When composing an email, I want to be able to attach screenshots - and to see them as screenshots, and not as pdf files - so that I can see what the outgoing email will look like. Is there a way to do that?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Viewing Screenshots as Images - not as pdfs
Mac mini (M2, 2023)
The default format for screenshots has always been PNG. The fact it now saves as PDF for you, means you changed it at some point. There is no interface for that option and must be done through a terminal command.
Yes, 1 page PDFs used to be shown as their full image, but now they just appear as an icon.
If you want to change the format for screen shots to PNG or even JPG, you can issue the following commands in the terminal app:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
then
killall SystemUIServer
replace jpg with png if you want them in png.
The other option is to set the Screen Capture "Save To" option to Preview, that way you can save it from Preview in any format you want without being stuck with one format.
press the command+shift+5 keys to bring up the Screen Shot ribbon, then click on Options and set the "Save To" option to Preview.
The next time you take a screen shot it will open the preview app, and then you can go to the File menu, and choose either Export or Export as PDF. When you choose Export (not as PDF), you can further choose what image type you want to save it as from the "Format" drop down.
Not sure what you mean by "not as PDFs".
The mail App does not convert attachments to other formats.
If you attach an image, jpeg, png, heic, it will be attached as such and shown as such in the mail.
Unless your screenshots are saved a PDF, they should attach as whatever they are.
How are you taking these screenshots exactly?
How are you attaching them?
That wasn't very clear, was it? What I meant was as a pdf icon, so all you see is the icon and not the screenshot. Is there a way to save screenshots automatically as one of those other formats rather than as a pdf? Also, I thought there was a way to attach a 1 page pdf to an email and have it show the document rather than just the pdf icon. Is there a setting that allows that?
How are you taking these screen shots exactly?
The default Screenshot tool, will save Screenshots as PNGs, not PDFs. Press command+shift+5 to bring up the Screen Shot app.
If you are doing something else, then look for way to save the screen shot as an image instead of a PDF.
Attaching a PNG to an email in the default mail App, will show the image, and not an icon.
For PDFs, yes, a 1 page PDF, used to appear as the full page image when attached to an email in mail App. No extra settings required. But the option seems to have been removed on Sequoia.
Can't get a single page PDF to display as a full image rather than just the icon anymore.
I use command+shift+4 to take my screenshots. That brings up a circle with a plus in the middle that I can use to drag over the area I want to take a screenshot of. As soon as I release those three keys, the screenshot is automatically created in pdf format and saved to my screenshots folder. I'll have to research whether there's a way to save it to a different format.
It's helpful to know that Sequoia removed the option to have one-page pdfs appear as the full page. I thought it was something I had changed because I know that I used to just drag those one-page screenshots to the email and they would appear showing the content of the screenshot rather than a pdf file icon. Now I have to open each pdf, convert it to an image and then drag it into the email. Not as simple as it used to be.
Thanks for persisting with me and answering my questions.
Thanks again! That is really helpful information. I appreciate your time.
How can I attach screenshots to an email as images instead of PDFs?