My Preview annotations are fading

Ok, found it.

I'm having a hunch here:

Open a new terminal and type in "python" and tell me what is says.

I'm guessing you don't have python installed.

Edit: Seems unlikely as it comes preinstalled with Mac.

So my last bet is that maybe you missed the "#" while copy pasting or something up there which I can't see in the screenshots. Maybe check it yourself:
When in nano (after step 4) ), you can use the arrow keys to go up and look at the first lines. The first lines should be:

#!/usr/bin/python

import re

import sys

if len(sys.argv) != 2:

print 'Wrong argument count'

exit(1)

infilename = sys.argv[1]

outfilename = infilename + ".fixed.pdf"

fpIn = open(infilename)

fpOut = open(outfilename, "w+")

Message was edited by: IceLancer

After a bit of research it seems that the error messages you get are typical for leaving out the first line "#!/usr/bin/python".

(Seems to be a common error as Windows does not need that line).

If that does not work, then I have no more clue as to what it could be.

Almost there! I didn't have python, just installed it, and tried again. I got as far as Step 9 and finally got the "wrong argument count:"

However, at Step 10, I typed in "FixHighlights Documents/First Aid for the Basic Sciences Organ Systems.pdf" and got "wrong arguments count" again. Any idea what I might have done wrong? I tried it again with "FixHighlights Users/yhaider/Documents/First Aid for the Basic Sciences Organ Systems.pdf" but same thing.

Thanks again for all this, I'd be pretty helpless otherwise.

As I don't know your exact folder structure I can only give you some hints.

1) Start with Fixhighlights ~/

The "~" automatically makes the folder structure start at your user folder, no matter where you are at. (You probably already are in your user folder, but this makes sure that your are).

2) Use tab. Tab autocompletes. So when you type "~/Doc" and then press tab, it will automatically add the "uments/". Its faster and less error prone. Though it will only do so if there aren't any other folders or files that also start with "Doc". So keep adding letters until tab works.

3) You need to direct to the folder in which your file is saved in. Here is an example of what it looked like for a file I tested:

FixHighlights ~/Documents/Uni/Info/Programmierpraktikum/uebungsblatt01/uebungsblatt01.pdf

If you are not sure about the complete file path, then find the file in Finder and just drag it into the terminal. So type "FixHighlights " and then drag the file behind that (don'f forget the space after FixHighlights). If you wanne be a bit more oldschool and type it yourself 😉 then you can see the file path by right clicking on the folder name in the header of finder.

Message was edited by: IceLancer

The problem isn't that the file isn't found the problem is that the argument count is wrong.

You need to change your command to:

FixHighlights "Documents/First Aid for the Basic Sciences Organ Systems.pdf"

Notice the double quotes? That tells the script that this is all one argument and doesn't break it up on spaces like it normally does.

Here is another easy way to do it. In preview open inspector. You can press Apple I button or under tools its the first option (Show Inspector).

In Inspector pick the last icon which is "annotation inspector" It will list all you annotations. You can sort by type. So all the highligts are together. Then Select all the highlights and just pick the color again you want them to be. This way you'll get the same exact apple colors back. Even if the higlights are totally faded inspector can still see them.

Below is a screen shot. I hope this helps.

APPLE PLEASE FIX THAT BUG SOON!

thats realy embarrassing...

I used detailed coloring with different colors. And now, the hole work form completely one week is lost!!!

What I have to do to prevent this in the future? Working in widows?

The 10.7.4 update appears to fix the problem!!! finally!! I should clarify that it fixes the problem for new annotations, if you previous annotations are faded you'll have to restore them using one of the methods mentioned previously on this thread.

Mr. qwerty24

Can you cofirm that The 10.7.4 with the Preview 5.5.2 fixed all this problem? So that i'll download new version right away. Thanks

I can confirm version 5.5.2 corrects the problem of not causing new annotations to fade. Annotations that have already faded will still have to be fixed using one of the previously mentioned methods, but they will not fade in future versions. I have been annotating heavily for the past few days and have had no problems with fading.

There is one interesting bug which causes an entire page to have like a color filter appearance. This can be remedied by going to view annotations, finding the highlight on that page and deleting it (sorry for the bad explanation, if you have this problem and need a better explanation, post here and I'll give a more clear explanation).

Thank you very much for your help.