I've used Preview only for many years. One thing to note, Adobe is bad about attaching adware to their apps even when you download it from them. Some of it can be pretty invasive, too. Maybe if you are a professional you might be able to deal with it. But, for most; Preview is all you need.
Preview is the unsung hero in macOS and I use it all the time, for multiple purposes, including basic image editing. Yet, I have experiences with PDF forms that would not even open in Preview and needs Acrobat Reader to be opened to fill the form. I don’t know why that is, but as Acrobat Reader is free, just have it and use it when needed. Preview is a little known jewel, and you could make several episodes documenting it.
It seems nice to me to just open pictures, PDFs, and any type of file, except HTML or CSS, unlike Windows, where you have to wait for Photos to come up & wait for Microsoft Edge to come up (PDF). However, if you download PowerToys, it’s fixed (a little) if you use Peek.
Hello Gary. Thank you very much once again for an excellent video. I can attest to the fact that you have saved me $16 a month for Adobe Acrobat for at least a year now. I started using Preview instead of Reader when I saw your first video about it. Then I cancelled the Adobe subscription. I’ve never looked back, thanks to you! (Yes, I did take some of that money and applied it to your Patreon (well worth it!). One other thing that Preview works great at is providing a print preview, just before printing. In that case, when you get to the print dialog box, at the bottom in a drop down menu, it says “open in preview” (instead of printing). By opening your document in Preview from whatever source, you get a perfect representation of what it will look like printed. After reviewing it in Preview, you can then print as usual. Thanks again!
I only use adobe when I need to use the adobe digital signatures. This is different than the preview signature images. Unfortunately my work uses it a lot.
I'm agree with all you've said. I like using Apple Preview to open and edit PDF files. But I keep Adobe Acrobat Reader, because it have one useful tool: When I need to print PDF larger then my printer size (A4/US Legal). Acrobat Reader can divide those large files into a few A4 sheets - so later I can glue them together and have 100% size.
Great video, as always, thank you! But I missed the hint, that preview is able to create multipage-pdf's. In thumbnail-mode you can easily drag other pdfs in the sidebar, which creates additional pages in the pdf.
How timely was this! I have been struggling with Adobe for sometime now. It keeps wanting me to sign up for Adobe for $19.99/mth. But I only need it for a pdf file. I had never heard of Preview app. Didn’t know it works for pdf files. I always considered asking you for help, but did not want to bother you. Thank you for doing this video. Nick
No lies detected. For 'simple' stuff like flat, black & white forms and simple docs like you've presented - where the PDF is the finished product - freeware like Preview is fine. HOWEVER an omission. If you're in the design/marketing/print business, Preview - and most freeware PDF viewers (including Adobe Reader) are woefully insufficient. These lack the rendering sophistication to *ACCURATELY* represent many of the more complex effects (like transparency) commonly used in the desktop publishing world. They also don't show overprinting, or give the ability to view color separations. For those, you need Adobe Acrobat and need to activate the Output Preview panel.
I haven't used Adobe Reader on MacOS for decades, Preview is mostly superior and Adobe Reader is a classic example of Adobe muddled design. I do have to use it on my Chromebook, despite it is clumsy for what it does. There are constant changing bugs in Preview that make certain operations harder than they should be but it does the core functions of opening and reading PDFs and editing all image formats with easy direct UI/UX. It's the least worse choice.
I have avoided Adobe like the plague for 15 or 20 years. I remember being new to Mac, figured I needed it and it completely gummed up my machine. Maybe it plays better with Mac now, but I've learned Preview is all I need.
One of the most significant issues with the preview when it comes to working with PDF files is when you want to annotate or highlight the text; all the changes will disappear even after saving. This is a weird problem that has been mentioned in many forums, but it seems there is no solution.
Signing pdf just by clicking few buttons is supercool. However you should have touched how annotation will be saved and in which cases to use which annotations best.
Interesting video once again. Preview is great. You can even add or remove pages or merge pdf documents, from the thumbnails view! A feature I use quite often. I did not know that you could change the default pdf viewer from the information pane. I always go with open-with and then select the app in Applications then check Always.
the text boxes at 2:55 are magical tools. I use them all the time to write annotations over the PDF, and as Gary says, they are a great workaround for those annoying PDF forms which don't give you spaces to fill in.
OMG I can’t thank you enough! I absolutely hate Adobe Reader and never use it on my iPad. To know that I don’t have to deal with it on my MacBook Air is truly wonderful. Thank you for posting this video.
100%!!!!!.... Thank you so much for your video. I started to walk into frustration mode until I came across your video. I can do what I need (taking notes, adding elements, etc.) with Preview. I had no idea this app existed! Oh, and I no longer have to upgrade Adobe to rotate my pdf. Preview does it for me....... for FREE! Thank you,, thank you!
