Macs have useful apps for viewing images, photos, and documents such as PDFs. The app is called “Preview.app”, but “Preview.app” is not just a browsing app. Image editing, especially cropping.
[Mac]How to crop an image with Preview.app
Many PC users choose Mac over Windows for a variety of reasons. There are many things, such as being able to program iOS, having enhanced security, being able to work with iPhones and iPads, and having a high-definition display.
Other reasons include the excellent operability and ease of checking data, the ability to use famous fonts, and the clear sound quality.
These advantages of Macs are important when editing videos, so many people choose Macs as computers for video editing. But Macs are popular computers for image editing as well as video editing.
Some Mac users who do serious image editing buy software specifically for image editing.
Of course, there are video editing software that can be used for free, but the functions are limited, so multifunctional and stable paid image editing software is often used. The problem is that paid image editing software for Mac is expensive.
Paid image editing software for Mac includes “Photo Director (6,480 yen/year)”, “Photo Shop (28,776 yen/year)”, “Lightroom (12,936 yen/year)”, “Affinity Photo (3,060 yen)”, ” Pixelmator Pro ($19.99)”, but they are all expensive.
However, even if you don’t buy expensive Mac-compatible image editing software, you can use the apps preinstalled on your Mac for basic image editing. It’s an app called “Preview.app”.
In this article, I’ll show you how to crop an image using the Mac’s Preview.app. Before introducing how to operate the Mac’s “Preview.app”, there are three preparations that I would like you to check in advance, so let’s start with that point.
・Confirm in advance
The first thing I want you to check before trimming an image with the Mac’s “Preview.app” is whether you have created and saved a backup of the image file.
If you make a mistake while trimming an image, you may not be able to return the image to its original state, so copy and save the image file. Another thing to check is whether the image file you want to crop can be opened with Preview.app.
If you can’t open the file with “Preview.app”, you can’t crop the image. Also, even if you open an image file with “Preview.app”, you will not be able to trim the image unless the toolbar required for trimming or the markup toolbar is displayed.
Actually fire up your Mac’s Preview.app and see if you can see everything you need to crop your image. There are other things to check before cropping an image with the Mac’s Preview.app. Image trimming is not possible with PDF format files.
If the image you want to edit is in PDF format, change the format from PDF to PNG before starting work. I will introduce how to convert PFG format image files to PNG format below, so please refer to it if necessary.
Click “Finder” in the Dock at the bottom of the Mac desktop screen
When the “Finder” screen appears, select and click “Applications” from the menu on the left side of the screen.All the apps installed on your Mac will be displayed on the right side of the screen, so select and click “Preview”
“Preview.app” will start up, so search for the location where you saved the PDF file from the menu on the left of the screen, and click it when you find it.Here select “Desktop”
Select and click the image of the PDF file
The image of the selected PDF file will be displayed, so after checking it, click “Open”
When the image of the selected PDF file is displayed, click “File” in the menu bar
A pull-down menu will appear, select and click “Export”
When the “Export” screen appears, click “Format”
From the pull-down menu that appears, select and click “PNG”
After confirming the settings, click “Save”
The image that has become a “PNG” file will be displayed on the desktop screen, so let’s check it
There’s one more thing I want you to check before cropping an image with the Mac’s Preview.app. It is the setting of the background color of the window of “Preview.app”.
Cropping a portion of the image will paste it into the window, but the cropped image may be confusing if the cropped image and the background do not match. By default the window background is set to gray.
Depending on the color of the image to be cropped and extracted, it may be better to select a different color for the window background color instead of gray, so change it if necessary. Let’s see how to change the background color of the “Preview.app” window.
Click “Finder” in the Dock to launch it, select “Applications” from the left menu, and select and click “Preview” from the apps displayed on the right side of the screen. When “Preview.app” is launched, click “Preview” in the menu bar
When the pull-down menu is displayed, select and click “Preferences”
When the “General” screen pops up, click “Window Background” in the menu
The “Color” screen pops up, so select the desired color by moving the “⊕” displayed in the center of the circular color with the mouse.
Click the second icon at the top of the “Color” screen to display a screen where you can adjust the brightness of the background color with a lever, so set it to the desired brightness.
Click the third icon at the top of the “Color” screen to display a screen where you can pinpoint the background color, so select the desired background color
Click the 4th icon at the top of the “Color” screen to switch to the “Spectrum” screen, so select the color you want by moving the “⊕” with the mouse.
Click on the 5th icon at the top of the “Colors” screen and you’ll be taken to the “Pencils” screen, so if you want to set the background color to a smoky pencil color, select the color you want.