Apple Preview is the most underrated Mac app. Here are 7 things you didn’t know you could do with it.

Most Mac users see Apple Preview as only an app to view images, PDFs, and other documents. That’s it. If that sounds like you, you are leaving a lot on the table, because Preview has quietly grown into one of the most capable apps on macOS, and it’s available for free.

I use the app daily to edit images, markup and sign PDFs, redact information, and so much more. So let me walk you through seven things you probably didn’t know Apple Preview could handle.

You can rearrange, combine, and pull out PDF pages

If you regularly work with PDFs, this one will save you a ton of time. Preview lets you easily rearrange pages in PDFs, combine multiple PDFs into one, and even extract specific pages from a PDF.

To perform any of these actions, first you have to enable the thumbnail view. To do this, open a PDF file in Preview and go to View → Thumbnails or hit the keyboard shortcut ⌥⌘2 to reveal the sidebar. From here, you can click and drag pages to rearrange them in any order you like.

You can also drag a selected page out of the sidebar directly onto your desktop, and it will save those pages as a new PDF. No need for any extra software.

You can also drag a PDF document or pages from other PDFs inside another PDF to merge them.

Stop people from snooping on your PDFs

If you are sharing a sensitive PDF with someone and you don’t want anyone else to read it, you can lock it using Preview so only people with the correct password can open it.

To do this, open your PDF, click the info button in the toolbar, find the security lock icon under Permissions, and click the Edit button.

Now, check the box to require a password to open the document, set your password, and save the changes. You can even control what others can do without the password, like allowing them to print the file, but nothing else.

Another way to hide information is by redacting it. It permanently obscures the information so no one can read it. Note that once you save a redacted document, even you won’t be able to get the information back so ensure to create a copy of the original document before redacting it.

To redact a document, open the Markup toolbar and click on the Redact tool. Now, you can highlight any text or just select an area to redact it.

Read PDFs at night without burning your eyes

This one is a recent addition and an incredibly useful one. If you use your Mac in dark mode, Preview now has an option to match that for your PDFs. Go to View → Use Dark Appearance for PDF, and the blinding white background flips to a dark background that’s much easier on the eyes. Just keep in mind that this option only shows up when your Mac is already set to dark mode.

Remove image backgrounds without a third-party app

Preview also offers several image editing tools. Out of all the editing tools, my favorite is the one that lets me remove an image’s background. Yes, you don’t need Affinity or Photoshop to remove a background from an image.

Preview can do it. Open an image, go to Tools → Remove Background, or hit the keyboard shortcut ⌘⇧K. As you can see in the image below, Preview has done a great job of removing the background and cutting out the subject.

Open any image you just copied

Here is a little trick I use all the time. If you copy an image to your clipboard, you don’t need to paste it into a photo editing app to save it. Just open Preview and go to File → New from Clipboard or hit the keyboard shortcut ⌘N. Your copied image opens instantly, ready for you to edit, resize, or export.

Mark up screenshots and PDFs like a pro

The markup toolbar in Preview is genuinely great for quick edits. You can draw circles or rectangles to highlight something, add text, draw arrows, and even drop in your signature.

While CleanShot X handles all my screenshot annotation needs, Preview is the app I use to markup my PDFs. And if you don’t deal with dozens of screenshots every day, Preview’s built-in functionality will be more than enough for you.

Bonus tip: extract high-quality app icons

I don’t know who will need this feature, but I use it regularly, so I am sharing this as a bonus. Sometimes I need to use app icons to create images (like the one you see at the top of this article).

If you have the app already installed on your Mac, you don’t need to hunt for the icon image on the web. Just go to the Application folder in Finder, select the app, and copy it.

Now, launch Preview and use the “New from Clipboard” option, or use the ⌘N keyboard shortcut to open the app icon as an image in Preview. Now, use the ⌘S shortcut to save it to your desktop.

Apple Preview is more than just a viewer

The point is that Apple Preview is genuinely powerful, and it’s sitting right there on your Mac, completely free. Whether you are managing PDFs, editing images, or trying to keep a late-night reading session from blinding you, Preview has you covered. Give it a proper chance, and I think it will earn a permanent spot in your workflow.

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Stephan Dorsey

Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.

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Recent Reviews

Watch out, Whoop: I’d switch to Google’s new Fitbit tracker if these features are true

Whoop MG on arm — The Whoop is one of the devices that Google’s rumored screenless health tracker would compete with.