In general, I don’t use many third party productivity apps on my Mac other than MS products. I used pages for a few years but found it to be a little cumbersome when having to convert to word documents. Formatting was never perfect converting from a pages doc to a word doc. However, if you create a form on word, either of a Max or Windows, can the form be exported to a PDF and retain the form field features? Can forms be made easily in pages? I am curious. Maybe you can do a video on creating forms using either MS word or pages.
Im assuming preview would be able to open PDFs that have restrictions on what you can do with them (like editing/copy-paste/printing restrictions) Would preview be able to open password protected PDFs? (Ones where you need a password to open the PDF)
As a relative newcomer to mac (25+ years on windows) I love all the built-in applications mac provides! Makes for a great user experience IMO. I work a lot with contracts and Preview offers so much - far better than the Microsoft Document Imager program I formerly used on windows. However, I had to abandon Preview because it doesn't handle "encrypted" PDF's well at all (basically PDF's that are created with any kind of limitation on changes - even resorting pages). Got to the point where any "encrypted" PDF I opened, then saved using Preview, would automatically add a user password to the document, which effectively made the document useless since no one knew the password. If anyone knows of a solution to this predicament, I warmly welcome it since I would love to uninstall Adobe Reader and use Preview exclusively! Thank you (PS: I'm on Monterey)
HI there, Some of the Preview highlights are disappearing after closing the PDF. whenever I close my pdf file after saving it, some highlights are randomly removed. Some times it happens and some time doesn't. Tried with different PDFs and Even different MacBooks but of no avail. I even tried to find solution in Apply community but there are many people with same problem and no solution. I am using Macbook M2 Air and Ventura 13.2, I faced same problem in previous version too. Please reply if there is any solution....
Preview is suddenly behaving very badly by creating copies of files for no apparent reason. Example: I open a pdf in Preview, I click to change the name, then Preview creates a copy of the file with the same original name that I tried to change. Any change I made to a pdf in Preview (simply adding a comment), causes Preview to create a copy of the file. Anyone have any suggestions on repairing this glitch?
I use preview everyday. I watch a lot of television series and need to track where I am in the series. I download the list from Wikipedia, and markup the PDF using my Apple Pencil.
Thank you thank you. I spent 1/2 hour trying to print a pdf doc that said no pages were selected. My issue was that the doc did not open in preview. I opened it in Preview and it printed!!! Yeah!
Preview can't properly display transparency in many PDFs. It is good for all those things you point out, but it is definitely NOT good for viewing many very complex PDFs.
@@macmost I work in the pre-press business. I can't share customer files, but we sometimes have to warn customers about trying to view PDF proofs (generated from an Adobe PDF workflow, as either pdf 1.3, or pdf 1.4 and higher, but for different reasons) in Preview. Basic ones are usually fine, but anything with a lot of transparency and overprinting often doesn't display properly and we end up having to, yet again, explain that they must use either Adobe Reader or Acrobat.
Adobe Reader gives me the shivers. A fake update years ago gave me an adware infection. A vector for a major pain in the ass. If you see the Update Reader box pop up, go to Force Quit and nuke it.
Gary, thanks for bringing up the topic. I use Preview except when I need to sign certain documents using a digital signature, as some EU institutions require. No way to get around this at the moment. I have noticed that when installing Adobe Reader, it automatically installs specific auxiliary programs such as Adobe Synchronizer, which automatically launches at startup. One way to prevent this is to go into System Setting > Users & Group, disable this behavior, and free up your RAM.
The lack of eIDAS signature support is a dealbreaker for me and for a lot of professionals. Also, they added PDF/A export some time back, but they never exposed it to automator, which is a bummer :/
I've been using Preview at home for basic things I do for school, but for more complicated things I need to do for school, personal research projects, and legal documents, I end up using Adobe Acrobat DC knockoffs. They enable me to add, delete, and rotate pages. Does Preview have buttons for editing in that manner? I'm just coming across your channel and videos, so I haven't seen but a couple videos so far I think.
Preview has been my go-to app for as long as I can remember. There is one very annoying feature of some websites - they won't let you open/read a PDF unless you're using Adobe (v8 or above). You'll end up with just an error message in your browser. Many Canadian government website do this to you and it is an awful pain ... because Preview otherwise works just fine for PDFs. Thanks, Gary. The stuff you deliver is very helpful and much appreciated.
@@macmost not alberta government forms. Even the dowload is just an error msg. If the form will open in the browser, sometimes you can print them to pdf. Not always.
The Preview app is for Mac. On iPad, you can view PDFs in the Files app. You can use Books as a PDF reading app. For markup you'll need a third-party app.
I CAN"T BELIEVE THIS!! This was SO easy to fix! (Adobe would not let me uninstall, nor open anything unless I got Adobe pro). You just saved me a TON of time and money. Thank-you so much!!!
the problem is pdf doesn't open in ibooks (which is named books now). so synced reading is not possible when reading a larger book/novel in pdf format. like i read a lot on my ipad but when i want to continue reading it on mac it's not possible. preview app opens the pdf from the beginning every time.
