Preview: Down and Dirty Image Editing

· by · Games

Appleis iPhoto ships with every Mac, and it includes a nice set of image editing tools. If you need to adjust a photois colors quickly, however, and donit want to add the image to iPhoto, you can still make your changes -- just open your photo in Leopardis Preview instead.


Preview lets you view and edit images.

To adjust image colors in Preview, do this:

  • First launch Preview and open the image you want to edit.
  • Now choose Tools > Adjust Color to open the adjustment panel.

  • Previewis editing features are in the Tools menu.
  • Click Auto Levels to let Preview try to improve your image colors, or use the sliders to adjust the exposure, brightness, contrast, black and white levels, and more.
  • If you donit like the changes you made, just click Reset All.
  • Be sure to save the image when you are satisfied with your adjustments.


Preview includes basic image editing tools.

You can also change image size and resolution in Preview. Just choose Tools > Adjust size.

Preview is a handy application because it does much more than let you look at photos and PDF documents, and its built-in image editing tools make it easy to apply quick changes to graphics without having to add images to iPhoto or launch applications like Adobe Photoshop.

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Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

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