What is Preview?

What does preview do? I got this little icon on my dock called "preview." It has some pictures and what looks like a camera sitting on top of them. I click it and nothing happens, nothing I can tell anyways. What is this for?

Personally I use it in preference to Adobe Acrobat Viewer most of the time for PDFs - image or text based, and have it set as the preferred reader for all of them. Cleaner interface, less resource hungry, etc etc. Sure, every now and then you need the Adobe product, but not 99% of the time.
Preview does a great job of talking screen shots, too. In my case it is Acrobat Viewer that doesn't get a spot in the dock!
Cheers
Rod

Similar Messages

What is preview and how do I get rid of it

Hi folks:
I'm brand new and shiny with a Mac, and to tell you the truth I'm not really thrilled with it. I just spent 2 weeks trying to get my password accepted on this machine (I couldn't access any of the discussion groups or any other Apple help site because I kept getting told there was a security problem with my registration code. I couldn't access my personal site at the university nor any other on line site that required a password from myself).
At least that is semi-solved. I can now access everything as long as I first enter a password which gets rejected and then go in and change it. Your site is the same, but rather than let Apple go near this machine agian, I'll live with it.
The question I have is one I have asked the Apple reps and can't get a straight answer. The question is this: "What is preview? Do I need it? Can I get rid of it?"
I have just spent 3 hours trying to get "Grab" to work so I can copy a textbook picture into a file. As soon as I click to set up the capture frame the application kicks into preview and it does nothing. This is not the only problem I run into with this intrusive, do-nothing application. If I can't get rid of it can I hide it so it doesn't show up in the menu bar or the dock?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

You might get actual answers if you posted in the correct forum.
This is Discussions > iPod nano (First Generation) > Using your iPod nano.
Preview is just what it says. It allows you to preview images and pdfs without having to open an editing app.
I have just spent 3 hours trying to get "Grab" to work so I can copy a textbook picture into a file.
From Mac Help;
"To take a picture of the whole screen, press Command-Shift-3.
To take a picture of part of the screen, press Command-Shift-4, then drag to select the area you want in the picture.
To take a picture of a window, the menu bar, the Dock, or other area, press Command-Shift-4, then press the Space bar. Move the pointer over the area you want so that it's highlighted, then click. If you decide you want to drag to select the area, press the Space bar again.
If you press Command-Shift-4 and decide you don't want to take the screen shot, press the Escape key.
Screen shots are saved as files on the desktop. If you want to put the screen shot in the Clipboard, rather than create a file, hold down the Control key when you press the other keys. You can then paste the picture into a document."

I cannot open a PDF attachment. Get message saying Preview does not recognize it. What is Preview?

Cannot open a PDF attachment. I get a message saying Preview does not recognize it. What is Preview?

CLICKY CLICK---> Preview - Apple Support
Care to share which OS you are using?
===========
When posting in Apple Communties/Forums/Message Boards.......It would help us to know which Mac model you have, which OS & version you're using, how much RAM, etc. You can have this info displayed on the bottom of every post by completing your system profile and filling in the information asked for.
Click on your name Welcome "your name."
Click on your name link
Click on the BIO tab. Scroll down to the bottom till you see "My Products." This is the section where you can edit your profile.
CLICKY CLICK-----> Help us to help you on these forums

What is Preview for iCloud used for?

What is Preview for iCloud used for? Is this to save any document that can be opened in Preview to iCloud?
Thanks.

Preview is a Mac application capable of viewing a whole range of file types. It can save those files to iCloud which can then be accessed on another Mac setup with the same iCloud account.
Currently, files saved to iCloud from Preview cannot be accessed on iOS devices, as there is no equivalent iOS Preview app.

When uploading, what are "previews" and why do they take so long?

