How to use Preview for Basic Image Editing: Crop, Rotate and Resize

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By Alexia Petrakos
eHow Contributing Writer

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use Preview for Basic Image Editing: Crop, Rotate and Resize

Preview in Mac OS X has received an injection of features with the release of Leopard (OS 10.5). Among the new features are handy photo editing capabilities. Here you'll learn to use the most often used features of photo editing programs such as cropping, rotating and resizing images.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Computer running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5)
Photos to edit

Getting Started

Step 1

Launch the Preview Application.
Step 2

Open the photo you'd like to edit by going to "File" > "Open" (or keyboard shortcut Apple Command Key-O).
Step 3

Zoom in or out of your image to view the whole thing comfortably on your screen using the plus or minus keys on Preview's toolbar.

Crop the Image

Step 1

Click "Select" on the Preview toolbar.
Step 2

Click & drag your mouse to specify the crop area. You'll see a dashed outline with gray dots on midpoints and corners.
Step 3

Cropped Image

Crop the image by selecting "Tools" from the top menu and clicking on "Crop" or use the keyboard shortcut Command-K after selecting the area to crop.

Rotate the Image

Step 1

Select "Tools" from Preview's top menu.
Step 2

Select which way you'd like to rotate the image. You can "Rotate Left" or "Rotate Right", shortcut keys Command-L & R, respectively. Preview will rotate the image left or right 90 degrees at a time.
Step 3

Or you can select "Flip Horizontally" or "Flip Vertically" to make a mirror image of the photo.

Resize the Image

Step 1

Select "Tools" from the top menu.
Step 2

Click on "Adjust Size."
Step 3

Select the "Fit Into" drop-down box to scale the image to one of the presets. These are standard web and computer presets for images. If you're uploading the images to a photo sharing site like Flickr, 800x600 will work just fine.
Step 4

If you want to manually set the measurements, select the drop-down box next to the height and width text boxes to select the type of measurement you want to work with. If you're going to print the image, inches are recommended. Otherwise use pixels for the web, or whatever you're comfortable using.
Step 5

Type in the height and/or width (or percentage if you selected "percent" in the previous step) to resize the image. If the "Scale Proportionally" checkbox is checked, you can specify either height or width and Preview will calculate the other dimension automatically.
Step 6

Type in the resolution you'd like for the image. If you're using the image for print, 300 is recommended. For the web, set this number to 72, as this will reduce the file size of the image.
Step 7

Click "OK" to apply the settings.

Save the Image

Step 1

Select File >Save As from Preview's top menu.
Step 2

Select "Where" you want the image to be saved.
Step 3

Select your file format.
Step 4

Hit the "Save" button.

Comments

bluekoi said

Flag This Comment

on 10/20/2009 THANK YOU!!!

alexiapetrakos said

on 7/7/2008 Glad I could help!

bemindful said

on 7/7/2008 I have been trying to re-size a simple line drawing for weeks. It is a pattern for decorative painting. I used to use Irfanview then switched to a Mac. I already downloaded several graphic editors that are too complicated for me to figure out. I cannot thank-you enough. You have saved me weeks of aggravation. Wonderful article!