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Snow Leopard Preview problem

Hi, this might be the wrong forum but I wonder if someone could shed some light on a problem I'm having.

Preview 5.0.2 refuses to open! The dock marker shows the app as open, and the menu bar shows Preview - but no files, regardless of format, will display.

In order to view any .pdf files etc, I have to either select Preview 5.0 (not default) or Quick Look.

Do I have any options other than reinstalling Snow Leopard from scratch?

Thank for your help

Paul

Macbook white, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 11, 2010 10:28 AM

Reply
9 replies

Sep 12, 2010 8:27 AM in response to Large_uk

Most of the time there's no problem with the Application itself but with the supporting files in your Home folder. Re-installing the OS will do nothing to correct that. Unless you decide to really start fresh and not migrate and user settings.

You can create a new User go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" (make it an admin acct) and test the apps in this new account, if they work the problem is isolated to your User and not systemwide.

In this case re-installing with accomplish nothing.


User uploaded file
-mj

Sep 21, 2010 12:35 AM in response to Large_uk

I have a similar problem. I can open preview, but it will not save files properly. It used to be such brilliant app for file conversion too... ...it seems to have happened since my last update. If you don't have a copy of the app that works, you're screwed. If you do have a copy of it, please find a way to post a link somewhere so those with a similar problem. Not all of us have multiple macs with similar copies of the program.
I checked for the .plist files... ...there aren't any in my user profile. None in others either. It has to be the program itself.

Sep 21, 2010 3:37 PM in response to Harley Davidson

I have narrowed my problem down to a few other possible culprits. The images I was testing were all created using another program, and they were given a CMYK profile, and then saved as JPEG. Good ole apple, hoping to maximize compatibility, uses translation to rgb using generic profiles. This works great for viewing, when you use a profile that isn't corrupted, and that isn't a proprietary profile (not widely used). If you utilize generic profiles at the start, you can change between the different profiles, but when using CMYK, you get mixed results. I'm guessing that's because CMYK is for printing purposes more than for viewing. But there seems to be no support for it being changed, translated or saved in Preview, regardless of file type. If apple could look into the problem... ...I've been able to save one or two with CMYK profiles, but when I open the new document again, it looks very different from the original. I assign the profile, wait for it to show, then save as new document; and upon opening the new document, I find that the colors are way off. I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with a translation from 32 to 64 bits. 64bit profiles hold more color values, and if a 32 bit version is used, you have a serious problem. There should be a way to clean this up. WHen I figure it out, I'll post it.

Snow Leopard Preview problem

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