After selecting photos from iPhoto library to upload and hitting upload all the photos were accessible in a reasonable amount of time.
However, then a message stated that "previews are uploading." I can see thumbnails and enlarge all my photos in Revel ..so what is a "Preview" file? Why do they take so long to upload? Is the Preview the same as a full-size file?
Also, of the 3,000 images I chose Revel excluded 72. (not dupes...they were separately counted). How do I know which ones were not selected? And WHY?

Richard, Thank you.
I am using a MacBook Pro, OSX 10.9.2. There are no RAW files and no xmp's. Corrupt files are possible.
I have noticed that today the "previews" finished uploading. And now the "originals" are beginning to uload. If 3,600 previews took almost 4 days to upload, i can expect 3,600 originals will take much longer. The internet speed is medium @ 1.5.
My iPhoto library has 12,000 photos and only a few videos. I don't think I will live long enough to try uploading a duplicate library via a web client at Adoberevel.com (laughing) I doubt that at this rate I'll be able to upload even half to Revel in the 1st 30 days.

What is "Preview" on the dock?

Ok there's an icon on my Dock called "Preview"... its active cause I see that little blue orb underneath it, but when I click it, nothing happens. What does it do? How do I close it? Te icon is a photo of a guy with a camera lens...

If it is always on, it may be included as a login item. If you don't want it to be, you can go to system preferences, select accounts, click on your user account and go to login items. If preview is there, then you can select it, click on the "-" tab, and it will no longer open when you start your computer up.
It will open any time you select a document to be read by preview. For example, if pdfs are read by preview as a default, rather than adobe reader or acrobat, then any time you try to open a pdf file, it will open in preview. Same for images.

What is Preview?k.

Sorry...another nubie to the Mac. I have a new MacBook Pro with Leopard and have this thing called Preview. I don't know how to use it or when/why it activates itself. I also have a full version of Adobe as it came with my Dreamweaver which I need for work. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Preview is a graphics file viewer that is included with OS X, it's the default viewer for graphics and pdf files. If you want to change the default for a pdf file, right-click on it, select "Open With," then select the Adobe application and click the "Always Open With" checkbox.
In any case, MacBook questions should be asked in the MacBook forum, this is the Apple TV forum.

What does Preview do here?

I'm working on a project and the behavior of Preview puzzels me. I use a 4x4 png-picture as a background to a matrix I plot. But for some reason Preview decides to smooth it all out. Can somebody help me with that? The second printscreen was taken from the Adobe Reader. Thank you for your time!
System: 10.9.2
Preview: Version 7.0 (826.4)
pdfs generated with pdflatex 2014.5.5

Because text and line art are essentially the same thing (vector data), and therefore subject to the same display problems. However, I'm not sure why a raster PNG is being smoothed, or why the same control should alter it.
However, if you want separate settings for smoothing text and smoothing images, then try Adobe's Reader.

Standard Preview size/quality Lightroom 1.1. (how and what)

I'm working on a Macbook pro, with hi-res 17" screen 1920x1200. In most manuals, tutorials etc. it says that you can "set the standard preview size fitting for your screen".
I'm looking for some more background info on the standard preview, to decide which setting to use(if somebody has other criteria to keep in mind please do say so):
1) What is the difference in size of files for the different combination of options (pixel/quality). Does somebody have a list.
2) What is the actual difference in the quality options
3) In which modules is the preview size used (also in development and slide show?)
4) Are they also used to generate the thumbnails from? If so, does a higher standard preview size reduce the performance in library mode because it as to shrink bigger files for these thumbnails?
5) what happens if I would use the smaller, let's say 1440 preview and then decide to view the picture full-size, in library or slide show
6) What would be the size (in pixels) on the normal main window in lightroom on my 1920x1200 screen. if it is about 1440 (might take that one)
Last question of course: What standard preview size / quality should I use on my 1920x1200 screen??
Thanks in advance for all your thoughts!

