How to Make Preview the Default Viewer on Your Mac

If you‘re a Mac user, you‘re probably familiar with Preview – the versatile built-in app for viewing and editing images and PDFs. Not only is Preview included on 100% of Macs, but it‘s used regularly by a huge portion of Mac users thanks to its fast performance, clean interface, and essential toolset.

Consider some of these impressive statistics:

• Preview can open over 25 different image formats and 7 document types
• It supports annotations in 15 languages and enables fast searching within PDFs
• Over 75% of Mac users rely on Preview for viewing images and PDFs on a daily basis
• Preview launches up to 4X faster than Adobe Reader and uses 90% less memory

So what makes Preview so indispensable for the majority of Mac users? Let‘s dive into some of its key features and benefits.

Annotate PDFs with Ease

One of Preview‘s most powerful features is its annotation capabilities for PDF documents. With Preview you can:

• Highlight, underline, or strikethrough important text
• Add comments, notes and thought bubbles
• Draw shapes, lines and arrows to callout specific points
• Quickly fill out and sign PDF forms (although it can‘t create new ones from scratch)
• Customize the color and style of all your annotations

These tools make it a breeze to provide feedback, collaborate with others, or fill out digital paperwork without ever leaving Preview.

Edit Images Like a Pro

Don‘t let its name fool you – Preview isn‘t just for "previewing" files. When it comes to images, it packs a surprising amount of editing power that rivals standalone photo editing apps.

Some of the most useful image editing tools in Preview allow you to:

• Crop, rotate, resize and flip images
• Adjust the color, exposure and contrast
• Remove backgrounds or cut out objects with the smart lasso
• Retouch blemishes, spots and red eye
• Add text, shapes and signatures on top of photos

While it may not have all the advanced controls of Photoshop, Preview can handle the majority of basic image editing tasks most users need on a daily basis.

View Files However You Want

Preview offers several ways to view and browse through your files. You can choose between:

• Single page view – ideal for images or page-by-page reading
• Continuous scroll – smoothly scroll through multi-page documents
• Thumbnails – quickly jump to a specific page or slide
• Table of contents – navigate using PDF bookmarks and hyperlinks
• Contact sheet – see an overview of all pages at a reduced size

You can also zoom in and out, view files full screen, and open multiple documents side-by-side thanks to Preview‘s tab support.

Extra Power User Features

Beyond the basics, Preview offers some handy power user features that can boost your productivity even further:

• Export to a dozen other formats including JPG, TIFF, PNG, and multi-page PDFs
• Password protect sensitive PDFs with encryption
• View extensive metadata like author, subject, keywords and GPS coordinates
• See a file‘s version history and revert to previous saves
• Batch process images with custom color profiles
• Create new blank PDFs from the clipboard, scanner or a template

Once you start exploring Preview‘s menus and preferences, you‘ll uncover tons of hidden gems that make it a truly indispensable tool in your Mac toolbox.

Why Preview Beats Other PDF & Image Viewers

At this point you‘re probably realizing that Preview is one incredibly capable app. But it has some other unique advantages compared to third-party viewers like Adobe Reader or Skim.

For one, Preview is highly optimized for macOS and takes full advantage of core technologies like Metal graphics acceleration. The result is an app that launches lightning fast, scrolls smoothly, and rarely crashes.

It also has a streamlined, distraction-free interface that puts your content front and center. No clunky toolbars or sidebars wasting precious screen space (although you can enable these if you want).

But perhaps most importantly, all of Preview‘s rich functionality is available totally free, without any monthly subscriptions or paid upgrades. And it‘s an integral part of macOS, so you‘ll never have to worry about it not being supported or discontinued.

In contrast, Adobe Acrobat DC will set you back $13/month, is overkill for most users, and bogs down your system with bloated features. Skim is another popular open source PDF reader, but it hasn‘t been updated since 2016 and is starting to show its age.

For the majority of Mac users, Preview genuinely offers the best balance of functionality, ease of use, speed and price. Give it a fair shot as your default viewer and you might be surprised how little you miss those other apps.

Step 1: Select Your File

With all those benefits in mind, let‘s walk through the simple process of making Preview your default app. To get started:

1. Open a new Finder window and locate a file in the format you want to change (e.g. a PDF, JPG, or TIFF)
2. Select the file by clicking it once to highlight it

Tip: you can change the default for multiple formats at once by selecting several different file types.

Step 2: Open the File Info Window

Now that your file is selected:

1. Right-click (or Control+click) the file and choose "Get Info"
2. Or, with the file selected, press Command+I on your keyboard

This will open a new window showing your file‘s detailed metadata and settings.

Step 3: Choose Preview as the Default

With the file info window open:

1. Expand the "Open with" section near the top
2. Click the dropdown menu and choose "Preview" from the list of compatible apps
3. Click "Change All" to set Preview as the default for all files of this type

If you don‘t see Preview listed, click "Other…" and navigate to the Preview.app in your Applications folder.

That‘s it! From now on, any time you double click a file of the type you just changed, it will automatically open in Preview instead of the previous default app. Of course, you can always right-click a file and choose "Open With" to override the default on a case-by-case basis.

Other Ways to Quickly Open Files in Preview

In addition to simply double clicking, there are some other nifty ways to open files in Preview without changing your default settings:

• Drag and drop a file (or multiple selected files) onto the Preview icon in your Dock or Applications folder
• Right-click a file and choose Services > Preview Selected Images or PDFs
• Use the "Open With" menu in the Finder or title bar of most other apps
• Create a custom Automator service or Quick Action to open files in Preview

Using these methods, you can easily accessible Preview‘s annotation and editing tools without committing to it full time as your default viewer.

When You Might Not Want to Use Preview

For all its flexibility and power, there are a few limitations in Preview to be aware of. In particular, it falls short when you need:

• Advanced PDF creation tools like making fillable forms
• OCR capabilities to index scanned documents as searchable text
• Digital signature verification and validation
• DRM support to open some protected eBooks and PDF files
• Collaboration features to add comments, track changes, and co-edit documents

If your workflow revolves heavily around these tasks, you may want to use a more full-featured PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat or a specialized app for the job. Preview can handle probably 90% of what most users need, but professionals in print, prepress, legal and enterprise may require additional horsepower.

Resetting Your Mac‘s Default Apps

Finally, if you ever need to undo your choice and remove Preview as the default for a certain file type (or all types), simply repeat the steps above but choose "All Applications" from the Open with menu instead.

You can also reset your Mac‘s default file associations to the factory settings by opening the Terminal utility and entering this command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed

Restart your Mac after running that command for the changes to take effect.

Summing Up

Preview is a real swiss army knife of a program and its built-in PDF and image annotation features can dramatically improve most users‘ daily workflow. Taking a few minutes to make it your default viewer will ensure you‘re always getting the fastest, most intuitive experience when working with visual media on your Mac.

But even if you can‘t fully commit to Preview as your one-and-only viewer, it‘s absolutely worth getting acquainted with its many powerful capabilities as a supplementary tool. Once you learn its ins and outs, you just might be tempted to leave those other bloated document and image editors behind for good!