@@macmost yes I tried everything, figured out that ibooks can not open any pdf files, its only for epub format or books store. even though pdf works just fine in all of my iphones and ipads. you can give it a try on mac and you will understand, and pls let me know if you find any solution. thanks in advance.
Your videos are amazingly helpful to me. Yes, it's a fantastic application, and I exclusively use the preview feature, not any other PDF applications. However, a drawback I strongly sense is the absence of a feature to paste images. Since I'm creating a signature, I wish there was a provision to paste the company seal, which is in image format. Please let me know if there is any way to address this.
There's a weird way that works if you really want it. It involves opening the image in another window in Preview, then copying the image, then pasting the image in that same image document (on top of the image as a layer of sorts). Then selecting that image layer and copying that. Then pasting that into the PDF. You must be in markup mode for the PDF document. Not a great workflow.
Thank you for this. I have a new Macbook Air M2 2023 but my pdf files do not open in my original Adobe Acrobat intel applications. Whilst the Preview is excellent for most of my needs, I am unable to search the text in the document. Any suggestions?
What is preventing you from searching the text? Perhaps these are PDFs that contain scanned images, not text? Normal PDF documents can be easily searched.
Hi Gary, thanks for your your helpful videos! I am using Monterey also. With only a "save" button and no "save as" in Peview, how can I back up a pdf on a thumb drive, while leaving it in documents as well?
I noticed that Adobe wants to sign into an account to even use their reader now. Adobe really peeves me off. I couldn't install a LEGAL copy of Lightroom on my Mac that I bought from B&H and one of their support guys spent over an hour trying to install it and I finally got fed up with it and ended the call. The same software would install on a PC though.
I have a problem where the PDF Reader app on my MacBook Prp won't close, and force quit won't pop up, and Adobe Acrobat keeps getting recommended to me when I try to search for a solution-
Preview is just the best!! I can’t stand Adobe Reader! The fact that you can manipulate the pages in a PDF document using preview and arrange them the way you want OR the fact that you can combine several PDF documents together is just a game changer!! Just ditch ADOBE ACROBAT READER .. use preview!
do any of the mac users experience extreme lag when using adobe reader pro, i need it to edit existing texts and amend texts in pdf, scrolling a pdf is horrible. please let me know if you experience this. i am thinking of buying a new macbook pro because my current mbp is having this horrible problem. in pdf element , you cant copy text from one pdf to another pdf.
Is the problem just in this one app? Not sure what you are doing (you wouldn't edit in Reader, but Acrobat I think). But have you tried Preview instead like this video suggests if all you need is Reader?
Is there a way to create a blank signature field in Preview that will enable a client that I send the PDF to fill in the signature block with their typed name? I would like to include /s/ in the field so that it meets industry standard for e signature.
Haven't use it, but I think it does more like give you the ability to do special edits? I don't know. But if Preview does what you need, then just use Preview.
I use preview for most things BUT Adobe reader is much better if you are annotating a large documents. Preview crashes when annotating large documents (i think file size also becomes large) and co workers cannot read all these comments if they do not have a mac. So I would say Adobe reader is the best for annotating large documents, preview for anything else. n
It's so amazing to me after all these years that Preview STILL CANNOT scroll two pages in continuous view and it cannot adopt first page as a (single) cover page ahead of the two pages.
Hey Gary. Your video was a revelation... feels like 1999 again, when the 'net' was more 'innocent / less dangerous' and was populated by folks with friendly / straightforward advice about "How To'. So naturally I subscribed... and will follow up regarding Patreon. Thank you!
A thousand thank yous to you! I as going mad trying to work out how to print from A4 to A3 in Adobe Reader - but now - my new favourite app - Preview! Yay for you and for Preview.
Fantastic info! I was wondering why all of my PDFs were opening in Adobe Reader. Now I know how to change that and I want nothing to do with Adobe. Thank you!
Depends on a lot of factors. A huge document with no text (images with text on them, like a scan) would take a while on a slower Mac, I support. You can try using Adobe Reader to see if that is faster, I guess.
Only thing I cannot open in Preview is PDF Portfolio format (basically PDF index with included PDFs). Only Acrobat Reader supports it. It is quite usefull format, as you get all documents to certain software release bundled together, and you always know you have all the documents at hand and all for the same version. But Reader is slow BEHEMOTH! So there goes simple solution - I rename all those Portfolio documents to .pdfp and Reader is default application for it.
Somebody else having poor performing Preview when opening 10k+ page PDF files on MBP 13 M1? Takes forever to open.. crashes, lags and drives me crazy. Hell even using Adobe Acrobat is not the best experience. How comes cheap Windows laptop is much smoother than my MAC?
