After Installation of Monterey no more EPS previews

[nicolea54182876]

Hi there,

After the installation of Monterey all EPS are without preview... What can I do

[Met1]

Don't use eps?

I use them occasionally, but it's an old tech which hasn't seen any update in eons.

Any particular reason you need to use eps - old printer RIP?

[mikefasnyc]

Getty images and many other vector based illustration services use EPS files to distribute artwork.  

[MikeGondek]

Open the .eps in Ilustrator and save as .ai then, with pdf compatibility off.  If you need to drop into InDesign or after effects then turn on pdf compatible. Avoid using .eps & pdf compatible  and  your workflow will be more productive.

[mikefasnyc]

Thanks for amazing tip, but I've got hundreds of these things! Maybe I can create a shortcut and process all at once. 

[nicolea54182876]

Sorry, but I am a graphic designer and EPS is still used a lot for illustrations (vector) and for the distribution later.... This tip is not really a help!

[Monika Gause]

This tip is not really a help!

By @nicolea54182876

As a Mac user it's your only option at the moment. Perhaps Apple will implement support for EPS again or someone makes a system extension that does.

But I would take it as a warning sign to change workflows and really only use EPS when absolutely necessary. All modern layout applications are able to use PDF.

[jonr32416655]

I assume you don't work at a national design firm or ad agency? .eps is absolutely common for logo files/graphics, stock vector downloads from places like Shutterstock and Getty, so I'm not sure where you are getting your info. If you download say hundreds of shutterstock vectors it is an inefficient  workflow to change everything from .eps, I'm sure Apple will fix it but it's a pain. But definately email the Shutterstocks of the world and let them now they shouldn't use .eps

[Monika Gause]

I assume you don't work at a national design firm or ad agency?

By @jonr32416655

I assume this isn't meant as a compliment.

Well, you don't have to rely on my word. I assume you don't know Dov Isaacs - just google him. On this page you can read what he has to say about EPS: https://printplanet.com/threads/the-case-against-the-eps-file.268330/

Thinking that EPS is a good idea just because Shutterstock uses it, is just kind of cute. They use that EPS Illustrator 10, which for a lot of files just doesn't make any sense at all. They use EPS because it is supposed to be editable with any vector application. A lot of their files contain transparency and won't be editable in any other vector app than Illustrator (or, in case they have been created in some other app , then that one). And cannot be easily changed to be editable. So it makes no sense to supply them as EPS in the first place (PDF doesn't make so much more sense, but at least transparency would be preserved).

[Creamer Training]

Did you read all the posts?

This is a Mac issue--not Adobe--and a work-around solution was posted on 2022/01/03.

Being an Adobe forum, the only Adobe-related answers are:

• Don't use EPS,
• Work without a desktop preview, or
• Use Adobe Bridge to preview.

[sandikey]

Unfortunately Monterey does not offer a preview for Illustrator files either. At least this is what I experience.
So using AIs instead of EPS does not fix the problem for me. Working with Illustrator PDFs only is not a solution for our agency either. So I really hope that the system will allow previews of EPS and AIs after the next update ... 

[Creamer Training]

Did you post a feature request on Apple's support site? I don't think Apple actively reads these forums. 

[twinande]

thank you! it worked!!

[bpfordte]

EPS is still used frequently in design. It's frustrating that Mac would drop preview support for these files.

[Monika Gause]

According to: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253307271

This is caused by:

macOS Monterey is missing the generator needed to do this. It used to be in `/System/Library/Quicklook` as `EPS.qlgenerator`. Sadly, you can't just copy it over from an existing Catalina installation (I don't have a BigSur handy to try that), as that keeps crashing. Btw. you'd have to put it into `~/Library/Quicklook` as `/System` is not writeable anymore.

I can only assume that Apple had some issues with the generator and thus removed it.

[francescob16445253]

I found this working solution on Apple forum.
I tested it and it works great. Please pay attention to copy modfied qlgenerator in Library/QuickLook, NOT in System/Library/QuickLook

1. Copy the "Illustrator.qlgenerator" from "/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. Copy "Illustrator.qlgenerator" to "/Library/QuickLook"

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.

[mikefasnyc]

This worked. Thanks for posting!

[nicolea54182876]

Thanks a lot. It works!

[mikefasnyc]

Hi, have you noticed your machine freezing up after you made this change? 

[francescob16445253]

I ma using this solution since two days and I didn't notice any freezing. Did you have a look at the Console?

[mikefasnyc]

Thanks for replying. I did and it showed QuickLookSatellite as the culprit for numerous crashes. This is why I was asking. After removing, all was good. Perhaps I have a corrupt file that was crashing this process.

[Pulsontwerp]

This worked! Thanks alot!

[mikek59134204]

I've made it all the way to copy the illustrator.qlgenerator back into the Library folder. will not let me? I've tried safe mode, unlocking folders nothing works???

[oliverwilke]

Hi there, I am also trying to implement this workaround or whatever it is.
Unfortunately I'm already out of luck right at the beginning. My "/System/Library/QuickLook" folder in Monterrey is completely empty, no hidden files either.
Am I doing something completely wrong here or missing something from the description?
Thanks for any advice!

[oliverwilke]

I just found yet another workaround solution in case anyone is interested.
It's a plugin originally created for MacOS 15 but it seems to work on Monterrey, too.
No guarantee, of course. I'm in no way a coding guy either, so if you check it and find anything totally not cool in there, please let me/us know. Thanks.

I found it via quicklookplugins.com: https://www.quicklookplugins.com/2007/12/02/eps/ 
This is the direct link to the developer: https://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/epsqlplg/epsqlplg/download.html