Did you know that Apple makes a powerful image editing and PDF manipulation app? And bundles it for free with every Mac? That’s right, I’m talking about Preview, the unassuming Clark Kent of your Mac’s bundled utilities.
In Take Control of Preview, Josh Centers and Adam Engst reveal Preview’s hidden superpowers. Read this book and you’ll learn dozens of techniques for importing, viewing, editing, and converting images that you can use right away. It also puts you in control of reading, annotating, manipulating, and encrypting PDFs.
For instance, did you know that you can import photos directly from a camera into Preview? Or that Preview can create PDFs from your scanner? Take Control of Preview has step-by-step instructions, complete with explanations of the scanning options and recommendations for the best results. We also teach you all about Preview’s surprisingly capable collection of image-editing tools. You’ll soon be editing imported photos by tweaking the exposure, color saturation, sharpness, and more. You can even mark up your images and PDFs with circles, arrows, and text captions, plus numerous other shapes–try that in Photos! Your holiday cards, Facebook feed, Web site, and more will never be the same.
You know you can read PDFs in Preview — PDF is still the most popular format for Take Control books — but are you using the best view? For instance, have you tried a two-page, full-screen mode with the table of contents showing in the sidebar? We explain how to get that view, along with other ways to make reading PDFs as fluid as possible.
Since so many paper forms now come in PDF, Take Control of Preview also shows you how to fill out PDF-based forms, complete with quick insertion of your signature. Those who read digital textbooks or collaborate on documents will learn to annotate PDFs with highlights, notes, and bookmarks. You’ll even discover how to create PDFs from a scanner, the clipboard, and the Print dialog. Finally, if you want to protect your PDFs from prying eyes or keep people from copying your text, we explain the two types of PDF passwords and what each is good for.
We’ve packed Take Control of Preview with real-world examples from our lives and punched it up with oodles of tips. Preview may look like it’s wearing a rumpled suit and horn-rimmed glasses, but underneath that meek exterior is a super app that’s ready to fly to your rescue whenever you have graphical or PDF needs.