Preview allows you to view a document on the screen before confirming an action.
Preview is a concept used in the field of computing to refer to the possibility of viewing a document on a computer screen before confirming a certain action . Typically, this option – also known as preview – is used when the user wants to print the document and wants to see how the information would look on paper.
It should be noted that view is a concept with different uses. In this case, we are interested in mentioning its meaning as the result of seeing (the perception of objects through the eyes) and as the disposition of something according to the sense of vision. Preliminary , for its part, is that which precedes an action or that functions as a preamble to something.
Preview example
Suppose a man who is looking for a job wants to submit his resume to several companies. To do this, he uses a word processor on his PC , details his work experience and includes a photograph of his face.
Before printing several copies of the document to put it on paper and go out to distribute it, use the preview option to see how the different elements of the document (the text, the photo, etc.) will look on the page. If the result is satisfactory, you can proceed to print the resume. However, if you do not like the result, you have the option of modifying the document before putting it on paper.
Preview can also be used in graphics editors to analyze effects or alterations that are applied to an image before committing and saving changes.
Preview helps save time on editing tasks.
Your benefits
In short, we can say that the preview helps us save time and energy , which is why it is always associated with a step prior to a process of relative complexity.
Returning to the example of word processors, printing a document can take several minutes, or even more than an hour, depending on the length, and this involves the consumption of sheets of paper, ink cartridges and electrical energy, in addition to the fact that occupy the printer during all that time ; For this reason, it is very useful to use the preview option to avoid a great waste of resources.
Preview and rendering
Although the preview is very common in the field of word processors and applications for viewing documents of various types, it is also present in more specific programs, such as those used for three-dimensional design. Regardless of the name that developers give to each function, we can say that 3D professionals have several ways to visualize their creations before taking the final step , the one that consumes the most time: rendering .
To define the concept of rendering in a few words, let's say that it is a process by which the final image is obtained, applying to the scene all the effects that the designer has included, such as lighting and shading, reflections, particle simulation , collisions and hair, among many others.
Depending on the characteristics of the computer, rendering just one image can take anywhere from a few seconds to hours; If we are talking about a movie, then the number of images increases considerably, since the normal thing is to produce 24 frames per second. Taking all this into account , it is more than convenient to preview a painting before proceeding to render it, since noticing an anomaly in this step can save us hours or days of work .
It should be noted that the preview in a 3D design program, and even in a 2D one, does not show such a faithful representation of the final result, unlike what happens when we view a text document before printing it; With this step we avoid the complex calculations that would give rise to the processed image, so we see an approximation of it .