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Custom Quartz Filter In Preview Not Showing Up

In Snow Leopard, I could create a custom ColorSync profile to reduce PDF size (but not with quite as a dramatic drop in quality as the default PDF Reduce File Size) and it would show up in Preview as an option.

Now, in Lion, I still have the profiles, but they do not show up in Preview as a choice. I also cannot edit the default Reduce File Size profile in ColorSync as it is perma-locked.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 2:22 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 7:21 PM

The solution I realized involves the following:


  • Right click the PDF file you desire to work with and then select "Open with..."
  • Select the "Colorsync Utility" application
  • The Colorsync Utility will open up with your PDF file
  • At the bottom of Colorsync Utility status bar, you can select the quartz filter you wish to apply (including any custom ones you made)
  • Press "Apply"
  • Save the document


I hope this workaround can hold up for now. I do admit I miss the ability to see and use my quartz filters right out of preview.


Take care.

48 replies

Jul 10, 2015 10:29 PM in response to heusnie

Just to summarize how to get this to work from the previous helpful posts:


Download the Quartz filters from GitHub using the link below. At the bottom right you can download all of the files with the "download zip" link.

https://github.com/joshcarr/Apple-Quartz-Filters


Drag the folder from the downloads to the desktop. The files will have the ".qfilter" extension.


Open Finder and use <Cmd><Shift>G and enter "/System/Library/Filters"


CAUTION: Do not place these in "PDF Services" folder or create a new "Filters" folder in your user Library folder.

These need to go in the System/Library folder to work.


You should see the standard Quartz Filters that Preview uses. Drag the new filter files that you downloaded to this folder.

It will prompt you for an Admin password to add these.


That is all the setup you need.


Then in Preview, either use <option> while pulling down the File menu to get the SaveAs option, or use Export... option.

At the bottom of the dialog box make sure the save Format is PDF in the drop down.

Then a Quartz Filter drop down will have all the new Quartz filter options available.

Pick the desired compression and save the file.


Thanks to everyone for great help.

Custom Quartz Filter In Preview Not Showing Up

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