Hi Paul and Jon, Preview is supposed to do a number of image conversions. You open a file in one supported format, then you use the "Save as" option (Command-Shift-S) from the File menu. Under the dialog menu you can change the pop up menu button to the new format that you want. The problem is that it is not really a full up graphics handler, so I imagine that if you tried to put it through multiple conversions and lost track of the file selections you could hang Preview if you reran a conversion.
The better way to run through multiple files would probably be to use an Automator workflow, because then you only need to select the files to be converted in FInder and run the Automator action. I just checked, and there is a "Change Type of Images" action in Automator. Will write more later. The other program that I have used is ImageMagick (from linux command line with a Terminal command like "convert file.jpg file.png"). There is a version for the Mac. I'll look up the status and report back. Cheers, Esther On Sep 2, 2011, at 12:28, Jon Cohn wrote: > There is a program called graphics converter that might help in your > situation. Also, I believe that Quicktime is probably the underlying > framework that preview uses for conversions. > > JOnathan > > On Sep 2, 2011, at 6:17 PM, Paul Hopewell wrote: > >> Hi Esther, >> Many thanks for your reply. >> >> I was using Preview to convert a JPEG file to a PNG file. I created a >> duplicate of the JPEG file and then did a save of that duplicate after >> setting the file type to PNG. All this is on my normal Lion hard disk. The >> process had worked for several files but I had not been very good at >> deleting old files so quite a few were still left around. The files which >> won't save are the PNG versions of two files which do not exist anywhere >> other than as working files in Preview. >> >> I have indeed tried re-booting and clearing caches which did allow me to >> reduce my 10 open files to just 2 open files so that is progress. >> >> It is getting late now but I will try your idea of rebooting in safe mode. >> >> I do have Onyx and Cocktail - would they help at all? >> >> I am away tomorrow so more work on this will have to wait until Sunday. I >> will keep you posted on how it goes.... >> >> Many thanks. >> >> Paul Hopewell >> On 2 Sep 2011, at 22:54, Esther wrote: >> >>> Hi Paul, >>> >>> This one is a puzzler, but it sounds as though you might be using Preview >>> to make changes in a graphics file using the Tools menu. Alternatively, >>> could you be opening a file that is corrupted, or not really a supported >>> file type? If the file is on an external volume that is not writable, make >>> sure that you leave any windows that point there. (For example, on an >>> externally mounted hard drive, I sometimes navigate down to a directory in >>> a Terminal window.) >>> >>> What happens if you force quit the app, and then go to the affected file(s) >>> in question and select it to open by default in some other app, like Skim? >>> Can you check with the Activity Monitor that Preview is not running at all >>> after you force quit? >>> >>> I assume that you tried restarting your machine and also clearing out >>> caches? I've found that in some instances I can fix problems by booting >>> into Safe Mode, which moves problem caches, including font caches that can >>> be a problem for Preview, into the Trash. I believe that Martin McCormick >>> has used this, and also reported that he was able to log into the machine >>> via SSH past a certain point. >>> >>> The problem with safe mode boot is that audio is disabled, so you can't run >>> VoiceOver. However, I've been able to fix some problems by just booting >>> into Safe Mode, and then restarting my machine after I've done this, >>> without having to actually access the system under Safe Mode. You hold >>> down the Shift key when the system boots up, and the boot process takes >>> longer to do than usual, because a directory check of the startup volume is >>> forced as part of the process. >>> >>> Here's the Apple Document about booting Mac OS X into Safe Mode: >>> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455 >>> >>> A google check indicates that Safe Mode should still work under Lion. >>> Sorry not to have more thoughts about this. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Esther >>> >>> On Sep 2, 2011, at 11:16, Paul Hopewell wrote: >>> >>>> Hello, >>>> I am running Mac OS 10.7.1 and am stuck in a hang/loop in Preview. >>>> >>>> Whenever I try to exit Preview or close a Preview window I have a dialogue >>>> asking if I want to save the changes to file x. Whatever I choose (don't >>>> save, cancel, save) I cannot get out of this loop. I have to force quit >>>> Preview. >>>> >>>> If I select the window chooser wile Preview is the active window I see >>>> some 10 windows related to different unsaved Preview documents. Whichever >>>> one I choose I still cannot exit Preview. >>>> >>>> If I look at the Preview Windows menu I see that two windows are checked >>>> for display. That is probably a bug and may be the cause of my problems. >>>> If I try to look at the Preview preferences I go back to the save dialogue >>>> and again have to force quit Preview. >>>> >>>> SO how can I recover from this situation and make Preview usable again? I >>>> tried deleting all the Preview preferences in the LIbrary folder but that >>>> did not help. I have time machine and SuperDuper! backups but I don't want >>>> to reset my entire system to some earlier time before the above problem >>>> arose. I just want to reset Preview to an earlier time. >>>> >>>> I would appreciate any suggestions as to what I should do. >>>> >>>> Many thanks. >>>> >>>> Paul Hopewell >>> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
