So... why isn't Preview scriptable?

Just curious.

Apple wrote it, right?

Ask Steve :wink:

Unfortunately not all of Apple’s Apps are scriptable and even some of those that are lack a lot of features. Different camps within the organization.

Would it do any good to complain to someone?

(I guess knowing to whom would be the key)

Well I know a few of the folks on the Script side, but you would have to take it up with the folks who develop preview as it would be there job to add the AS support. Honestly though I think it would be in vain, especially with the built in support that all of the Adobe apps have I doubt Apple would spend the time working on preview.

But James, as you know (http://bbs.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=27852), Acrobat leaves a lot to be desired, in the Applescript arena.

I also often complained before about Preview not being scriptable, but now I think that there is actually no need to implement AppleScript support for it. Almost all features Preview offers can already be scripted with built-in tools on the command line or with Automator actions (combine PDF files with PDFKit, image manipulation/export with sips/Image Events, etc.). And there is an excellent free PDF viewer for the Mac, which features great AppleScript support: Skim!

Personally, I would like to see Apple to add better scripting support for Numbers, Pages and Keynote instead!

Just my 0.2 € :wink:

Martin,
Thank you very much. Will give Skim a look.