Feb 03, 2020 Use the markup toolbar in Preview to add text and comments, sign documents, highlight text, and more. To show the markup toolbar, click the Show Markup Toolbar button at the top of the window, or choose View Show Markup Toolbar. Preview is the vendor-supplied image viewer and PDF viewer of the macOS operating system. In addition to viewing and printing digital images and Portable Document Format (PDF) files, it can also edit these media types.
Mark up PDFs
Use the markup toolbar in Preview to add text and comments, sign documents, highlight text, and more. To show the markup toolbar, click the Show Markup Toolbar button at the top of the window, or choose View > Show Markup Toolbar.
Add text
In most PDFs, you can simply click a text field, then type to enter text in the field.
If you can't add text to a field, use a text box instead:
- Click the Text button in the markup toolbar, or choose Tools > Annotate > Text.
- To show font, size, and color options for text in a text box, click the Text Style button in the markup toolbar.
- To move the text box, just drag it.
Highlight text
To turn highlight mode on or off, click the Highlight button in the toolbar. When highlight mode is on, highlights appear when you select text.
- To change the highlight color or switch to strikethrough or underline, click next to the Hightlight button , then choose an option.
- To remove a highlight, Control-click the text, then choose Remove Highlight.
Add notes
To add a note, click the Note button in the markup toolbar, or choose Tools > Annotate > Note.
- To close the note, click outside the note box. You can move notes anywhere on the document.
- To open a note, click the note box.
- To see all notes and highlights, choose View > Highlights and Notes.
Add your signature
- Click the Sign button in the markup toolbar, or choose Tools > Annotate > Signature.
- Click Create Signature, then choose whether to use your trackpad, built-in camera, or iOS device to create a signature:
- Click Trackpad, then use your trackpad to sign your name with your finger. If you have a Force Touch trackpad, you can press harder on the trackpad to sign with a darker line. After you sign your name, press any key on the keyboard.
- Click Camera, then sign your name on white paper and hold it up to the camera. Your Mac will automatically scan the signature and show it in the Camera window.
- Click iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch), then sign your name on your device's screen when prompted. Learn more about using iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to sketch in or mark up documents.
- Click Done.
- Choose your signature to add it to the document. You can move and resize it anywhere on the document.
Edit images
- Crop: Drag to select the crop area, then choose Tools > Crop.
- Rotate: Choose Tools > Rotate Left or Rotate Right.
- Adjust color: Choose Tools > Adjust Color, then drag a slider to make an adjustment.
- Adjust size: Choose Tools > Adjust Size, enter the desired dimensions, then click OK.
- Get quick access to edit controls: Click the Show Markup Toolbar button at the top of the window.
Share and export
- To share your file, click the Share button , or choose File > Share. Then choose an option.
- To save your document or image in a different format, choose File > Export, choose a format, then click Save.
Learn more
| Operating system | macOS |
|---|---|
| Website | support.apple.com/guide/preview/welcome/mac |
| Part of a series on |
| macOS |
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Preview is the vendor-supplied image viewer and PDF viewer of the macOS operating system. In addition to viewing and printing digital images and Portable Document Format (PDF) files, it can also edit these media types. It employs the Aqua graphical user interface, the Quartz graphics layer, and the ImageIO and Core Image frameworks.
History[edit]
Like macOS, Preview originated in the NeXTSTEP operating system by NeXT,[1][2] where it was part of every release since 1989.