@@macmost yes viewing same file using Adobes on both platforms… windows handles that much better while having significantly worse specs. That windows laptop was $300
Could you do a video about traveling and how to keep using your iMessage? Typically I loose the ability to use my number after a couple of days (I use the e-sim)
For using iMessage while traveling, there is nothing to do. It doesn't matter where in the world you are as iMessage is an Internet-based system through Apple. It isn't like SMS text messaging which relies on your mobile carrier.
@@macmost yup correct! It’s just that with WhatsApp for example, I’m able to message others through my phone number for a pronlonged period of time whereas with iMessage it signs me out of my number and I can only use my email whereas most of my iMessage conversations are started with my number not my email so that’s where my problems lay 😕
@@johnolin WhatsApp is also Internet-based, not mobile phone based. iMessage doesn't "sign you out" of your number because it isn't using your number at all. Don't confuse Apple's iMessage system with your mobile carrier's SMS. Keep in mind that the "Messages" app on your iPhone gives you access to both systems: iMessage and your carrier's SMS. So when you put in an e-sim, you aren't connected to your carrier anymore but iMessage will still work in Messages even though SMS will not (or it will be through your new carrier with the new number).
The pdf won't even download. When I click on fellow classmates homework files to read them. I've been doing this for years, same laptop. But as of the last update it no longer works. MB Pro M1. Can't figure out how to solve.
@@macmost Haven't tried that control + click method. Never knew of it. I'll try it next. It's a pdf link on the school website to turn in work. How it's always worked was I click whoever uploaded file. It downloads at the top right corner the way Macbooks always do, and then I can open the file and read the content. It's no longer working as of my recent macbook update before the fall semester started.
Preview is probably one of the most overlooked apps on Mac! It's awesome!
I've used Preview only for many years. One thing to note, Adobe is bad about attaching adware to their apps even when you download it from them. Some of it can be pretty invasive, too. Maybe if you are a professional you might be able to deal with it. But, for most; Preview is all you need.
Preview is the unsung hero in macOS and I use it all the time, for multiple purposes, including basic image editing. Yet, I have experiences with PDF forms that would not even open in Preview and needs Acrobat Reader to be opened to fill the form. I don’t know why that is, but as Acrobat Reader is free, just have it and use it when needed. Preview is a little known jewel, and you could make several episodes documenting it.
true
It seems nice to me to just open pictures, PDFs, and any type of file, except HTML or CSS, unlike Windows, where you have to wait for Photos to come up & wait for Microsoft Edge to come up (PDF). However, if you download PowerToys, it’s fixed (a little) if you use Peek.
Hello Gary. Thank you very much once again for an excellent video. I can attest to the fact that you have saved me $16 a month for Adobe Acrobat for at least a year now. I started using Preview instead of Reader when I saw your first video about it. Then I cancelled the Adobe subscription. I’ve never looked back, thanks to you! (Yes, I did take some of that money and applied it to your Patreon (well worth it!). One other thing that Preview works great at is providing a print preview, just before printing. In that case, when you get to the print dialog box, at the bottom in a drop down menu, it says “open in preview” (instead of printing). By opening your document in Preview from whatever source, you get a perfect representation of what it will look like printed. After reviewing it in Preview, you can then print as usual. Thanks again!
Thanks for your support Howard!
I only use adobe when I need to use the adobe digital signatures. This is different than the preview signature images. Unfortunately my work uses it a lot.
I'm agree with all you've said. I like using Apple Preview to open and edit PDF files. But I keep Adobe Acrobat Reader, because it have one useful tool: When I need to print PDF larger then my printer size (A4/US Legal). Acrobat Reader can divide those large files into a few A4 sheets - so later I can glue them together and have 100% size.
Great video, as always, thank you! But I missed the hint, that preview is able to create multipage-pdf's. In thumbnail-mode you can easily drag other pdfs in the sidebar, which creates additional pages in the pdf.
Excellent video. Most people are probably not aware of preview. I wasn't.
How timely was this! I have been struggling with Adobe for sometime now. It keeps wanting me to sign up for Adobe for $19.99/mth. But I only need it for a pdf file. I had never heard of Preview app. Didn’t know it works for pdf files. I always considered asking you for help, but did not want to bother you.
Thank you for doing this video.
Nick
I accidentally deleted it and tough it was something really important I need to play on my pc with lol💀
No lies detected. For 'simple' stuff like flat, black & white forms and simple docs like you've presented - where the PDF is the finished product - freeware like Preview is fine.
HOWEVER an omission. If you're in the design/marketing/print business, Preview - and most freeware PDF viewers (including Adobe Reader) are woefully insufficient. These lack the rendering sophistication to *ACCURATELY* represent many of the more complex effects (like transparency) commonly used in the desktop publishing world. They also don't show overprinting, or give the ability to view color separations. For those, you need Adobe Acrobat and need to activate the Output Preview panel.
