Mac Basics: Preview

Learn about Preview's essential editing capabilities, such as resizing, rotation, cropping, and annotating PDFs and images in OS X Lion and Mountain Lion.

What would you like to learn more about?
Viewing and working with PDF files
Using Preview in full screen
Using Smart Magnify in Preview
Creating a signature
Signing a PDF
Viewing and working with images
Scanning
Customizing the Preview toolbar

Viewing and working with PDF files

To view a PDF file, double-click it to open it in Preview, or drag the PDF file's icon to the Preview icon in your Dock. Preview lets you do more than just view PDFs. You can zoom in or out, bookmark pages, add notes or highlighting, copy text, fill out forms, and more.

OS X Mountain Lion information

If you want to...	Do this in Preview
Make the contents of the PDF bigger	Click the button at the top-left of the window.
Make the contents of the PDF smaller	Click the button at the top-left of the window.
View the content only	Click the View menu button () at the top-left of the window, then choose "Content Only".
View the content and thumbnails	Click the View menu button () at the top-left of the window, then choose "Thumbnails".
View the contact sheet	Click the View menu button () at the top-left of the window, then choose "Contact Sheet".
View a PDF's table of contents in the sidebar	Click the View menu button () at the top-left of the window, then choose "Table of Contents".
View a list of subjects under a chapter in the sidebar	Click the gray disclosure triangle by the name of the chapter.
Jump to a specific chapter or page listed in the sidebar	Click the name of the chapter or page in the sidebar.
Navigate pages one at a time	Press and hold the Option key, then use the Down Arrow to go to the next page or the Up Arrow to go to the previous page.
Go to a specific page number	Choose Go to Page from the Go menu, type a page number, then click OK.
Bookmark a page in a PDF	Choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu, type a name for your bookmark, then click Add.
Open a bookmarked page	Choose the page from the Bookmarks menu.
Fill out information in a PDF form (if the form allows)	Choose Tools > Text Selection, then click a field and enter the information; some PDF forms may be printable but not editable in Preview.
To copy text from a PDF document to the clipboard	Choose Tools > Text Selection, click and drag your cursor across text to select it, then press Command-C (or choose Edit > Copy); you can then paste the text elsewhere, such as into a TextEdit or Pages document.
In a PDF, change highlighting color of text; add underline or strikethrough (OS X Mountain Lion)	Select the text you want to alter in the document. Click the Markup button , then choose a color, underline, or strikethrough from the pop-up menu.
Add notes, highlighting, arrows, or other annotations	Click the Edit button () on the toolbar. Several buttons will appear below the toolbar in the Preview window, including Rectangle, Oval, Line, Arrow, Text, Speech Bubble, Thought Bubble, Note, Signature menu, Colors menu, Line Attributes menu, and Show Fonts ().
Discover where your file is stored	Hold the Command key and click your document's name on the title bar. A pop-up menu will reveal the path to where the file is located. The file must be saved at least one time for this to work.

