Can Mac Preview add white borders to fit a different aspect ratio without stretching?

Asked 10/15/2016

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I need to prepare photos for display/printing at a fixed aspect ratio, but I don’t want to distort the image. Cropping isn’t always desirable; I’m happy to keep the full image and add white bands on the top/bottom or sides instead. I only have the built-in Mac Preview app available. Is there a way to do this in Preview?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

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If you look in the "Tools Menu" you'll see there's an "Adjust Size…" option. This does not do what you want, but it turns out you can use it to get what you need. You can do the following:

  1. Open your image and choose "Select All" (Cmd-A) from the "Edit" menu
  2. Choose "Copy" (Cmd-C) from the "Edit" menu
  3. Choose "New from Clipboard" (Cmd-N) from the "File" menu

At this point you have a full-sized copy of your image in a new window. Now we're going to resize the canvas to the size you need.

  1. From the "Tools" menu, choose "Adjust Size…". It should bring up a dialog box that looks like this: enter image description here
  2. Uncheck the "Scale Proportionally" check box
  3. Change either the width or hight to match your desired width or height at the new aspect ratio
  4. Click "OK"

This will stretch your image out to the aspect ratio you want. Don't Panic! We will not be using the stretched image. Next we're going to fill the entire canvas with your desired fill color.

  1. Choose "Select All" (Cmd-A) from the "Edit" menu
  2. Press the delete key, or choose "Cut" (Cmd-X) from the "Edit" menu to remove the image
  3. From the "Tools" menu, open the "Annotate" sub-menu, and choose "Rectangle" (Control-Cmd-R)
  4. This will put a red outlined rectangle onto the canvas. From the "View" menu, choose "Show Markup Toolbar" (Shift-Cmd-A). (If it says "Hide Markup Toolbar", then it's already showing.)
  5. Click on the fill color tool and choose your fill color. It should look like this:

The fill color tool

  1. You can also change the border to the same color by using the tool next to the fill color tool
  2. Resize the rectangle to cover the entire canvas

At this point you have an image that is a solid color in the shape you want. To finish:

  1. Go back to your original image, select all
  2. Copy the image onto the clipboard
  3. Switch back to the solid color image
  4. From the "Edit" menu choose "Paste" (Cmd-V)
  5. Move the pasted image to the correct location (probably the center)

enter image description here 6. Save your image with the name and format you want

Originally by user22895. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user22895

9y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Preview can resize an image, but it doesn’t directly offer a proper “canvas size” or padding tool for adding white borders while keeping the photo unchanged. One community suggestion uses Copy > New from Clipboard, then Tools > Adjust Size, but that changes image dimensions rather than truly adding blank canvas, so it risks distortion if used incorrectly.

If you must stay in Preview, there isn’t a clean built-in feature specifically for letterboxing/pillarboxing to a new aspect ratio. In practice, you’d need other software that supports canvas resizing or borders/padding.

So the short answer is: not really in Preview alone. For this task, use an editor with canvas-size controls or border tools instead of stretching the image.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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