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PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,196 points

Preview in Ventura no longer opens .eps files

Just upgraded from Monterey to Ventura, to try and fix some bugs.

Imagine my surprise to find Preview will not open .eps files.

Does anyone have any background knowledge to WHY Apple did this or any work arounds?

It is a major part of my workflow to use Preview to convert .eps files to make extremely small and efficient .pdf files that are previewable in Finder.

Apple stopped previewing .eps files in Finder a couple of OSes ago. Yet another downgrade.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.1

Posted on Dec 20, 2022 11:09 PM

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Matti Haveri

Level 6

16,513 points

Posted on Dec 21, 2022 8:01 AM

Also pstopdf seems to work

The UNIX command pstopdf is available in … - Apple Community

This page's discussion has also a link to EPSView.

"The company did not offer a reason why, although it’s not inconceivable that it was for security reasons. In 2017, Microsoft turned off support for EPS in the Windows versions of Office apps due to vulnerabilities in the EPS format."

https://tidbits.com/2022/10/27/preview-in-ventura-drops-support-for-postscript-and-encapsulated-postscript-files/

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29 replies

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,196 points

Dec 20, 2022 11:54 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks 😀

There is a problem. Skim adds an opaque white background to no-background .eps vector files.

Any ideas why Apple has done what it has done?

dialabrain

Level 10

124,613 points

Dec 20, 2022 11:59 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

Thanks 😀

You're welcome.

Any ideas why Apple has done what it has done?

No. We're all users here and have no info about Apple's decisions.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,196 points

Dec 21, 2022 12:02 AM in response to dialabrain

Any other utilities than Skim to your knowledge?

I need transparent vectors.

dialabrain

Level 10

124,613 points

Dec 21, 2022 12:05 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

No sorry. I haven't had to work with .eps files in over 10 years. Someone might.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,196 points

Dec 21, 2022 12:12 AM in response to dialabrain

I don't use .eps files either but there are millions of them out there, and I use them as a stepping stone to a tight small previewable vector pdf file.

Dec 21, 2022 8:35 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Would it be possible to share one such .eps file so we can test?

Dec 21, 2022 8:46 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Here is a very simple .eps test file.

[Link Edited by Moderator] 

Dec 21, 2022 9:19 AM in response to dialabrain

I just opened it, and then did File->Export. The resulting pdf has transparency.

dialabrain

Level 10

124,613 points

Dec 21, 2022 9:20 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Interesting. The .eps file wasn't transparent when I downloaded it. Still isn't. :)

dialabrain

Level 10

124,613 points

Dec 21, 2022 9:43 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

As it turns out, it's transparent when I open it with GraphicConverter in Ventura, it's not transparent in Monterey. I have no idea why.

Dec 21, 2022 10:29 AM in response to Matti Haveri

The Skim application uses Apple's pstopdf tool when one chooses to export an eps to PDF. Whether the processes rasterizes, or retains a vector image in the PDF is not clear.