10 Tips - Preview the Mac app people forget about
Preview is that stand-alone program that comes with all Macs and one you probably don't pay too much attention to. That's understandable, it often feels just part of the operating system and not an application in its own right, but it is, and other than being a great viewing application for photos and PDFs, it comes with some nifty tools that I find myself using all the time and I thought I would share those with you.
Here they are:
1. Resizing images to a specific file size
If you are like me and often find yourself having to upload images to websites, you can often be confronted with size restrictions to upload them. Preview has a great solutions to that.
Steps
Select 'Markup'
Select 'Resize'
Adjust width and height to meet size constraints
2. Inverting Icons
Have a black and white image but you want to inverted? it You can use the image editing capabilities of Preview to do this.
Steps
Select 'Tools' from the toolbar
Select 'Adjust Color'
Drag and invert the Left and Right arrows of the levels window
3. Removing the background from an image
Does your image have a background that is making your presentation look rather amateur? Get rid of it in Preview.
Steps
Select 'Markup'
Select 'Auto Alpha'
Click and drag down to select the desired background
Press delete on the keyboard
Repeat steps 3 & 4 if necessary
4. Rearranging pages in a PDF
Preview is a great stand-alone PDF viewer and it has some extra capabilities like being able to rearrange the pages of a document.
Steps
Select the desired pages to reorder in the sidebar
Drag and drop the pages to the desired location
5. Creating a new PDF from an existing one
If you ever need to split up a pdf or just take out a few pages to form a new one. Preview is extremely useful for this.
Steps
Select the desired pages from the sidebar
Drag and drop the pages onto the desktop or a location of your choosing
6. Merging pages from one PDF to another
Have more than one PDF that you want to combine? A simple drag and drop can save you a lot of headaches here
Steps
Open both PDFs and have them next to each other
Select the desired pages from one PDF's sidebar
Drag and drop those pages to the other PDF's sidebar
7. Signing PDFs
Signing documents is something we all have to do from time to time. Preview enables you to sign documents without having to print them out and scan them back in.
Steps
Select 'Markup'
Select 'Signature'
Either create a new signature or select an existing one
Drag and resize the signature to suit
8. Removing Geolocation meta info from a photo
If you post a lot of photos on the web, you could be exposing the location of where you took that photo. Something that some not so nice people might try to capitalise on. Best get rid of it in Preview first.
Steps
Select 'Information'
Select 'Information' from the more info dialogue box
Select the GPS tab
Click 'Remove Location Info'
9. Creating an Image from the Clipboard
Copied a photo from a website and want to save it. Preview can help
Steps
Copy Desired image
Open Preview
Select 'File' from the toolbar
Select 'New from Clipboard'
10. Accessing App icons
If you create content for different applications you may find yourself in need of an image of the app's icon. Rather than getting a bad quality one from the web use Preview to do it for you.
Steps
Open your 'Applications' folder
Select the desired app
Right Click and choose 'Get Info' or CMD + I
Select the icon in the top left of the dialogue box
Copy it using the keyboard shortcut CMD + C
Open Preview
Select 'File' from the toolbar
Select 'New from Clipboard'
