New in OS X Lion: Preview [u]
Who’s a good doggy? Well, Scruffy, the American Kennel Club certified feature retriever, of course. The pooch with a purpose arrived at my door as I was pouring my first cup — Pike Place Roast from Starbucks — with fresh screen caps and descriptions of Preview, Apple’s default image and PDF viewing app that’s now so much more.
If you open a PDF in Preview 5.5, the version that ships with OS X Lion (Build 11A430e), one of the first things you’ll notice is that the Annotation tools are a permanent fixture of the toolbar (top half of above image). Therein, there’s now a Signature tool that allows the user to capture (via the integrated iSight webcam) their John Hancock, as well as store/manage signatures.
And, it actually works and Scruff says it’s easy to add a signature to a PDF document — pretty sweet.
Other additions to the PDF toolbar are buttons for the four available views — content only, thumbnails, table of contents and contact sheet. Not new functionality, but a big convenience for people that prefer the mouse over keyboard.
Better image editing tools
Preview gains several features, including full-screen support and the ability to sign a document just by holding a signed piece of paper up to the camera — Wikipedia
See also: A stacked comparison of the Lion vs Snow Leopard Preview toolbars
On the image editing front (bottom half above image), Scruff reports that in addition to the rectangular selection tool there are now elliptical, lasso, smart lasso and instant alpha tools. These are accessible via a drop down embedded in the selection tool button on Preview’s toolbar. That said, you can perform and quick n’ easy image knock out with the smart selection tool.
You can also add shapes — rectangle, oval, line, arrow, speech bubble, thought bubble — to an image quickly and easily.
Simple needs
[u] A surprising new feature in Preview 5.5 is the ability to view Microsoft Word and Excel documents. You will still need iWork, Office or an open-source suite, such as NeoOffice, to actually edit Word of Excel docs.
This is still a cool feature, especially for the many that add few or no apps to their stock Macs.
When Apple’s next-generation Mac operating system ships, iPhoto, Mail, iCal, Safari and Preview will offer fullscreen mode a la the iPad et al, which Scruffy says could stand performance optimization and general polishing, such as an easy (no two-handed Vulcan death grips please) system wide keyboard shortcut for invoking the feature.
Regarding Preview, the advantage of fullscreen is the ability to view a layout full spread without menus, tools or any background distractions, which is more like reading a document’s printed on paper counterparts. This was sort of there in the past, but not nearly as slick as this.
If your image editing and PDF needs aren’t too demanding, Scruff says Preview 5.5 could be all that you need. From my perspective, about the standout unmet need is “Save for Web” image compression…
What’s your take?
Related stories:
— Can my Mac run OS X Lion
— New in OS X Lion: QuickTime 10.1
— New in OS X Lion: TextEdit
— New in OS X Lion: About This Mac
— New in OS X Lion: Mail 5
— Mac OS X Lion icons are bigguns
Big deal; I’ve been adding signatures to .pdfs without this for ages. I’m tired of paying for small advancements of little use to me accompanied by changes that degrade my workflow, like file-app mapping that has gone completely awry since Snow Leopard. When you give the OS control of such things and take it away from the user, the OS better be smart about it. It isn’t. In fact it’s as dumb as shit and the Change All button is incapable of doing the job.
The news I’m really interested is what is Apple going to break next, like Rosetta, for example. Full screen apps are useful for small-screen iDevices. For a 27″ or 30″ screen, the feature is worthless.
veebee……. what is your problem? Got a stick somewhere? Nobody will hold a gun to you and make you pay for the system upgrade if you are fine with the old one.
I for one think you are totally wrong about the usefulness of full screen apps. They take away distractions and make for a more enjoyable experience. Why don’t you just switch to Windoz? Your high and mighty attitude is very welcome in that crowd. Sure Snow Leopard is not perfect in every way but OS X is still a work in progress. You need to take a job as a tech writer in a software company for a couple of years… (been there ..done that) …. you might gain some appreciation for the process these guys go through…. The next generation of OS X with be just the very beginning of new things to come with Apple. It’s now version 1.0 of the next generation of computers from Apple. So either enjoy your experience with Apple (be it not perfect in every every way) ….. or get off the boat.
Big deal to you…. I think the new feature coming to Preview are great !!!
Funny that veebee is interested in keeping his technology anchored in the past. Archaic file-app mapping, and unmodern software. veebee, just stay where you are. Don’t upgrade, I’m sure you can find an old computer still running System 8.5.
I find myself getting annoyed with “change” and then realize it’s the gate fee you pay to keep your inside looking younger than the outside. BTW, I’m “only” 46…
Yeah, yeah… probably been an Apple user for more time than all of you combined. Archaic file mapping worked fine. It knew what app to launch an alias document with even if the original was updated; now it forgets. It preserved set file mappings; now they get assigned to arbitrary apps according to some internal algorithm that gets it flat wrong most of the time. That’s more like Artificial Stupidity than A.I.
Full screen apps might take away distractions, as you say, but how does it help when you need to see data from more than one app at the same time? Often I need to see two of either a graphics app, coding app or 3D modelling app. No help there.
Apple has been doing weird GUI for some time, and here’s a good example: QT Movie Player’s black, floating tool pane polluting the scene whenever the mouse is over some hot zone (not to mention the degraded editing facilities). How about drop down Save File panes that hide the underlying document and can’t be moved out of the way when you need to see the document’s contents to assign an appropriate file name?
I have eight Macs in my household - six of them with a Pro suffix - but I’m no bend-over fanboy. When you take away some critical functionality you should provide a method or an option to work around it. To not do so is the height of arrogance. Progress should mean better; not worse, and certainly not change for change’s sake.
Peace out.
[...] Can my Mac run OS X Lion — New in OS X Lion: TextEdit — New in OS X Lion: About This Mac — New in OS X Lion: Preview 5.5 — Mac OS X Lion icons are [...]
[...] OS X Lion: QuickTime 10.1 — New in OS X Lion: TextEdit — New in OS X Lion: About This Mac — New in OS X Lion: Preview 5.5 — New in OS X Lion: Mail 5 — Mac OS X Lion icons are [...]
[...] OS X Lion: QuickTime 10.1 — New in OS X Lion: TextEdit — New in OS X Lion: About This Mac — New in OS X Lion: Preview 5.5 — Mac OS X Lion icons are [...]
[...] Preview 5.5: There’s now a Signature tool that allows the user to capture (via the integrated iSight webcam) their John Hancock and it works well enough. [...]
[...] OS X Lion: QuickTime 10.1 — New in OS X Lion: TextEdit — New in OS X Lion: About This Mac — New in OS X Lion: Preview 5.5 — Mac OS X Lion icons are [...]
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