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Copy Image in Safari 1.3's contextual menus
Authored by: Hal Itosis on Apr 21, '05 03:05:45PM


There is also a change in behavior with respect to the "Copy Image" item in the same contextual menu. It used to put an image on the clipboard which could be pasted in any app (equipped to deal with graphics). For example: I would frequently control-click on an image in a web page, select "Copy Image", and then paste it into (Trans-Tex Software's) Tex-Edit Plus.

Doesn't work anymore.

The result now is a (text) link, as if I had selected "Copy Link" instead. (A peek at the clipboard from the Edit menu in Finder confirms this is the case). For example: control-clicking the **Browser** graphic at the top of this page, selecting "Copy Image", and pasting into Tex-Edit Plus (4.9.1) produces the string "http://www.macosxhints.com/index.php?topic=browsers".

Now here's the interesting part. Even though the clipboard shows that same string, if we go to Apple's TextEdit and create a rich-text doc... when pasting from the clipboard the graphic appears, as if by magic. (Probably requires an internet connection for the initial paste, but I haven't tested for that yet).

Weird huh?

-HI-



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Copy Image in Safari 1.3's contextual menus
Authored by: Ganymede on Apr 22, '05 07:01:19AM

Hal,

I don't see any change in the "Copy Image" behavior. I control-click images right & left, just as I did prior to v1.3. I paste them into Photoshop, Word, Stickies, whatever. I click on the banner ad above, and get an html link, tell Finder to show the clipboard, and I see the URL, and some other textual gobbledy. Switch to photoshop, and paste the image right in. Same as it ever was. Is there something you're trying to tell us that I'm totally missing?

BTW, I've never used the app you mention...



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Copy Image in Safari 1.3's contextual menus
Authored by: Hal Itosis on Apr 22, '05 05:26:37PM
> Is there something you're trying to tell us that I'm totally missing?
Yes... only I'm not "trying" to tell you... I did tell you.

> tell Finder to show the clipboard, and I see the URL, and some other textual gobbledy.
You would normally see a graphic on the clipboard after a "Copy Image"... not a link!

> I paste them into Photoshop, Word, Stickies, whatever.
No... not "whatever". (Yes, some apps are hip to Apple's new way... not all).

>BTW, I've never used the app you mention...
And you've been using Macs how long!?!?


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Copy & Paste involves negotiation
Authored by: hayne on Apr 22, '05 08:44:15PM

When you do a Copy operation, the app that you are copying from communicates with the OS X clipboard and tells it what type of data is being copied. It does not necessarily transfer any data to the clipboard - it is possible for apps to say something like "I've got an image here and I'll give it to you when a Paste operation is done." This allows the app to modify the format of data that is transferred according to what format best suits the destination of the Paste operation. The source application can indicate that it has various types of data available. It is up to the destination application to choose which of the data it wants.

So I think what you are seeing is that a copy operation on an image in Safari is telling the clipboard that it has two pieces of data available - the image itself and the URL of that image. And thus when you paste into Tex-Edit Plus, that application seems to be choosing the URL instead of the image.

I note that while I also see the URL in Finder's "Show Clipboard", PTH Pasteboard is showing the image.

By the way, you shouldn't be surprised that most Mac users (even long time ones) haven't heard of Tex-Edit Plus. There are many text editing apps around and besides, most users don't find the need for anything beyond the Apple-supplied TextEdit or AppleWorks or MS Word.



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TextEdit behaviour
Authored by: hayne on Apr 22, '05 08:52:10PM

Further to what I said above:
After copying an image from Safari, if I open a new TextEdit window (TextEdit, not Tex-Edit Plus) then do a Paste, I get the image.
But if I change the TextEdit document to "plain text" (via the Format menu) and then do a Paste, I get the URL.



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