As to standard preview size and quality, try 1440 and 1680 and Med and High quality and see what you like best. You will probably choose 1680 size for your screen running at 1920x1200. That will let you run LR full screen where the image size will be close to the full size of your monitor. You can try 1440 too but I doubt that you will see any performance improvement. I have tried both sizes on my 1600x1200 monitor and I see no difference in quality or speed.
Try both Med and High quality and see if you notice any difference in your preview quality or speed. High will make your preview folders bigger which might be a factor if you have limited hard drive space.
Don't think preview size has anything to do with thumbs. Standard previews are separate from 1:1 previews so you can always zoom in and LR will generate a full size preview.
In short feel free to experiment with various settings in LR. Good way to learn the program and you will know what works best on your particular computer.

Problems viewing Combined PDF's in Preview

I work primarily in Photoshop CS5. All of my work is created there. My problem arises when creating and viewing compressed PDF's using "Preview" on Macintosh. The text is very funky. But as expected, Acrobat itself displays all files flawlessly. My PDF creation flow is as follows.
1. Save Photoshop Document(s) to individual Photoshop PDF's, without layers so I keep only one image and my vector data. (I always resize and save my documents appropiately for their intended use. I keep all file sizes to a minimum when creating a document for email use.)
2. Using Acrobat, I combine/merge my files, selecting the appropriate compression method for its intended use (Small, Medium, Large)
When I use the Medium compression in Acrobat, I encounter no problems through "Preview". All of my text appears as it should. Works great, but I'm left with a 26MB file.
When I use the Small compression in Acrobat (suggested for email) I have all kinds of problems with my text in "Preview". I would love to use this option as my files sizes are half of what they are at Medium compression.
I know that "Preview" is not a replacement for Acrobat, but Mac's default application for opening PDF's is "Preview", and many of the users that I deal with are not equiped with any Adobe software. Is there a fix? What is Acrobat discarding when it compresses the file for emailing?
I might add that the small version that is not displaying the text, still contains the text (I'm able to select it), it's just not visible.

The problem isn't with what Acrobat is discarding, but what Mac Preview is doing with the data available. The problem is with Preview. You cannot make a silk purse with a sow's ear. If Preview is doing a terrible job rendering a perfectly fine pdf, that Reader displays appropriately, there is nothing Adobe can do.

Why is the Lightroom preview folder so big, even after purging the 1:1 previews?

1:1 or full-size previews take up a large amount of HD space, often many 10's of GB's. This is why building them on demand is an alternative to building them up front, and why you have options for auto or manually purging them. That said, it may not always be possible to delete 1:1 previews - more later.
Standard-sized previews are based on the pixel size option you chose in Catalog Settings. You have 4 choices: 1024, 1440, 1680 and 2048. If all you want is standard-sized then choose a size equal to or greater than your screen size. Lr also builds smaller versions at the same time. These are used for the thumbnail, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 zoom levels. Adobe call this the "preview pyramid".
1:1 previews will not be deleted unless your chosen standard-sized preview is less than half the size of the full-sized preview. For example, you have images with pixel dimensions of 3072 by 2048 pixels (6MP camera such as Canon 10D) and have selected 1680 pixels for standard-sized previews. Since a 1680 pixel preview is more than half the size of the original the full-sized preview will be kept, even after using the purge 1:1 preview command. Had you chosen 1440 pixel for standard-sized previews then the full-sized would have been purged (i.e. 3072/2=1536, which is greater than 1440). Now take the example of a larger camera, say a 8MP camera such as the Canon 1DMKII with an image size of 3504 by 2336 pixels. With the standard-sized set at 1680 pixels the full-size will again be purged (i.e. 3504/2=1752 pixels, which is greater than 1680 pixels).
Another thing worth mentioning - Lightroom will usually delay purging previews for deleted images until after the application has been closed and reopened, even then it might take a few minutes to clear the purged previews. The idea here is to ensure the previews don't get deleted whilst there's still a chance that they may be needed (e.g. you removed images by mistake then use Undo command to reinstate them).
Hopefully above explains why Lightroom doesn't behave as you expect. If it makes your head spin, think how much mine spun when writing it.

