EPS preview in finder not working in monterey

This has been really frustrating for me as a designer. Not being able to preview vectors with the spacebar key is really an inconvenience.

francescob16445253

New Here , Jan 03, 2022

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I found this working solution on Apple forum.

I tested it and it works great. Please pay attention to copy modfied qlgenerator in Library/QuickLook, NOT in System/Library/QuickLook

1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/System/Library/QuickLook" to your desktop or any other folder you have read/write access to.
2. Open "Illustrator.qlgenerator" by right clicking it and select "Show package contents".
3. Open "Info.plist" in the "Contents" folder with a text editor.
4. Find the line "<string>com.adobe.illustrator.ai-image</string>"
5. Insert "<string>com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript</string>" below it with the same indentation and save the "Info.plist" file.
6. Copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook"

If you did everything right, you should now have .EPS previews back again. That's a workaround until apple fixes it in the System/Library, hopefully soon.

colinfromgilbert wrote:

If you're willing to share I'd love to check out that app as not being able to preview .eps files is a major pain. Thanks in advance.

I can't share it here according to the Apple Support Communities Use Agreement. You will have to track me down elsewhere on the internet.

dialabrain wrote:

So, a "valid solution" in your eyes is something no one else can have except you. Got it.

Well, no. This is a free app that I'll give to anyone who asks. The Apple Support Communities Use Agreement now forbids me from posting any link to my own software. People have to track me down outside the forums and ask for the link. Then they can post a link if they want.

Given that I was able to write said app in a few minutes, I see no reason to believe that there aren't other 3rd party apps out there that can show QuickLook previews of EPS files.

All I did was:

1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/System/Library/QuickLook" to your desktop or any other folder you have read/write access to.
2. Open "Illustrator.qlgenerator" by right clicking it and select "Show package contents".
3. Open "Info.plist" in the "Contents" folder with a text editor.
4. Find the line "<string>com.adobe.illustrator.ai-image</string>"
5. Insert "<string>com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript</string>" below it with the same indentation and save the "Info.plist" file.
6. Copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook"

The last step would be also to paste it on

Startupdisk/system/library/quicklook

or

"/Library/QuickLook" ?

Here is what worked for me:

1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/System/Library/QuickLook" to your desktop or any other folder you have read/write access to.
2. Open "Illustrator.qlgenerator" by right clicking it and select "Show package contents".
3. Open "Info.plist" in the "Contents" folder with a text editor.
4. Find the line "<string>com.adobe.illustrator.ai-image</string
5. Insert "<string>com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript</stringbelow it with the same indentation and save the "Info.plist" file.
6. Copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook"

1. /System/Library/QuickLook
2. /Library/QuickLook

There are two different locations. you can not copy it back to "system", so you have to copy it to the second path. So you don't need a back up or safe version.

please look here : https://www.thetechexplained.com/fix-missing-icon-preview-for-eps-files-in-macos-monterey/546/

dialabrain wrote:

It is?

Show-nuff.

Are you aware of any and a source?

Yes. Alas, I am forbidden from posting it. I wrote a quick-n-dirty EPS viewer with QuickLook preview. A handful of people have contacted me asking for it. I'm not allowed to post a link. It just so happened that I needed to make a couple hundred icons for my mapping software and I wanted to quickly look through some old EPS clipart. And just then, my new computer can't preview EPS files anymore. So I made a fix. I might expand it with better SVG support. That seems to be the only reliable format for vector data exchange between my various non-Adobe apps.

Not letting me copy-paste any file into "startupdisk/system/library/quicklook"

I tried overwriting the file "Illustrator.qlgenerator" still didn't work. Maybe my computer is low in memory and storage. Too much data stored on the iCloud and on my system :(

jpgs are showing preview but not stock images .eps

That's ok thanks for help :)

I am in no way an expert but I just stumbled across an easy fix on Youtube that didn't even mention this issue. It was called "How To Fix Quick Look Preview Finder issue on macOS Monterey." BUT it totally fixed ALL of EPS files right away. I just watched all of the icons show up in the finder. The gist is to open your Activity Monitor app. Do a search for quicklook (I may have only typed in quick) and I force-quit every single thing that came up. That's it. Full disclosure, I did add the modified qlgenerator file in the "Library/Quicklook" location (and it's still there) but it did not fix it for me. Maybe I had to force quit to get it to work? I don't know. But it works now. So try the Activity Monitor fix and then if it doesn't work we will know you also need the qlgenerator file. I'm not removing it now that everything is working. Hahahaha

Late to Monterey but just discovered this bug. Made the changes to a copy of Illustrator.qlgenerator>package content infos.plist outside of the System Library in Textedit but the amended file won't copy back to the original location - seems I don't have the relevant permissions our something. Just get the no entry icon. Also if I do work out how to replace should I keep a 'safe' copy off the original file somewhere?