Aperture. Congratulations to coming over to the Mac side as you know, I’m a Mac lover. I use a 17″ MacBook Pro.

I use Preview for “quick & dirty” projects like blog posts.

On June 14, 2008 at 6:13 pm, pete said:

OPAL! I’ve been on the Mac platform full-time now for about three years and I’ll never go back to PC, though there are some programs I miss that have yet to be written for Mac.

BTW, my wife loves Scrivener, which I bought her some time ago on your recommendation. Thanks.

Aperture would be nice, but as I’ve already got CS2, I may as well get some mileage out of it before upgrading to something else. But I may try the demo. Thanks for the tip.
cartoongoddess
June 14th, 2008
I’m on a 2 wk old imac and still figuring the new stuff out. (Different than my old G4!) Thanks for a great tip! Maybe I’ll just skip Photoshop…

On June 14, 2008 at 9:28 pm, pete said:

I love the iMacs. I’ve been running on a G4 for some time, but this new MacBook is amazing.

If you don’t do any major photo editing, save your money and use something like Preview/iPhoto or a cheaper Adobe alternative like Elements.

Like Opal mentioned above, Aperture is a solid program and I believe it costs less than Photoshop. I do know that both offer trial downloads though, so maybe that’s worth a shot.
dcr
June 14th, 2008
Pete, the features you mention (or at least most of them) are in Preview in 10.4.x. Don’t know how far back they go, but they aren’t new to 10.5–but the interface is slightly different.

dcrs last blog post..Success Saturday: Smörgåsbord

On June 14, 2008 at 11:40 pm, pete said:

Thanks, I was hoping someone would let me know about that.