How to Use Preview Like a Pro in Mac OS X 10.6

Last Updated: April 30, 2018 Tested

If you are thinking of buying Photoshop or another expensive photo editing program, first consider a program built right in to your Mac. If you are buying Photoshop so you can take the background out of a photo, highlight a certain part of a document, or replace the background of a photo with another one, you needn't spend money on Photoshop. The answer is Preview. With the updates in Leopard and Snow Leopard, Preview has changed from a simple photo viewing application to a useful photo-editing tool. It's amazing all the things you can do with Preview if you know how to use it!

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:
Taking the background out of images

1
Open Preview.
2
Use Preview to open your image. Go to File>Open and choose the image you wish to open.

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3
Click the "Select" drop-down menu.
4
Choose the "Instant Alpha" button.
5
Click wherever you want to erase the background.
6
You will notice that part of your picture turns red.
7
Drag until most of your background is red.
8
When you have most of the background selected, hit the "Delete" key.
9
This won't erase all of the images background, but it should get most of it.
10
Now it comes down to personal preference on which tool to use to clean up the rest of the background.

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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:
Isolating a part of a picture

1
Drag a rectangle (or circle if that's what you want) around the area you want to keep.
2
Hit the "Invert Selection" button under the "Edit" menu.
3
Hit "Delete"

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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:
Annotating on a Picture/PDF

1
Open your picture.
2
Hit the "Annotate" button
3
Make your selections!

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Community Q&A

Question

I clicked on Annotate/Text by mistake. How do I delete the text box?

Alex

Top Answerer

You should be able to click on the text box and hit Backspace or Delete on your keyboard to remove it. If that doesn't work, hit Command-Z and it will undo your most recent change (in this case, the text box).
Question

How can I add another picture on top of the original like in Paint?

Community Answer

Copy the image that you want to paste over. Then, exit out of the image you copied and go where you want to paste it. Then paste it on.