Thanks for this. Provides context.
I haven't used Adobe Reader on MacOS for decades, Preview is mostly superior and Adobe Reader is a classic example of Adobe muddled design. I do have to use it on my Chromebook, despite it is clumsy for what it does.
There are constant changing bugs in Preview that make certain operations harder than they should be but it does the core functions of opening and reading PDFs and editing all image formats with easy direct UI/UX. It's the least worse choice.
I have avoided Adobe like the plague for 15 or 20 years. I remember being new to Mac, figured I needed it and it completely gummed up my machine. Maybe it plays better with Mac now, but I've learned Preview is all I need.
One of the most significant issues with the preview when it comes to working with PDF files is when you want to annotate or highlight the text; all the changes will disappear even after saving. This is a weird problem that has been mentioned in many forums, but it seems there is no solution.
That shouldn't happen. The annotations should be saved. 100% for me. I'm wondering what could be different for you if you are experiencing that issue.
@@macmost I'm a big fan of native Apps on my mac but, unfortunately, haven't had a fair experience working with PDFs.
That happend to me too. If I buy adobe reader, that happen too?
Signing pdf just by clicking few buttons is supercool. However you should have touched how annotation will be saved and in which cases to use which annotations best.
Brother, this video has helped me so much. Thank you for saving my money!!
Very useful video. Adobe is sot smooth on macOS while Preview is really smooth. I've never used Preview tbh. Thanks.
Interesting video once again. Preview is great. You can even add or remove pages or merge pdf documents, from the thumbnails view! A feature I use quite often.
I did not know that you could change the default pdf viewer from the information pane. I always go with open-with and then select the app in Applications then check Always.
the text boxes at 2:55 are magical tools. I use them all the time to write annotations over the PDF, and as Gary says, they are a great workaround for those annoying PDF forms which don't give you spaces to fill in.
I can't make it small
@@ShantiDoss2000 you can. Just press command + I think
I would still have Acrobat Reader installed because there are some pdf forms especially the government type ones that are not compatible to Preview
OMG I can’t thank you enough! I absolutely hate Adobe Reader and never use it on my iPad. To know that I don’t have to deal with it on my MacBook Air is truly wonderful. Thank you for posting this video.
This was SO extremely helpful!!! Thank you for making this
100%!!!!!.... Thank you so much for your video. I started to walk into frustration mode until I came across your video. I can do what I need (taking notes, adding elements, etc.) with Preview. I had no idea this app existed! Oh, and I no longer have to upgrade Adobe to rotate my pdf. Preview does it for me....... for FREE! Thank you,, thank you!
In general, I don’t use many third party productivity apps on my Mac other than MS products. I used pages for a few years but found it to be a little cumbersome when having to convert to word documents. Formatting was never perfect converting from a pages doc to a word doc. However, if you create a form on word, either of a Max or Windows, can the form be exported to a PDF and retain the form field features? Can forms be made easily in pages? I am curious. Maybe you can do a video on creating forms using either MS word or pages.
Im assuming preview would be able to open PDFs that have restrictions on what you can do with them (like editing/copy-paste/printing restrictions)
Would preview be able to open password protected PDFs? (Ones where you need a password to open the PDF)
Yes.
I personally can’t stand Adobe products; I’ve never had Reader on a Mac since 2007. No need.
Another very useful video, have changed my default reader to preview just now
As a relative newcomer to mac (25+ years on windows) I love all the built-in applications mac provides! Makes for a great user experience IMO. I work a lot with contracts and Preview offers so much - far better than the Microsoft Document Imager program I formerly used on windows. However, I had to abandon Preview because it doesn't handle "encrypted" PDF's well at all (basically PDF's that are created with any kind of limitation on changes - even resorting pages). Got to the point where any "encrypted" PDF I opened, then saved using Preview, would automatically add a user password to the document, which effectively made the document useless since no one knew the password. If anyone knows of a solution to this predicament, I warmly welcome it since I would love to uninstall Adobe Reader and use Preview exclusively! Thank you (PS: I'm on Monterey)
Not used adobe reader for years, stopped using photoshop and switched to Pixelmator Pro, a much better product.
HI there,
Some of the Preview highlights are disappearing after closing the PDF. whenever I close my pdf file after saving it, some highlights are randomly removed. Some times it happens and some time doesn't.
Tried with different PDFs and Even different MacBooks but of no avail.
I even tried to find solution in Apply community but there are many people with same problem and no solution.
I am using Macbook M2 Air and Ventura 13.2,
I faced same problem in previous version too.
Please reply if there is any solution....
