Pasting Graphics Into PDFs in Preview

If you need to paste a graphic image, like a logo or watermark, over a PDF, it may seem like you can't do it in Preview on your Mac. But you can if you know the proper way to copy the image from another file and bring it over to the PDF.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how you can paste a graphic over a PDF using Preview on your Mac. 
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Now let's say you have a PDF file, maybe it's a business report of some kind, and you want to put a graphic on top of it like maybe a company logo or watermark or just some sort of annotation that's not included there. A special arrow or something like that. Well, at first it doesn't seem like there is anyway to do that.
 For instance, here I've got a report. I'm going to double click and it will open up in Preview. Then I've got this graphic here that's a logo. If I drag and drop it here it doesn't work. No matter where I try to drag and drop it to it won't put it there. If I double click and open it up in Preview I can see I have the image there. So let's do a Select All and then a Copy. You would think if I switched to the PDF here and Paste that I can. But it doesn't even allow me to paste there. It doesn't recognize I have anything that can be pasted in. So the obvious methods don't work. But you can still do this. You just have to know the trick.
The important thing to realize is that Preview is actually two apps in one. One is a PDF viewer and annotator and that's what we've got here in this window because we opened up a PDF. In this window we have an image and the other thing that Preview can be is an image viewer and an annotator. In this case it is a png file but could be a jpg or any other image file format types. The two really don't mix inside of Preview. But you can, kind of, use this trick to take this image here and bring it into the PDF. 
So note that this image is semi-transparent. This area here that's in gray is transparent so you just have a logo that will fall nicely on top of anything. But you could do this with a jpeg image which would just be a full box all filled in. It doesn't really matter. But if you do want transparency you have to have a transparent image like a logo watermark like I have here. Now whichever type of image you have you can Select All, like we've already done, and you can Copy. But the trick is not to switch to the PDF window yet. Instead Paste right here. When you paste notice you get a second copy of it on top of the image. If I move it around you could see I've got these little handles here. I can actually drag them and resize this. This is kind of like an object or another layer on top of the image. If you think of an app like Photoshop it will have multiple layers. You don't really see that in Preview but you kind of get it, sometimes in cases like this. 
So when I pasted the image on top of itself I actually got an object not another image. If I were to now Copy this image then I could take that copy and I can go to the PDF window and I can paste it in. It will paste in, you could see it pastes it right down here, and I can move it to where I want and I could even resize it and stick it where I want. Now I've got this image as kind of an annotation on this PDF. If I were to now Save it I would still have it there. So I'll do a Command S to save and Close. If I open it up it is still an object there. So if I want it to be permanent what I would need to do is go to File, and then Export as a PDF like that, or go to Print and then print it as a PDF and that would kind of get rid of the object and just permanently imprint it on the resulting document. 
Now if you need this graphic to be more than one page you can actually select it, do Command C, go to another page and then paste it here. Sometimes you have to click on the page to make sure it has a target. So if I click here and I do Command V to paste it does nothing. But if I click on the page, like that, now it will give it a target. You could also drag this around. Resize it. If you have a trackpad you can use two fingers and actually rotate this as well. It only works with a trackpad. So there are a variety of different things you can do. 
Now if you need to do this a lot you can make it easier to do. You can create a sample document that will hold your watermarks, logos, and other things and have them ready to go. To do that you can use any app. I'm actually going to use TextEdit just to show you how simple it can be. I'm going to create a new document in TextEdit. It is just a plain text document. I'm going to Export as PDF. It is just a blank document now. I'll call this Objects. That's going to be on the Desktop as well. Now, I can get out of TextEdit and go into this blank PDF here. If I have copied this logo, either from an existing PDF or go back to this graphic, Select All, Copy, Paste and then copy the object again. Then I can Paste it here into my blank page. I can paste other things here as well. So other watermarks, variations of logos, arrows and circles and all sorts of things. You could just fill this up with all sorts of objects that you could use in the future. 
So let's say I'm back here with this report. I want to put a logo or watermark on it. I go back to my Objects.pdf file I've got there. I can select this, Copy, go in here, click on the page, and then Paste it in. Now move it around. So if you need to do this often with the same graphics it is pretty easy to have a pdf file like this Objects.pdf around where you can get to it and then Copy and Paste from it. Of course it is always best if it's a document that you're creating, say you've done it in Pages or Word or in Design or something like that, that you actually put the graphics in place in the authoring tool that you're making it with instead of waiting until afterwards when it is already a PDF. But in some situations you're given a PDF and it is just easier to put the graphic on it rather than asking the creator of the document for the original source file. 
I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 16 Responses to “Pasting Graphics Into PDFs in Preview”

Bern Shanfield

10 months ago

Interesting, clear, useful, thank you.
Question: What, more specifically, is the "Object" created that you are pasting into the PDFs? Is "object" a class unto itself?

Gary Rosenzweig

Bern: I'm using the term descriptively. There is nothing official called an "object" here. I could have said "paste the image" or "paste the thing" or "paste the item."

Gene Martin

Neat trick! Speaking of PDF manipulations, is it possible to merge two PDFs using a Shortcut?

Gene: Maybe. There is a "Make PDF from" action. I suppose if you feed that action a list of two PDF files, maybe it would work? You'll need to experiment.

jun

awesome video! possibly, to create a blank new pdf with desired image, can we simply try to print/export as pdf? But, it seems not so good, as the whole image becomes one page in pdf without opportunity to play around with image size, orientation etc. So, your trick to create new pdf with image seems much better! Thanks again!

Louise Kienast

Interesting - I tried it and while it works, at first the pasted object began to shake uncontrollably. It eventually stopped and I could resize and place where I wanted. I have a question about the difference between object and image. Why is one called an image and the other an object?

Louise: Shake? That's odd. I can't think of why that would happen. I'm just using the word "object" to describe what is going on. The object, in this case, is an image.

Gerry Pelletier

All these years, I've been doing this the hard way – copying the PDF page to Pages, then adding the graphic on top, then print as PDF, then insert the page back into the PFD doc. Now I know the secret to better productivity. Thanks Gary. This Patreon subscription is really paying off.

Jared Rifkin

The way I've been doing it for years is to open the file.pdf in Acrobat, export it as an Image whether jpg or whatever (automatically will open in Preview). Embellish the file.jpg by doing ⌘c (the add-in), then ⌘v that onto the file.jpg and ⌘s. Then export from Preview back as file.pdf. Works for me.

Jared: Note that you are then converting the PDF to an image. If that works for your use-case then OK. But for most people they would want to keep the PDF as a PDF with the smaller file size, high resolution for text and lines, and real text in the document.

Seth Rosenblum

Perfect! Couldn't have had more perfect timing! I was just trying to do this exact thing yesterday and finally gave up. Works like a charm, Thanks Gary!

John Robinson

Excellent tip. Thank you. Wish there was a way to fully crop a pdf without buying Acrobat!

John: Sure you can. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D23uwa7s1XI

Michael de Podesta

Thank you. That's a really helpful trick for "signing" pdf documents which saves printing, signing, and then scanning. Wonderful!

Jim Goddard

This is extremely helpful. I was working on a PDF document last week and never could figure out how to add the appropriate graphics.
Thanks so much.

TimA

9 months ago

Requires Preview v 11. Doesn't work with v 10

Pasting Graphics Into PDFs in Preview

Comments: 16 Responses to “Pasting Graphics Into PDFs in Preview”

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