I like to read PDFs on iPad (manuals, articles etc.). For some reason, unlike on macOS Preview, the thumbnail side is shown permanently. This seems to me a SERIOUS design flaw: it deprives the user of control over the presentation, wastes precious screen space, and, most importantly, RANDOMLY – which I think is the worst quality of a design – reduces focus without ANY gain (the thumbnails could show up by tipping the screen, just as all other additional controls are and/or show up when scrolling). Did I do something wrong or is there really no way to hide it?

I find that I generally cannot remove files on my main (hfs) external drive via Preview. I can remove them via a Finder window, and I can remove then from Terminal, just not Preview! If they're on my main drive (the internal SSD on my Mac Mini), I can remove them via Preview without any problem. Here's the directories (and security flags) for one file in question (foo.jpg): ls -l -d / /Volumes/ss /Volumes/ss/pics /Volumes/ss/pics/misc drwxr-xr-x 20 root wheel 640 Oct 12 2022 / drwxrwxr-x+ 97 root wheel 3366 Jul 26 22:49 /Volumes/ss drwxrwxr-x 33 sieler staff 1122 Jul 27 21:17 /Volumes/ss/pics drwxrwxr-x 13 sieler staff 442 Jul 27 21:24 /Volumes/ss/pics/misc -rw-r--r-- 1 sieler staff 3035137 Jul 19 12:40 foo.jpg Attempts to remove via Previe (e.g., right-click, select 'Move to Trash'; or left click and hit command-backspace) get a popup: You do not have permission to move the file "foo.jpg" to the trash. What's wrong with Preview? (And, can I fix it?) My external drive is: macOS Extended (Journaled) I'm on Monterey (12.6.1) *** **Update**: Oddly, Preview will let me rotate them and save them back in place, which effectively removes (and recreates) them, so it *has* access! And, since I can Finder-remove, or Terminal/rm-remove, I clearly have the rights to remove the file (and to access the .Trash folder). (Yes, the vast majority of other files on the drive are Preview removable.)

How do i stop this smoothing option from occuring automatically after every free hand sketch because i have to continuously remove the smoothing after every line drawn. Thanks in advance.

When I search in Preview using cmd+F, I am redirected to the first page of the document. However, many times I am just trying to find the nearest appearance of a word inside the page I am reading. Is there a way to go around this?

I have a protected PDF file, in which I cannot highlight text using Preview and which I cannot print without a password. > I do know a password, but I cannot understand how to remove it from the document. I can click **File** > **Enter Password** and then **Unlock as Owner**, but the next time I open the document, it will be required to type the password again. How to do this? > Just in case, I know about options like using qpdf, but since I do know the password, I would prefer to not use third-party tools.

It seems that making edits, annotations, or even just opening and saving a PDF file in Preview will cause a significant increase in file size. I've noticed that for some books I've scanned this also happens to improve page rendering time. Can anyone shed some light as to what is going on to cause these changes? I am interested in synching annotations of PDF ebooks between Preview and the iPad (maybe GoodReader) but this may be too impractical with large PDF files.

I read a book, while reading it, I highlighted some parts of the text. Now, in the side bar, when I choose the highlights and notes option, I see the highlights shown in random order, i.e the highlights are not in the same order as the pages. I would like all highlights in page x to come before page y, if x < y. How to do this?

When reading PDF documents in Preview, I frequently find it convenient to resize the PDF to the width of the Preview window using {⌘9}, and then move to the next page using the right arrow key. However, on more recent OS X versions, the default document width when using Fit to Page {⌘9} is slightly wider than the width of the Preview window, and thus the right arrow key subsequently functions as a horizontal scroll command rather than a next page command. The workaround I use now is to first zoom to fit {⌘9} and then zoom out once {⌘-}. I can then move to the next page using {⌘→}. Has anyone else noticed this issue and/or found a solution?

I experienced a behaviour I've never seen before when opening, editing and saving a PDF today. As soon as save the PDF with Preview the file will be password protected, and I cannot open it again. I've tested this on multiple files, but it seems to only affect files that have an "administrator password" set. Test files from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency: https://www.forsakringskassan.se/wps/wcm/connect/b581c10a-8782-4c84-8448-4a469b85422b/fk7457-004-f-002.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=&CACHE=NONE&CONTENTCACHE=NONE https://www.forsakringskassan.se/wps/wcm/connect/def06bb9-268f-47bd-a99d-2aa3dd75f855/fk7804-004-f-001.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID= Is this behaviour somehow by design? I've never seen it before, and at first I suspected that some kind of malware caused this. But now I'm not so sure anymore. I'm using macOS Monterey 12.2.

Is there a way to force Preview.app to automatically update the window when the mtime on the file changes? Maybe some AppleScript? I'm finding I need to click focus Preview.app window in order for an update to the file to appear. I found a similar, yet different question on this. The use case is editing Tex/Latex files where a PDF is generated. I was to automatically view the changes in Preview.app. Right now, I see the only alternatives are the Skim app or using X-Windows, Mac Ports with the gv --watch file.ps app to monitor a postscript document. Another alternative is to use a third party application that causes focus when mouse hovers the window, however this requires moving the mouse as well, so not a great solution.