Preview is suddenly behaving very badly by creating copies of files for no apparent reason. Example: I open a pdf in Preview, I click to change the name, then Preview creates a copy of the file with the same original name that I tried to change. Any change I made to a pdf in Preview (simply adding a comment), causes Preview to create a copy of the file. Anyone have any suggestions on repairing this glitch?
I use preview everyday. I watch a lot of television series and need to track where I am in the series. I download the list from Wikipedia, and markup the PDF using my Apple Pencil.
Thank you thank you. I spent 1/2 hour trying to print a pdf doc that said no pages were selected. My issue was that the doc did not open in preview. I opened it in Preview and it printed!!! Yeah!
Preview can't properly display transparency in many PDFs. It is good for all those things you point out, but it is definitely NOT good for viewing many very complex PDFs.
I haven't run into any PDFs where I see that issue. Can you point me to a source?
I’ve also come across a pdf file that printed more clear and crisp from adobe vs preview
@@macmost I work in the pre-press business. I can't share customer files, but we sometimes have to warn customers about trying to view PDF proofs (generated from an Adobe PDF workflow, as either pdf 1.3, or pdf 1.4 and higher, but for different reasons) in Preview. Basic ones are usually fine, but anything with a lot of transparency and overprinting often doesn't display properly and we end up having to, yet again, explain that they must use either Adobe Reader or Acrobat.
Adobe Reader gives me the shivers. A fake update years ago gave me an adware infection. A vector for a major pain in the ass. If you see the Update Reader box pop up, go to Force Quit and nuke it.
Gary, thanks for bringing up the topic. I use Preview except when I need to sign certain documents using a digital signature, as some EU institutions require. No way to get around this at the moment.
I have noticed that when installing Adobe Reader, it automatically installs specific auxiliary programs such as Adobe Synchronizer, which automatically launches at startup. One way to prevent this is to go into System Setting > Users & Group, disable this behavior, and free up your RAM.
The lack of eIDAS signature support is a dealbreaker for me and for a lot of professionals. Also, they added PDF/A export some time back, but they never exposed it to automator, which is a bummer :/
Thank you Gary! I deleted Adobe and saved 1 GB of my storage.
It's the Adobe PRINT dialog that drives me crazy! However, I cannot find a way to make the system print dialog the default.
My issue is in the Adobe PDF comes with the field pre-loaded to fill out. My text comes out vertically.
I've been using Preview at home for basic things I do for school, but for more complicated things I need to do for school, personal research projects, and legal documents, I end up using Adobe Acrobat DC knockoffs. They enable me to add, delete, and rotate pages. Does Preview have buttons for editing in that manner? I'm just coming across your channel and videos, so I haven't seen but a couple videos so far I think.
Yes. You can add, remove and rotate pages in Preview too.
Preview has been my go-to app for as long as I can remember.
There is one very annoying feature of some websites - they won't let you open/read a PDF unless you're using Adobe (v8 or above). You'll end up with just an error message in your browser. Many Canadian government website do this to you and it is an awful pain ... because Preview otherwise works just fine for PDFs. Thanks, Gary. The stuff you deliver is very helpful and much appreciated.
I've never seen that. I assume you can just download the PDF and open it that way?
@@macmost You have to download it and print it to use those PDFs. Really annoying.
@@macmost not alberta government forms. Even the dowload is just an error msg. If the form will open in the browser, sometimes you can print them to pdf. Not always.
I looked through the comments and didn’t see anyone asking about this on the IPad Pro. Does it work there as well/
The Preview app is for Mac. On iPad, you can view PDFs in the Files app. You can use Books as a PDF reading app. For markup you'll need a third-party app.
Thank you for this!! New to Mac and I was not seeing the value on Preview 😊
preview is perfect. the only reason i stoped using it is that it keeps loosing annotation that i add even after saving multiple times.
Adobe created a lot of dysfunction on my MacBook. Preview works fine.
Muchas gracias, funciona perfectamente, te has ganado el like, la suscripción y todo XD
I CAN"T BELIEVE THIS!! This was SO easy to fix! (Adobe would not let me uninstall, nor open anything unless I got Adobe pro). You just saved me a TON of time and money. Thank-you so much!!!
I agree that Preview can be used for the main PDF reader, but it does haven`t the Certificate feature.
thank you, but I prefer "adobe" pdf interface vs any other for reading pdf files.
Preview is useless. I can't rearrange, OCR, or redact repeating texts with it.
My keyboard always change letter..how to make it not change always...i already switch sticky key on or off..but still change
Sorry, I don't understand.
Your vids are just blessings, thank you so much Gary.
Hello! Why is it that when I convert an image to pdf the resolution is lower?
Worldclass channel👍
wena, me salvaste estaba como loco buscando PDF para Mac, pero claro, No lo necesito. Saludos
Gary, you just got a new subscriber. Great information! Damn!
