Efficiently closing Preview after scanning multiple pages

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Level 1

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Efficiently closing Preview after scanning multiple pages

Hello,

so I'm using preview to digitize my books and magazines, and the scanning seems simple enough, it creates a pdf etc, but when I'm done, I change the name and export as PDF, great, but when I want to close the preview and start a different issue, I need to manually choose close/save for every image scanned. Is there a faster way to close preview without having to provide the system with my choice to save/delete for each individual page?

Thanks

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Scanning with preview

Posted on Jul 2, 2025 8:12 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

72,954 points

Jul 2, 2025 9:56 AM in response to R3ddvil

R3ddvil wrote:

Ive chosen to scan as PNG - is that what's going me trouble? This seems very strange for the purposes of scanning lists of documents, having to individually name each file instead of a group name for the session

Yes. To create a single pdf file directly from the scans, you need to scan as... pdf!

Once you select pdf, you will see the checkbox to save as a single document.

I don't have a scanner now, so I don't know the exact words, but as I recall, it is quite

evident: switch from png to pdf, and immediately a new checkbox will appear, with nonmistakable wording.

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Answer 2

Jul 2, 2025 8:37 AM in response to R3ddvil

Option-Command-W (⌥⌘W) will close all windows in Preview and, assuming they each have already been saved, then you can Quit the application.

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Answer 3

Jul 2, 2025 9:03 AM in response to R3ddvil

In addition to the good advice already offered by D. I. Johnson:

Are you scanning each page to a separate pdf?

Just in case you are not aware, you can check a box to make a single pdf from multiple pages scanned. Then you'd have a single multi-page pdf to close, and all the pages gathered in a single document.

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Answer 4

R3ddvil Author

Level 1

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Jul 2, 2025 9:23 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for the reply - how do I do this? The imagess are scanning as individual pages within a single "document" each titled "Untitled XX" - is there a way to batch name/save these as well? I am getting asked to name each page individually in order to close the document, even if I export it as a pdf first

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Answer 5

R3ddvil Author

Level 1

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Jul 2, 2025 9:26 AM in response to R3ddvil

Ive chosen to scan as PNG - is that what's going me trouble? This seems very strange for the purposes of scanning lists of documents, having to individually name each file instead of a group name for the session

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Answer 6

R3ddvil Author

Level 1

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Jul 2, 2025 10:25 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you again.

the magazines I’m scanning are image heavy, and I notice the quality is poorer when set to PDF, even at the same DPI. I presume this is because of compression.

However, I can drag the images (when scanned as PNG) to the desktop from the thumbnail window, but I still can’t close the file without manually choosing to delete every single image one by one. Is there a faster way to save them as individual files to avoid that step?

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Answer 7

R3ddvil Author

Level 1

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Jul 2, 2025 9:23 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

Thanks for the reply, but it seems that each page needing to be individually saved and named is my problem, even if I export to PDF first.

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