In Preview on OS X 10.9 Mavericks, is it possible to change the color to something other than yellow, green, blue, pink, purple? I know it is possible to highlight in other colors because I did it while using Preview for the first time after upgrading to Mavericks, but now that I've changed I can't seem to change back.
I'm afraid this is not possbile anymore as Apple removed the workaround via the Fonts-Menu.
Discussed in the Apple Support Forum here :
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4145911?start=15&tstart=0
(same problem with underline colors)
and on MacRumors here :
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1658053
where they discussed what has changed since ML.
There is another workaround, which is actually a bug I think, but mah...
- Suppose you want to underline in blue. Highlight something in blue.
- Right-click on what you just highlighted, and make it underlined instead.
- Select the underline tool.
- Do cmd-z twice. This will remove the underline you just did.
- Underline what you want: it will be underlined in blue! :)
Steps 2 and 3 are actually interchangeable.
Edit: I have actually better:
- Write any text with color 1.
- Change its color to color 2.
- Select the highlight or underline tool.
- Do cmd-z. This should change the text color back to color 1. (If it is not the case, make sure the text you have written is not selected.)
- You now have the underline/highlight tool selected with the color box accessible. Select your color (even if already selected), then highlight/underline.
This was my Preview bug finding day :) Enjoy!
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I have the colour box available, but cannot reproduce being able to highlight with the selected colour at that point. Are you on 10.10.3? – Joost Apr 22 '15 at 6:59
- Select the underline option
- Underline text by selecting
- Right click on underlined text and change it to a highlight color
- Underline text again by selecting
- Right click again on underlined text and choose a different color
The new highlighted color will be a mix of the two different colors.
Sort of like mixing food coloring; for example try mixing two yellows with a pink.
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That's actually hilarious that this works You can repeat this as many times as you want until you've achieved to make your highlight the ugliest brown possible. I wish there was a way to make the colors brighter ... :( – jan Apr 14 '19 at 9:52
Unfortunately, that workaround no longer works in Yosemite. Instead, you can use this small utility to modify the color externally. http://qiita.com/cielavenir/items/eb9c24085c202d72c0ab (confirmed to be working also on Mavericks)
I'm using El Capitan. In Preview choose View-->Customize Toolbar... Select the highlight tool and add it to your tool bar. Now you can hit the dropdown arrow and choose a color for highlighting.
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2The question is about "to change the color to something other than yellow, green, blue, pink, purple". Your answer is to change the color in these predefined colors. – Hamid Rohani Jul 6 '16 at 16:32
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You are right! I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for pointing it out! – ObjCLearner Jan 21 '20 at 15:15
To change the highlight color simply right click a highlighted selection then choose another color