Useful macOS defaults: Preview

2014-06-16 17:00

com.apple.Preview has a few hidden settings that change how the app handles documents and images.

After changing these, quit and reopen Preview.

Stop Preview from reopening previous files

By default, Preview reopens whatever documents you had open when you last quit. To start with a clean slate each time:

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

This uses the system-wide quit behaviour key. You can also set it globally:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

The global version affects all apps that support this feature.

Default scale for images

Set what Preview does when you open an image. By default it scales to fit the window:

defaults write com.apple.Preview PVImageScaling -int 1

Values:

0 = actual size
1 = fit to window
2 = fit width

Anti-aliasing

Turn off anti-aliasing (smooth edges) when zooming into images. This shows the actual pixels, which is useful for pixel art or design work:

defaults write com.apple.Preview PVSmoothScrolling -bool false

Show the thumbnail sidebar by default when opening PDFs:

defaults write com.apple.Preview PVPDFSidebarViewMode -int 2

Read all current Preview settings

defaults read com.apple.Preview

Notes

Preview stores some settings per document (zoom level, sidebar state). These are saved in the document's extended attributes, not in the defaults system.

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