No icon preview for eps-files in Sonoma

flaore wrote:

Thanks for the explanation, Sonoma is horrible. I work with the computer and I have more than 3,000 eps files in my photo archive, I can't open and convert them all just to preview, I will go back to the Ventura system

Look here as an example of one of several open source tools to work with postscript files (and convert them in bulk to pdf). https://mendelson.org/postscripttopdf.html

As Kurt Lang pointed out, you are better off with pdf files anyway, going forward.

Procedures change over time. That's been a constant in the computer era.

Remember when GIFs dominated virtually all online images? When was the last time you saw one that wasn't animated? JPEG and later, PNG, replaced static images.

YouTube spent over a year translating every one of their videos to MP4 so they could run directly under HTML5 and ditch any reliance on Flash, Shockwave or any other older video playback add-ons that would no longer be allowed to run in a browser.

When I started doing work for my main client (recently retired), everything was shot digitally. My job was to take those and do any requested retouching, convert them to CMYK and then save them as an .eps. Usually with a clipping path. That was standard for about 10 years. Then they didn't want .eps files anymore, or anything converted to CMYK. For the next 15 years, everything was left as RGB, outlined as necessary, then the background dropped to transparent. All images were saved as a single, floating layer PSD. And that's how they went into their InDesign documents. All vector art that used to be EPS was converted to PDF or left as an Illustrator .ai file, and then were also used directly in InDesign that way.

Another major strike against EPS files is they've become a vector for malware. They're encapsulated data, so any attempt to do anything with them requires reading the contents. That means any embedded malware must also be read and run before you know it's there.

Hmm, I have Affinity Designer 2.x, but haven't needed to try and convert any EPS files. I'm not even sure I could dig one up at this point to test.

But it's odd transparency is lost since PDF/X-4 supports transparency. I would have to guess that's a function Affinity hasn't built into Designer yet.

Now I feel the need to test. 🙂

I just went through the Affinity Designer 2 2.4 settings and reviewed the export (PDF/X-4) settings where the export preview image shows the checkerboard background for alpha channel in the PDF. Yet, it exports with a white background again, and neither Quick Look nor Preview reveal any transparent background, but GC 12 below does show it.

GIMP 2.10.36 fails to convert the .eps when opened… but the trusty GraphicConverter 12 opened it just fine.

One can export .eps files to PDF/X-4 using Affinity Designer 2, though one loses transparency in the process:

Eps is no longer supported at all in Sonoma. Read me for Sonoma advises to convert your eps to pdf or other more modern vector format before upgrading.

Going back to Ventura will not solve this as Ventura 13.6.3 shows plain white Finder icons for .ps/.eps files and Quick Look will not display them.

FWIW, Apple is not alone. Microsoft stopped supporting EPS in Office documents 6 years ago. Even Adobe suggests using AI files over EPS. Some companies are slow to change.

LJJX wrote:

Has anyone reached out to Shutterstock or Getty about this?

I'm sure it's possible. That is not an Apple support question.

Here is the link in the Shutterstock's customer support portal stating eps is their format. For what it's worth.

https://support.shutterstock.com/s/article/What-s-a-Vector-EPS-file?language=en_US

Oh, duh! Of course transparency is lost. Not because of Affinity Designer or the PDF/X-4 format. But because EPS itself doesn't support transparency to begin with.