Preview is a lot smoother and faster than Adobe reader. I just hate that it opens in the left hand side of the screen
the problem is pdf doesn't open in ibooks (which is named books now). so synced reading is not possible when reading a larger book/novel in pdf format. like i read a lot on my ipad but when i want to continue reading it on mac it's not possible. preview app opens the pdf from the beginning every time.
Did you try importing it into the Books app?
@@macmost yes I tried everything, figured out that ibooks can not open any pdf files, its only for epub format or books store. even though pdf works just fine in all of my iphones and ipads. you can give it a try on mac and you will understand, and pls let me know if you find any solution. thanks in advance.
Your videos are amazingly helpful to me. Yes, it's a fantastic application, and I exclusively use the preview feature, not any other PDF applications. However, a drawback I strongly sense is the absence of a feature to paste images. Since I'm creating a signature, I wish there was a provision to paste the company seal, which is in image format. Please let me know if there is any way to address this.
There's a weird way that works if you really want it. It involves opening the image in another window in Preview, then copying the image, then pasting the image in that same image document (on top of the image as a layer of sorts). Then selecting that image layer and copying that. Then pasting that into the PDF. You must be in markup mode for the PDF document. Not a great workflow.
Thank you for this. I have a new Macbook Air M2 2023 but my pdf files do not open in my original Adobe Acrobat intel applications. Whilst the Preview is excellent for most of my needs, I am unable to search the text in the document. Any suggestions?
What is preventing you from searching the text? Perhaps these are PDFs that contain scanned images, not text? Normal PDF documents can be easily searched.
Hi Gary, thanks for your your helpful videos! I am using Monterey also. With only a "save" button and no "save as" in Peview, how can I back up a pdf on a thumb drive, while leaving it in documents as well?
Lots of ways. In the Finder drag and drop the file. Since these are different drives, the default drag-and-drop action is to make a copy.
I noticed that Adobe wants to sign into an account to even use their reader now. Adobe really peeves me off. I couldn't install a LEGAL copy of Lightroom on my Mac that I bought from B&H and one of their support guys spent over an hour trying to install it and I finally got fed up with it and ended the call. The same software would install on a PC though.
FYI and for others: You can just get Adobe Lightroom from the App Store.
Hi, How can I increase my pdf resulation on MAC?
I have a problem where the PDF Reader app on my MacBook Prp won't close, and force quit won't pop up, and Adobe Acrobat keeps getting recommended to me when I try to search for a solution-
By "PDF Reader app" what do you mean exactly? What is the name of the app?
But you still need to create PDFs in Pages or Word and export.
Preview is just the best!! I can’t stand Adobe Reader! The fact that you can manipulate the pages in a PDF document using preview and arrange them the way you want OR the fact that you can combine several PDF documents together is just a game changer!!
Just ditch ADOBE ACROBAT READER .. use preview!
do any of the mac users experience extreme lag when using adobe reader pro, i need it to edit existing texts and amend texts in pdf, scrolling a pdf is horrible. please let me know if you experience this. i am thinking of buying a new macbook pro because my current mbp is having this horrible problem.
in pdf element , you cant copy text from one pdf to another pdf.
Is the problem just in this one app? Not sure what you are doing (you wouldn't edit in Reader, but Acrobat I think). But have you tried Preview instead like this video suggests if all you need is Reader?
Is there a way to create a blank signature field in Preview that will enable a client that I send the PDF to fill in the signature block with their typed name? I would like to include /s/ in the field so that it meets industry standard for e signature.
No, not with Preview. You'd need a PDF authoring tool like Acrobat to build that.
Crap … why dis i pay for pdf expert by Readdle … be curious to hear what you think of it.
Haven't use it, but I think it does more like give you the ability to do special edits? I don't know. But if Preview does what you need, then just use Preview.
I use preview for most things BUT Adobe reader is much better if you are annotating a large documents. Preview crashes when annotating large documents (i think file size also becomes large) and co workers cannot read all these comments if they do not have a mac. So I would say Adobe reader is the best for annotating large documents, preview for anything else. n
It's so amazing to me after all these years that Preview STILL CANNOT scroll two pages in continuous view and it cannot adopt first page as a (single) cover page ahead of the two pages.
Hey Gary. Your video was a revelation... feels like 1999 again, when the 'net' was more 'innocent / less dangerous' and was populated by folks with friendly / straightforward advice about "How To'. So naturally I subscribed... and will follow up regarding Patreon. Thank you!
Preview is not on my Mac (Ventura 13.2)
I have Adobe Reader installed because come from Windows, the last version of Windows that I used was Windows XP back in 2009.
A thousand thank yous to you! I as going mad trying to work out how to print from A4 to A3 in Adobe Reader - but now - my new favourite app - Preview! Yay for you and for Preview.
Fantastic info! I was wondering why all of my PDFs were opening in Adobe Reader. Now I know how to change that and I want nothing to do with Adobe. Thank you!
