Image viewing and Editing with Preview

There are a lot of programs that come with the Mac OS. Most applications remain undiscovered because of the few applications that get so much attention like iTunes, iMovie, Safari, Quicktime, etc. But every function requires an application and many programs are actually small parts of other programs. For instance, Quicktime is the “engine” behind iTunes. That is why it is necessary for PC users to download both applications. Quicktime is what plays the music (or video) while iTunes organizes it. This blog is about an application that does not get enough limelight. I’d like to introduce you to Preview.
Preview is a very simple application that comes with every Mac and it is used for viewing and editing images. The editing capabilities are limited- it is no Photoshop but it doesn’t cost $600 either. Not only can you view a variety of image formats, but you can also perform some basic image manipulations such as resizing, color adjustment, cropping, etc. The "Preview" application is located in your Applications folder. Once you open it, just go to the Tools menu and you’ll notice the options available to you. Preview can open a variety of image formats including EPS and AI (Adobe Illustrator) files! This is actually a rare feature among basic image editors. Preview is also the program you use for viewing PDFs. Originally developed by Adobe, the “Portable Document Format” file has become a standard in electronic distribution of documents. What is nice about this format, is that a PDF viewer is free. Adobe offers Adobe Reader which will read PDFs. But the Mac OS has a built-in application to serve the same purpose: Preview. You can even add pages to PDF files, annotate them, convert images to a different image format and more. For a program that comes free with every Mac, it is quite a powerful little program that is very under rated. I don’t think the Windows platform has an application that can be compared to Preview because Preview does a whole lot.
Incidentally, you should also be aware of the “PDF” button in every Print Dialogue window that appears when you go to print a document. Without any third party software, you can create a PDF directly from the Print Dialogue box. This is ideal for saving receipts and such. Anything that you want to keep for your records you should save as (or print to) a PDF. Not only does this allow you to save a copy for your records AND save paper, but now this document resides on your computer. It is entirely searchable. If you use Spotlight, there is a good chance that Spotlight will even be able to search the context of your document. This is incredible! All this and right out of the box with no 3rd party apps!