Use Preview to create image files

Here’s a short, sweet, and potentially very useful hint for your Thursday. You may think of Preview as mainly an image viewer, and not an image creator. BUt that’s not necessarily true; Preview can actually create images, at least in one very specific situation: when you have a graphic image on the clipboard. When there’s a graphic on your clipboard, you can use Preview to quickly convert the clipboard contents into an image file.

How? It’s as easy as opening Preview and pressing Command-N.

Preview will automatically insert the contents of the clipboard, and you can then use File -> Save to save the image in a format and location of your choosing. This isn’t really hidden behavior; the File menu lists New From Clipboard instead of the usual New as the action associated with Command-N.

But I’m so ingrained into thinking “Command-N means new empty object” that I hadn’t thought to try it in Preview, which I’d always considered “just” an image viewer.

"Use Preview to create image files" Comments

Macworld's Product Guides

Make Your Dreams Come True!
	Enter for a chance to win $25,000 or your choice of other great prizes in the Dream Come True Sweepstakes brought to you by Macworld. Enter now »