Preview Issues with Big Sur

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Level 1

12 points

Preview Issues with Big Sur

Preview is setting all my files automatically to 72dpi resolution. This is a big problem because it is resizing the images. Can someone at Apple address this problem, please?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Oct 21, 2021 8:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

67,594 points

Oct 21, 2021 11:58 AM in response to Ricardo A A

You are right, it appears that the metadata for resolution is not saved with the file.

At the moment, a possible workaround is to use another tool to set the proper metadata.

I think that the free exiftool can do it, but I have not tried, and it is a command line utility.

Pixelmator Pro can change the resolution without resampling the image. It is a great program but I would not buy it just for this (I did buy it and use it, as it is a great alternative to Photoshop, made explicitly for the mac and at a very decent price).

There are probably other programs that can do the same. Here's hoping that this has been fixed in the upcoming Monterey.

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Answer 2

Oct 21, 2021 8:38 AM in response to Ricardo A A

Ricardo A A wrote:

Preview is setting all my files automatically to 72dpi resolution. This is a big problem because it is resizing the images. Can someone at Apple address this problem, please?

See if there is anything here—

Preview default resolution jpg is 72 ppi in Big Sur

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252716723

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Answer 3

Ricardo A A Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 21, 2021 10:58 AM in response to Ricardo A A

I agree. The information is there.

I think the problem is with the metadata created by the (new) Preview app.

But if I'm required to upload a file to a system that requires a minimum dpi, I just can't do it.

As an example, here is the metadata for a file I created a few years ago (before updating to Big Sur)

And, here is the metadata info for a jpeg file I created a few minutes ago:

The file resolution is not included in the metadata.

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Answer 4

Ricardo A A Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 21, 2021 8:49 AM in response to Ricardo A A

Not really. Before updating to Big Sur my method was the following: Open pdf file with preview; select the area that I want to export as jpeg; Copy; Paste new from Clipboard; Save as JPeg with the resolution I wanted.

Now, whatever resolution I select, the jpeg file is being saved with 72dpi. This decreases the final quality of the jpeg by a lot!

I am convinced this is a major bug on the Preview app in combination with Bis Sur OS.

Before I was using OS Mojave and everything worked fine.

This is killing my workflow and I am also having complaints from my Customers that are receiving my jpeg files.

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Answer 5

Oct 21, 2021 10:30 AM in response to Ricardo A A

I tried this.

I selected an area of a pdf; Copy; New from Clipboard.

Then I saved it as JPEG with 300dpi. The file came out as 433KB and 2193x930 pixels

I did New from Clipboard again, and then saved it as JPEG with 72dpi. This one came out at 51KB and 525x223 pixels.

So it seems to produce the right amount of pixels. It is just that the metadata says 72dpi (and that is wrong), but the extra pixels are there. Note that dpi only really matters for printing.

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Preview Issues with Big Sur

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