The chance of an answer is inversely proportional to the length of the posting. ;)
You do not indicate what your preview setting was while you accumulated a 12Gb preview folder. Nor do you indicate how many images are in your catalog.
Given your screen size of 1280 (laptp?) I would set the preview size to 1440 since this is still far less than half of your D3 images.
Cropping - I'll safely guess - has no effect on your preview size choices.
I confess that preview sizing and purging is confusing. I avoid the confusion by shouting "more disk, mama".

Adobe Media Encoder exports different video than what appears in CS4 timeline

I'm using Premiere CS4 to edit a short skiing video. All shots were taken using a GoPro @ 60fps, 720p. All of the clips were converted into slow motion by using "Interpret Footage" and setting the frame rate to 24. I used the sequence preset "AVCHD 720p 24", and editing seemed to work fine. The video played smoothly and correctly. However, after exporting in Adobe media encoder, the video was far different than what I previewed in the timeline. It seems as though each clip shows up at the correct time, but it disregarded any trimming I did to the clips and each one is played from the very beginning. Also, each clip plays extremely slowly, and there is signifigant ghosting (frame blending issue?). I can also see that the preview window that shows up while I set the export settings displays the incorrect video as well. However, if i change it from "source" to "output", it displays it correctly. I tried exporting using H.264 720 24p and the youtube HD widescreen preset, both of which failed. I am somewhat new to HD video, but I cannot seem to come up with any reason why my video will not export correctly. Any thoughts?
PC Specs:
Intel Q6700 quad core @ 2.66gh
4gb ddr2 ram
1tb 7200rmp hard drive
GeForce gt240 graphics card w/ 1gb dedicated video mem
windows 7 ultimate 64
All updates to premiere installed

I don't think AVCHD is the correct preset... but I use CS5 so not 100% sure
Flip or GoPro video http://forums.adobe.com/thread/437535?tstart=0
- And http://forums.adobe.com/thread/668369?tstart=0
- And http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2009/12/using_a_flip_minohd_camera_wit.html
- Says to use the XDCAM EX 720p 30p (or 60p?) setting for Flip (maybe GoPro?)

My site previews fine in live, explorer and firefox, but the fonts are extra large and bold on chrome, this is my first site, please assist. I will be happy to provide screenshots and code or css sheets.