OS X Lion information

If you want to...	Do this in Preview
Make the contents of the PDF bigger	Click the button at the top-left of the window.
Make the contents of the PDF smaller	Click the button at the top-left of the window.
View the content only	Click the button (Content Only) at the top of the window.
View the content as thumbnails	Click the button (Thumbnails) at the top of the window.
View the contact sheet	Click the button (Contact Sheet) at the top of the window.
View a PDF's table of contents in the sidebar	Click the button (Table of Contents) at the top of the window. PDFs that do not include a table of contents will display the file name in the sidebar.
View a list of subjects under a chapter in the sidebar	Click the gray disclosure triangle by the name of the chapter.
Jump to a specific chapter or page listed in the sidebar	Click the name of the chapter or page in the sidebar.
Navigate pages one at a time	Press and hold the Option key, then use the Down Arrow to go to the next page or the Up Arrow to go to the previous page.
Go to a specific page number	Choose Go to Page from the Go menu, type a page number, then click OK.
Bookmark a page in a PDF	Choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu, type a name for your bookmark, then click Add.
Open a bookmarked page	Choose the page from the Bookmarks menu.
Fill out information in a PDF form (if the form allows)	Choose Text Tool from the Tools menu, then click a field and enter the information; some PDF forms may be printable but not editable in Preview.
To copy text from a PDF document to the clipboard	Choose Text Tool from the Tools menu, click and drag your cursor across text to select it, then press Command-C (or choose Edit > Copy); you can then paste the text elsewhere, such as into a TextEdit or Pages document.
Add notes, highlighting, links, arrows, or other annotations	Click the Annotate button on the toolbar; several annotation buttons appear below the toolbar in the Preview window, including Arrow, Oval, Rectangle, Text, Note, Link, Signature, Highlight, Strikethrough, Underline, Color Menu, Line Width Menu, Font Panel, and Annotations List .
Discover where your file is stored	Hold the Command key and click your document's name on the title bar. A pop-up menu will reveal the path to where the file is located. The file must be saved at least one time for this to work.

Using Preview in full screen

You can use Preview in full screen, which takes full advantage of your screen and optimizes your experience while reading or viewing documents or images. To use full screen, click the full screen button (the two arrows facing outward in the top-right corner). You can then use gestures to zoom, rotate, and flip through your pages or images.

To get out of full screen, move your pointer to top of the screen and the Preview menu bar will appear, then click the full screen button (two arrows facing inward in the top-right corner).

Using Smart Magnify in Preview

You can use Smart Magnify in Preview to magnify a specific portion of and image or document. When using Smart Magnify on a PDF document, Smart Magnify automatically adjusts its width to give you the best view of the text or image your viewing in the PDF.

To use Smart Magnify, open a PDF or image in Preview, then press the tilde key (just below the esc key on your keyboard). This opens a magnifying window that you can move around to focus in on a portion of your document or image. To close the magnifier window, press the tilde key again.

Creating a signature

You can use Preview to take a picture of your handwritten signature and add it to PDF documents that requires your signature.

1. Choose Preview > Preferences, click Signatures, and then click Create Signature. You can choose Create Signature from the Signature pop-up menu in the Edit (Annotations in OS X Lion and Mountain Lion) toolbar.
2. Follow the instructions displayed on screen. Make sure your signature fills the box on the left and sits on the blue baseline.
3. When your signature preview looks correct, click Accept.

Signing a PDF

1. If you don't see the Edit (Annotations in Lion and Mountain Lion) bar, click the Edit (Annotate) button in the toolbar.
2. From the Signature pop-up menu, choose your signature.
3. Click the locations where you want the signature to appear in the PDF. If you click a line, Preview will shrink your signature, if necessary, to fit on it.

Viewing and working with images

Use Preview to look at images, edit them, convert them to a different format, or start a photo slideshow.

Many images (such as JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG) open in Preview automatically simply do one of the following:

• Double-click the image file.
• Drag the image file to the Preview icon in the Dock.
• Drag a folder of images to the Preview icon to open all of them at once.

Tip: If an image opens in a different application but you want it to always open in Preview when you double-click it, do this one time: Control-click the file, let go of the Control key, press the Option key, then choose Always Open With > Preview. Or, select the image file, choose Get Info from the File menu, then change the "Opens with:" pop-up menu choice to Preview.

When multiple image files are open or a PDF document is open, you can select the individual images or pages via the Sidebar.

Scanning

You can scan with Preview, as well as other ways. For more information, see this article.

Customizing the Preview toolbar

With an image or PDF open in Preview, choose View > Customize Toolbar.... A sheet of favorite items appears, including Crop, Rotate, Print, Slideshow, and more.

• Add items to the toolbar by dragging them from the sheet to the toolbar.
• To remove items from the toolbar, drag the item off the toolbar.
• Rearrange items on the toolbar by dragging them left or right.
• To change how items on the toolbar appear (as icon, as text, or as both), use the "Show" pop-up menu at the bottom of the sheet.