Supported file types[edit]
Preview can open the following file types:
- AI – Adobe Illustrator Artwork files (if PDF content included in file)
- BMP – Windows Bitmap files
- CR2 – RAW Image file used by Canon Cameras
- DAE – Collada 3D files
- DNG – Digital Negative files
- EPS – Encapsulated PostScript files (after an automatic conversion to PDF)
- FAX – faxes
- FPX – FlashPix files
- GIF – Graphics Interchange Format files
- HDR – High Dynamic Range Image files
- ICNS – Apple Icon Image files
- ICO – Windows icon files
- JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group files
- JPEG 2000 – JPEG 2000 files
- OBJ – Wavefront 3D file
- OpenEXR – OpenEXR files
- PDF – Portable Document Format version 1.5 + some additional features
- PICT – QuickDraw image files
- PNG – Portable Network Graphics files
- PPM – Netpbm Color Image files
- PNTG – MacPaint Bitmap Graphic files
- PPT – PowerPoint files
- PS – Adobe PostScript files (after an automatic conversion to PDF)
- PSD – Adobe Photoshop files
- QTIF – QuickTime image files
- RAD – Radiance 3D Scene Description files
- RAW – Raw image files
- SGI – Silicon Graphics Image files
- STL – STereoLithography 3D format
- TGA – TARGA image files
- TIF (TIFF) – Tagged Image File Format files
- XBM – X BitMap files
The version of Preview included with OS X 10.3 (Panther) could play animated GIF images, for which an optional button could be added to the toolbar. As of OS X 10.4 (Tiger), Preview lost playback functionality and animated GIF files are display as individual frames in a numbered sequence.[3][4]
Features[edit]
Editing PDF documents[edit]
Preview can encrypt PDF documents, and restrict their use; for example, it is possible to save an encrypted PDF so that a password is required to copy data from the document, or to print it. However, encrypted PDFs cannot be edited further, so the original author should always keep an unencrypted version.
Some features which are otherwise only available in professional PDF editing software are provided by Preview: It is possible to extract single pages out of multi-page documents (e.g. PDF files), sort pages, and drag & drop single or multiple pages between several opened multi-page documents, or into other applications, such as attaching to an opened email message.
Editing images[edit]
Preview offers basic image correction tools using Core Image processing technology implemented in macOS, and other features like shape extraction, color extraction, cropping, and rotation tools. When annotating images, Preview uses vector shapes and text until the image is rasterized to JPEG, PNG or another bitmap format. PDF and image documents can also be supplied with keywords, and are then automatically indexed using macOS's system-wide Spotlight search engine.
Import and export[edit]
Preview can directly access image scanners supported by macOS and import images from the scanner. Preview can convert between image formats; it can export to BMP, JP2, JPEG, PDF, PICT, PNG, SGI, TGA, and TIFF. Using macOS's print engine (based on CUPS) it is also possible to 'print into' a Postscript file, a PDF-X file or directly save the file in iPhoto, for example scanned photos.
Beginning with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Preview restricts the Format option popup menu in the Save As dialog to commonly used types. It is possible to access the full format list by holding down the Option key when clicking the Format popup menu.[5] (GIF, ICNS, JPEG, JPEG-2000, Microsoft BMP, Microsoft Icon, OpenEXR, PDF, Photoshop, PNG, SGI, TGA, TIFF)
Where Is Preview On Mac
New features in Version 7[edit]
Video Download Software For Mac
A new 'edit button' where the picture can be edited is introduced in Version 7. The 'edit button' allows options to insert shapes, lines, do cropping, and among other things.
Issues[edit]
As of OS X 10.9.2, Preview does not support ISO-standardized PDF (ISO 32000), and when saving, destroys aspects of PDF files without warning to the user.[6][needs update]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^NeXTSTEP promotional brochure from 1995.
- ^'The many superpowers of Apple's Preview app: Part 1'. Macworld. Retrieved 2017-11-18.
- ^Use Preview to play animated GIFs
- ^Preview for Mac: View animated GIF files in Preview
- ^'Convert Images in Mac OS X: JPG to GIF, PSD to JPG, GIF to JPG, BMP to JPG, PNG to PDF, and more'. OS X Daily. 2010-01-24. Retrieved 2017-01-08.
- ^Johnson, Duff (7 April 2014). 'Apple's Preview: Still not safe for work'. Duff Johnson Strategy & Communications. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
External links[edit]
- AppleInsider review from 2003
- MacProNews article: PDF and Panther: The Hidden Role of PDF in Mac OS X 10.3 from July 2004
- Sams Publishing sample chapter on Preview from Mac OS X Panther Applications and Utilities. Includes some instructions for use, with screenshots.