QuickLook Preview Support for EPS Files on macOS via Adobe own framework
As of macOS 15 (Sequoia), Apple has officially removed all system-level support for rendering Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files in QuickLook. This change began in macOS 12 (Monterey), when Apple deprecated the internal PostScript conversion frameworks (notably PSNormalizer.framework), and culminated in macOS 14 (Sonoma) and 15 (Sequoia), where these frameworks were entirely removed.
Historically, Finder’s QuickLook preview for .eps files relied on these system frameworks to convert PostScript content into a previewable image. Many third-party applications (including Illustrator) used the same system calls to provide file previews. Even QuickLook plugins like Illustrator.qlgenerator or others that claimed .eps support were not rendering the content themselves—they merely invoked Apple’s system renderers under the hood.
Now, all such plugins are broken:
• .qlgenerator-style plugins are no longer supported or loaded at all in macOS Sequoia.
• System EPS rendering components (pstopdf, cgps, PSNormalizer.framework) are removed.
• Even if an EPS file contains an embedded preview (e.g. a TIFF or low-res PDF), macOS does not expose this to QuickLook.
• Applications like Illustrator or Affinity can still open EPS files, but no longer expose any preview capability in Finder.
Some unofficial third-party utilities have begun to implement their own QuickLook Preview Extensions (using the modern App Extension architecture), embedding their own PostScript interpreters (such as Ghostscript). While this restores basic EPS preview functionality, these solutions may rely on reverse-engineered methods or contain licensing gray areas due to the proprietary nature of PostScript.
This leaves professionals—designers, publishers, illustrators—without a reliable, secure, and officially supported method to preview legacy assets in EPS format, which are still common in stock vector libraries, archival graphics, and prepress workflows.
⸻
We propose the following feature request:
Please consider developing an official Apple QuickLook Preview Extension for .eps files, bundled either with Adobe Illustrator or the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop app.
Such an extension would:
• Support QuickLook previews in Finder and column view (via QuickLookPreviewingExtension)
• Use Adobe’s own EPS rendering engine internally
• Require no user interaction or app launch — just press spacebar on an .eps file
• Work on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs
• Respect the EPS file’s embedded previews when available
• Safely handle untrusted EPS content in a sandboxed, non-executable rendering context
This would solve a real and growing pain point in modern macOS workflows. Currently, users are forced to open files manually in Illustrator or rely on potentially unsafe tools—hardly an ideal user experience in professional environments.
We believe Adobe, as the originator of the EPS format and the leader in professional design software, is best positioned to provide a secure, performant, and standards-compliant solution.
-
Ton commented
Yes, the EPS previews stopped working when Apple stopped using the PSNormalizer. The Normalizer can be compared to Adobe Acrobat Distiller. It is still licensed by Adobe to printer manufacturers to incorporate the conversion from PostScript to PDF in their PDF workflows. Apple used a limited version in its Operating System and apps like Preview used it to convert PostScript and EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) to PDF.
-
Thumbnails for .ai (and .psd) files have been broken for many years on Windows:
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/41767534Since a third-party solution to make these display again exists (mentioned in comments), I bet Ai team can fix it as well.
-
And why not on Windows as well?