I am trying with both a PDF and/or a PNG file, but this does not seem possible. Nothing I am trying works. Is it possible to take a screenshot natively in macOS, then highlight a portion of said screenshot? If so, how can this be done exactly? To be clear, I want to just use native tools that are built-in to macOS, so **Preview** in this case.

I used to invert colors on an image using the Mac OS Preview app as described, for example, here or here using "Tools > Adjust Color window, then switching the position of the Black point and White point sliders in the Adjust Colors panel" But in Mac OS 15 this is no longer working for me. The Preview App will no longer allow me to move the Black point slider past the White point slider, as shown in this screen recording:

I have a PNG that I want to add additional content to. For this I need to increase the canvas size of the image: Just make the image larger, but without scaling the existing contents (which the Adjust Size tool seems to insist on doing). How can I do this?

I not too familiar with Automator for Mac. I am trying to create a quick action to combine several images in a single PDF file and reduce its size with a quartz filter. The actions does indeed create the pdf but it does not reduce its file size. This is what I did: If I create two separate quick actions (one to create the pdf from images and another one to reduce the size of a pdf file) and apply them sequentially they work correctly. But not combined into a single action. What am I doing wrong?

Freehand Preview Pen Missing **Context:** Essentially preview has two pens - the shape pen, if you will, one which has automatic shape detection and will smooth out your shapes and lines after you draw them, and the freehandpen, one which is freehand, and can vary in thickness depending on the pressure applied to a (force) trackpad. Why do we use the freehand pen? Well, put simply, personally I find that often the shape detection on the shape pen can get in the way of drawing what you intended, and at some point the frustration of having to switch back to the original drawing in the tab that appears on the top right can be annoying and makes you use the freehand. **Question:** A few hours ago the freehand tool disappeared. Yesterday I was using it fine, now it is gone. I've also noticed (though I'm not sure if its always been there) that there is now an ability to make a note on the doc. You can see the disappearance of the pen below (on a PDF doc): _____ Is this indicative of some preview update which has removed the freehand pen? How can I get the freehand pen back?

I added some signatures in Apple Preview. How can I change the order of the signatures? Rearranging via drag & drop is not working.

In Mountain Lion's Preview.app the toolbar was changed quite drastically. While I can see why they did it, I found that it misses the Hand tool that one can use to move enlarged documents around with the mouse. How to get it back?

I prefer to read books in PDF format (and not in ePUB). For this, I use Preview, and of course I use bookmarks (menu bar > Tools > Add Bookmark, or Command-D). The problem is that some books doesn't allow to add bookmarks to their beginning or end. For example, the book I'm reading currently is "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, 1972 edition, digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation: . (Can be downloaded, for testing purposes, here: .) If I add a bookmark to a "regular" page, e.g., page 100, the bookmark is added successfully: But if I try to add a bookmark to a "not so regular" page, e.g., page V, with the table of contents, the bookmark is added to the cover instead: Is it possible to prevent this from happening? What I have already tried is "Menu bar" > "File" > "Export" > "Format": "PDF" > "Create PDF/A" and/or "Embed Text".

[x] Create PDF/A
[ ] Create Linerized PDF
[ ] Embed Text

[x] Create PDF/A
[ ] Create Linerized PDF
[x] Embed Text

[ ] Create PDF/A
[ ] Create Linerized PDF
[x] Embed Text

If using "Embed Text" only, everything is the same. If using "Create PDF/A", the bookmarks are added successfully but are displayed in the side bar as periods (...... .... ....). I don't want to use a different PDF viewer (Preview is fine for me), but I'm OK with the idea to use some utility to adjust PDF as a middle step. But which one and how?

I just upgraded to macOS Ventura and now the Preview.app doesn't seem to have a Print Quality option or a Color vs Black & White option when I'm printing from Preview. The only weird thing I notice in the Print dialog (shown below) is that it says my HP OfficeJet is using a Laser Printer driver. I've tried removing and reinstalling the printer a couple of times and it ends up the same way each time. Mac Studio 2022, Ventura 13.0.1 HP OfficeJet Pro 9020 Series The file I'm trying to print is inherently black and white, so I thought that might be part of the problem. So I opened a color image in Preview.app and tried to print it. It turns it into black and white in the print preview and doesn't offer me the Quality or Color vs Black/White either: Any idea where it is or why the Print Quality and Color/Black&White might be missing?

Is this actually possible? I’ve tried long pressing on the page counter, looking in all the menus and typing page numbers into the search box… On an iPhone using iOS 17, if the iPhone and iPad apps aren’t the same. **UPDATE:** Is possible in *Books* app (using search icon), suspect impossible in standard PDF view.