Applescript dictionary for Preview
As markhunte said, NSAppleScriptEnabled is set to true by default in Preview's Info.plist in 10.9. So Preview has a basic AppleScript dictionary, and tell application "Preview" to properties works by default. 

In 10.8 or earlier versions of OS X you can set NSAppleScriptEnabled to true manually:

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSAppleScriptEnabled -bool true


The open and activate commands also work with applications that don't have an AppleScript dictionary.