Nina Raemont/ZDNET

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

ZDNET’s key takeaways

Google is poised to unveil a Whoop dupe soon.
Steph Curry teased a screenless health band on his Instagram.
Here’s what I’d like to see from a Google fitness band.

Could Google’s latest fitness tracker return to its original, screenless Fitbit form? All signs say yes. Google has teased a screenless, Whoop-adjacent health tracker with the help of basketball star Steph Curry. A recent Instagram post from Curry shows him wearing a screenless, fabric band around his wrist, and the accompanying caption promotes “a new relationship with your health.”

There are scant confirmed details on this next device, but rumors suggest the band will be called “Fitbit Air.”

Also: I replaced my Whoop with a rival fitness band that has no monthly fees – and it’s nearly as good

Why a screenless fitness band? And why now? Google’s new device could be taking interest away from popular fitness brand Whoop. Whoop’s fitness band is on the more luxurious end of the health wearables spectrum. The company offers three subscription tiers, starting at $199, $239, and $359 annually. Google’s device, on the other hand, is rumored to be more affordable with the option to upgrade to Fitbit Premium.

Google has the opportunity to make an accessibly priced fitness band with the rumored Fitbit Air and breathe new life into its older Fitbit product lineup, which hasn’t been updated in years.

What I’m expecting

Here’s what I expect to see and what I hope Google prioritizes in this new health tracker.

Given Fitbit’s bare-bones approach to fitness tracking, I assume Google will emphasize an affordable, accessible fitness band with the Fitbit Air. Most Fitbit products cost between $130 and $230, so I’m expecting this band to be on the lower end of that price range. I’d also expect Fitbit to give users a free trial of Fitbit Premium.

Also: T-Mobile is practically giving away the Apple Watch Series 11 – here’s how to get one

A long, long, long battery life

A smartwatch with a bright screen and integrations with an accompanying smartphone consumes a lot of power. That’s why some of the best smartwatches on the market have a middling battery life of one to two days, tops.

A fitness band, on the other hand, is screenless. That makes the battery potential on this Fitbit Air double — or even triple — that of Google’s smartwatches.

Also: I use this 30-second routine to fix sluggish Samsung smartwatches – and it works every time

The Fitbit Inspire 3 has around 10 days of battery life — with a watch display. I hope the screenless Fitbit Air has at least 10 days of battery life, plus some change. Two weeks of battery life would be splendid.

In addition to usage time, I also hope that a screenless fitness tracker addresses some of the issues Fitbit Inspire users have complained about. Many Inspire users report that the device’s screen died after a year of use. They could still access data through the app, but the screen was dysfunctional. Despite being a more affordable Google health tracker, the Fitbit Air should last users for a few years without any hardware issues — or at least I hope it does.

Fitbit’s classically accurate heart rate measurements

As Google’s Performance Advisor and the athlete teasing Google’s next device, Steph Curry is sending the message that this new device, one that offers wearers “a new relationship with your health,” will be built for athletes and exercise enthusiasts. I hope this device homes in on accurate heart rate measurements and advanced sensing, as other Fitbit devices do.

Also: I walked 3,000 steps with my Apple Watch, Google Pixel, and Oura Ring – this tracker was most accurate

Like Whoop, I hope the insights the Fitbit Air provides are performance- and recovery-driven. Whoop grew in popularity for exactly this reason. Not only do Whoop users get their sleep and recovery score, but they also see, through graphs and health data illustrations, how their daily exercise exertion, strain, and sleep interact with and inform each other.

I’m assuming that Fitbit Premium, with its AI-powered health coach and revamped app design, may do a lot of the heavy lifting for sleep and recovery insights with this new product.

Also: Are AI health coach subscriptions a scam? My verdict after testing Fitbit’s for a month

But I also hope Google adds a few features on the app’s home screen that specifically target athletic strain and recovery, beyond the steps, sleep, readiness, and weekly exercise percentage already available on the Fitbit app’s main screen.

Lots of customizable, distinct bands

I hope the Fitbit Air is cheap — and the accompanying bands are even cheaper. If the rumors of affordability are true, then I’d hope Fitbit sells bands that can be worn with the device that match users’ styles and color preferences at a similarly affordable and accessible price point. Curry wears a gray-orange band in his teaser. I hope the colorways for this device are bold, patterned, and easily distinguishable from rival fitness bands.

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