User profile for user: ginamacs
ginamacs Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

No icon preview for eps-files in Ventura

No icon preview for eps-files in Ventura: Here's what to do.


  1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from “Macintosh HD/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. Drag the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" into "Macintosh HD/Library/QuickLook" folder. Don't freak out if the folder is empty.


NOTE: Pay attention to the above words in Bold. I kept trying to paste the copy back into “Macintosh HD/System/Library/QuickLook" and of course, you can't do that.


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.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 30, 2022 8:08 AM

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User profile for user: James Brickley
James Brickley
User level: Level 5
5,686 points

Posted on Nov 30, 2022 9:31 AM

Thanks for the workaround, though I think the removal of PostScript / EPS support in Preview was intentional. This adds it back to QuickLook for those who work extensively with PostScript / EPS files. The file type likely associated with an Adobe or Affinity or other Postscript capable software. 3rd Party apps can utilize the Apple Developer API's to add their own QuickLook proprietary file format support (see Apple's developer site).


To add a tiny bit of information and alternative method, if you happen to have Xcode installed, it includes a GUI Plist editor and double-clicking the Info.plist will open in the Xcode Plist editor. It is a bit less dangerous than making a typo on the XML Info.plist file. Expand the tree branches to reach 'Document Content Type Identifiers' and right-click it to Add Row which creates the 'Item 1' row. Double-click the value of 'Item 1' and paste 'com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript' (without the single quotes).


It looks like this:



Once you have the 'Illustrator.qlgenerator' Quicklook item with the modified Info.plist you can back it up somewhere and restore it on additional Macs in future. Share with friends, colleagues, SysAdmins could package and deploy to their designers, etc.


In Finder, Shift+Command+G [⇧⌘G] to Go to Folder. Typing partial names and pressing TAB to autocomplete.


  • /System/Library/Quicklook - Apple System is Read-Only and cannot be modified
  • /Library/QuickLook - All users (requires local admin rights)
  • ~/Library/QuickLook - Current user (no admin rights required)





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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: James Brickley
James Brickley
User level: Level 5
5,686 points

Nov 30, 2022 9:31 AM in response to ginamacs

Thanks for the workaround, though I think the removal of PostScript / EPS support in Preview was intentional. This adds it back to QuickLook for those who work extensively with PostScript / EPS files. The file type likely associated with an Adobe or Affinity or other Postscript capable software. 3rd Party apps can utilize the Apple Developer API's to add their own QuickLook proprietary file format support (see Apple's developer site).


To add a tiny bit of information and alternative method, if you happen to have Xcode installed, it includes a GUI Plist editor and double-clicking the Info.plist will open in the Xcode Plist editor. It is a bit less dangerous than making a typo on the XML Info.plist file. Expand the tree branches to reach 'Document Content Type Identifiers' and right-click it to Add Row which creates the 'Item 1' row. Double-click the value of 'Item 1' and paste 'com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript' (without the single quotes).


It looks like this:



Once you have the 'Illustrator.qlgenerator' Quicklook item with the modified Info.plist you can back it up somewhere and restore it on additional Macs in future. Share with friends, colleagues, SysAdmins could package and deploy to their designers, etc.


In Finder, Shift+Command+G [⇧⌘G] to Go to Folder. Typing partial names and pressing TAB to autocomplete.


  • /System/Library/Quicklook - Apple System is Read-Only and cannot be modified
  • /Library/QuickLook - All users (requires local admin rights)
  • ~/Library/QuickLook - Current user (no admin rights required)





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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
User level: Level 10
123,164 points

Jan 31, 2023 10:02 AM in response to ginamacs

I updated an Illustrator.qlgenerator Info.plist as described and this worked for me on macOS Ventura 13.1. When I updated to Ventura 13.2, the Illustrator.qlgenerator item was removed from the operating system without any trace of it and I was back to the original .ps/.eps display issue.


I restored the Illustrator.qlgenerator from an older TM backup and moved it to my ~/Library/QuickLook folder to prevent future operating system tampering. Ability to view .ps/.eps has been restored following a reboot.

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No icon preview for eps-files in Ventura

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