Preview is a

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

function to display a document, page, or film before it is produced in its final form. In the case of printed material this is known as "print preview".

Content preview

Previewing allows users to see the current stage of the process before producing into a final form. Preview lets users visualize the current/final product and correct possible errors easily before finalizing the product. Preview is necessary for

markup language A markup language is a Encoding, text-encoding system which specifies the structure and formatting of a document and potentially the relationships among its parts. Markup can control the display of a document or enrich its content to facilitate au ...

editing software like

Web development Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications, ...

applications. Web development applications like

Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe Dreamweaver is a proprietary web development tool from Adobe. It was created by Macromedia in 1997 and developed by them until Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005. Adobe Dreamweaver is available for the macOS and Windows oper ...

and most

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

editors have a "preview in browser" feature. Though browsers in general produce the same results, each browser version can display

pages somewhat differently. Preview in browser lets writers check how the page will appear in multiple target browsers. Video editing applications also have a preview feature to see the current product made during the editing process.

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

's interface has two preview windows, "Viewer window" and "Canvas window". "Viewer window" lets users preview clips and decide which one to use. User can also make changes to clips in this window. "Canvas window" shows a preview of the current project's rendered product. Many interactive websites and online forums allow users to preview their content before submitting it. This is particularly useful on sites with complex markup (not

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

), where it serves as an opportunity to identify and correct errors and formatting problems before saving the content.

Print preview

Print preview is a functionality that lets users see the pages that are about to print, allowing users to see exactly how the pages will look when they are printed. By previewing what the layout will look like when printed without actually printing, users can check and fix possible errors before they begin actual printing. Most applications have a print preview feature and some applications, like

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

and

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...

, automatically open "Print Preview" when the "Print" menu is selected. This feature is useful for making sure that the layout is the way the user expects it to be before the actual printing.

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...

's Print Preview feature lets users to zoom in/out in the document or show multiple pages in one window. Graphic tools like

's Print Preview lets users position and scale the image before printing. Many web browsers also have a print preview feature so that users can preview how the website contents will be printed out on paper.

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

has a Print Preview feature to prevent accidents like printing ten pages where it ought to print one, or printing a page with an unwanted background color. In

Print Preview, one can adjust the paper size to print on, margins, and page orientation of the Web page.

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

has Print Preview built in as well.

Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

lets users preview the web page when Print is clicked. In Print, the Preview button opens the Preview application and the print preview of the web page shows up.

References

{{Reflist User interfaces