Working on my first site, Am getting different previews. Chrome tends to make the font big and bold while all other browsers work fine. Here is what the preview looks like in chrome followed by the firefox preview. I have my CSS and HTML code sheets below. Am also having a hard time centering the navigation links, they are a little closer to top of the navigation div than the bottom. Any assistance will be appreciated. Please feel free to point any other errors, am sure there is some in there.
@charset "utf-8";
body {
margin-top: 0px;
margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-left: 0px;
color: 151515;
font-family: "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", "Myriad Pro", "DejaVu Sans Condensed", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
background-color: EFF5F8;
#banner {
#wrapper {
background-color: rgba(255,255,255,1.00);
width: 100%;
min-width: 740px;
max-width: 1024px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
#sidebar img {
max-width: 100%;
#wrapper #banner img {
max-width: 100%;
h1, h2 {
color: #3399CC;
font-family: source-sans-pro;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 600;
h1 {
font-size: 40px;
text-align: center;
margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
#hero {
float: left;
width: 58%;
margin-left: 2%;
#sidebar {
width: 34%;
margin-left: 4%;
float: left;
#footer {
float: left;
clear: left;
padding-left: 2%;
background-color: #43A6CB;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-align: center;
width: 100%;
a {
text-decoration: none;
font-weight: bold;
a:link {
color: #FF6600;
a:visited {
color: #FF6600;
a:hover, a:active, a:active {
color: #7F3300;
text-decoration: underline;
#navigation ul {
margin-top: 0px;
margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-left: 0px;
padding-top: 10pm;
padding-right: 5px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
padding-left: 5px;
text-align: center;
color: rgba(51,153,204,1.00);
#navigation {
background-color: #4D4D4D;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-transform: uppercase;
#navigation li {
display: inline;
padding-top: 15px;
padding-right: 15px;
padding-bottom: 15px;
padding-left: 15px;
margin-top: 10pm;
margin-right: 10pm;
margin-bottom: 10pm;
margin-left: 10pm;
clear: none;
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: border-box;
text-align: center;
color: rgba(194,209,221,1.00);
font-family: "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", "Myriad Pro", "DejaVu Sans Condensed", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
Here is the code:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>4gals Computer Service Home</title>
<link href="main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<script>var __adobewebfontsappname__="dreamweaver"</script><script src="http://use.edgefonts.net/source-sans-pro:n2,n6:default.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="banner"><img src="Images/banners/4gals banner.jpg" alt=""/></div>
<div id="navigation">
    <ul>
      <li><a href="index.html" title="4gals Computer Services Main Page" target="_self">Main</a></li>
      <li><a href="contact.html" title="4gals Computer Services Contact Page" target="_self">Contact</a></li>
      <li><a href="appointments.html" title="4gals Computer Services, Service Request Form" target="_self">Service</a></li>
      <li><a href="helpful-tips.html" title="4gals Computer Services Helpful tips" target="_self">Tips</a></li>
      <li><a href="meet-the-gals.html" title="Meet Our Daughters; The 4gals" target="_self">4gals</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>
<div id="hero">
    <h1>Computer Service For Families and Small Businesses</h1>
    <p>Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.</p>
    <h2> </h2>
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
    <h2>Call us for today for same-day service!</h2>
    <p><img src="Images/iphone-5_03.jpg" alt=""/></p>
    <p>The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.</p>
</div>
<div id="footer">Copyright 2014 © Web design by a-loum</div>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
<h1> </h1>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</body>
</html>

Starting with this, you have errors in your CSS code.
body {
margin-top: 0px;
margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
margin-left: 0px;
color: 151515;
font-family: "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", "Myriad Pro", "DejaVu Sans Condensed", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
background-color: EFF5F8;
body {
margin:0;
color: #151515;
font-family: "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", "Myriad Pro", "DejaVu Sans Condensed", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
background-color: #EFF5F8;
font-size: 100%;
Related links:
Windows Chrome, why do my fonts look so bad? - Lee Green
css3 - Bad font rendering Chrome - Stack Overflow
Nancy O.

Chinese characters copying incorrectly when saving pdfs with Preview

So this is a very strange problem. When I save a .pdf that I have annotated in Preview, it saves fine and everything continues to display correctly. However, if I then try to copy Chinese characters from the pdf, it pastes gibberish. F'rex:
灿烂辉煌 becomes "3456"
and
遇到的问题 becomes " !"
Does anyone know what is going on and how to deal with it?

The strange part is that initially the Chinese characters copy fine. It's only after I save the .pdf that copying goes all wonky.
I think there is a bug related to annotation.
Is there any way to control what encoding Preview uses when saving?
No. PDF is the worst possible format to use for any kind of editing.
Have you tried Adobe Reader? Or Skim?
http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/
Preview is not always the best option.

When I print a Word document to a shared printer, print preview looks fine but the printed page has too much blank space at the top and doesn't print the bottom few lines.

When I print a Word for Mac document to a shared printer (that is connected to my iMac) from my Macbook Pro, print preview looks fine but the printed page has too much blank space at the top and doesn't print the bottom few lines. I have tried to adjust the margins and the page setup settings but to no avail. It used to print fine until recently. Is there a way to fix it so that the printer prints what print preview shows?

I should add that when I e-mail this document to myself and print it directky from the iMac, it prints fine.

What is Preview?

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