Can someone explain to a novice why acrobat reader is interfering with my printing jobs?
Do I even need acrobat reader?
Not sure what it is doing based on that. But why not just uninstall it if you don't need it?
Never knew Previews could do this, Thank you so much for this video.
Yes I did restart but to no avail. When I click an image or pdf file it opens up as a folder in the sidebar under iCloud.
Sorry, I don't know what you are describing here, but it sounds very odd. You'll need to call Apple Support to get to the bottom of it.
Recently I had to use a Windows machine for a job and accessing PDFs was so clunky on Windows it was a drag! I'm glad that's over!
I wish i saw your this video earlier and save myself some money... another amazing tutorial . Thanks Gary
Thank you for the information. I didn't think I had a choice and thought I had to use Adobe Reader to read a pdf file. Learned something today.
спасибо огромное😘 , благодаря вам вернула просмотр по умолчанию.
finding text in large doc is very laggy in preview. most of the times i get beachball. any solution?
Depends on a lot of factors. A huge document with no text (images with text on them, like a scan) would take a while on a slower Mac, I support. You can try using Adobe Reader to see if that is faster, I guess.
I have a problem with the acrobatic adobe reader the drop down menu does not work do you guys have a solution
What sort of problem, exactly?
Great, Gary. I didn't know that!... Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us.
Only thing I cannot open in Preview is PDF Portfolio format (basically PDF index with included PDFs). Only Acrobat Reader supports it.
It is quite usefull format, as you get all documents to certain software release bundled together, and you always know you have all the documents at hand and all for the same version.
But Reader is slow BEHEMOTH!
So there goes simple solution - I rename all those Portfolio documents to .pdfp and Reader is default application for it.
Somebody else having poor performing Preview when opening 10k+ page PDF files on MBP 13 M1? Takes forever to open.. crashes, lags and drives me crazy. Hell even using Adobe Acrobat is not the best experience. How comes cheap Windows laptop is much smoother than my MAC?
Are you saying Windows handles the same 10,000 page PDF without a problem? Same specs?
@@macmost yes viewing same file using Adobes on both platforms… windows handles that much better while having significantly worse specs. That windows laptop was $300
Funnily enough I changed my default to Preview only last week as I was fed up with Adobe Reader and ads.
I didn’t know this!!! Thank you
I love all your videos! I’m new to my Mac so always trying to figure things out!! Thanks again!!! 🤛🏻
but can i convert any file into a pdf with Preview? just wondering.
If you are already viewing something in Preview it is either already a PDF, or it is an image. You can export an image as a PDF, yes.
Can I use preview with a pdf book cover and can I download that onto my macbook air?
Use it in what way?
Thanks man! You have just saved me so much hassle you won't be believe it.
Could you do a video about traveling and how to keep using your iMessage? Typically I loose the ability to use my number after a couple of days (I use the e-sim)
For using iMessage while traveling, there is nothing to do. It doesn't matter where in the world you are as iMessage is an Internet-based system through Apple. It isn't like SMS text messaging which relies on your mobile carrier.
@@macmost yup correct! It’s just that with WhatsApp for example, I’m able to message others through my phone number for a pronlonged period of time whereas with iMessage it signs me out of my number and I can only use my email whereas most of my iMessage conversations are started with my number not my email so that’s where my problems lay 😕
@@johnolin WhatsApp is also Internet-based, not mobile phone based. iMessage doesn't "sign you out" of your number because it isn't using your number at all. Don't confuse Apple's iMessage system with your mobile carrier's SMS. Keep in mind that the "Messages" app on your iPhone gives you access to both systems: iMessage and your carrier's SMS. So when you put in an e-sim, you aren't connected to your carrier anymore but iMessage will still work in Messages even though SMS will not (or it will be through your new carrier with the new number).
The pdf won't even download. When I click on fellow classmates homework files to read them. I've been doing this for years, same laptop. But as of the last update it no longer works. MB Pro M1. Can't figure out how to solve.
Are you clicking on a link on a web page? Have you tried Control+clicking the link and selecting Download As... ?
@@macmost Haven't tried that control + click method. Never knew of it. I'll try it next. It's a pdf link on the school website to turn in work. How it's always worked was I click whoever uploaded file. It downloads at the top right corner the way Macbooks always do, and then I can open the file and read the content. It's no longer working as of my recent macbook update before the fall semester started.
Been using Preview for some PDF to add comments, but did not know you can do much more. Thanks!!!
Thanks very much for this discovery. Words can't describe the kind of comfort and satisfaction you brought to me by this Preview on Mac Sir
Thanks again Gary for great advise.
Thanks Gary, verry usefull!
What's the "safest" way to save an edited pdf by "preview" to make futher changes impossible for example the signature?
I would go to File, Set Permissions and lock it down that way.
Great! Your vid perfectly answered my questions since buying a macbook this week!