Mac preview icon not working with Adobe Illustrator .eps files

[James22655878232l]

Mac preview icon appears with .ai, .pdf , and .tiff files saved in Illustrator.  

Mac preview icon does appear woth .eps files.

[James22655878232l]

Correction: Mac preview icon does not appear with .eps files.

[RedDogCM]

I am having the same issue

[Anubhav M · Accepted solution]

Hello @James22655878232l,@RedDogCM 

Sorry to hear about this experience. I would request you to try the steps shared in this Apple Community post and share your observations with us: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253307271?answerId=256463704022#256463704022

I hope it helps.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[RedDogCM]

Thank you, it worked.

[Anubhav M]

We are glad to hear that!

Please feel free to reach out if you run into any issues or queries in the future. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[ssanagustin]

Are you on Monterey? I believe this is a common issue on Apple's end. It's something to do with Quicklooks not including EPS in the update. 

I was able to fix mine with the solution found in this Apple thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253307271 

Copied directly from user Kurthis:

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.

*Personal note: When I did this I was confused at first cause I kept trying to copy back into the System folder I copied from. (it won't let you). You're copying into a different folder (the user one).

Hope this helps!

[RedDogCM]

That worked, I wasn't sure if I did everything correctly but problem solved. Thank you

[James24145049jem3]

Thank you so much for the community support help with this problem. I have used four or five generations of Macintosh computers and have had to transfer everything from one computer to the next so essentially I have lost track of who controls what files and folders in the systems folder. In fact, it appears that I'm locked out of several things especially modifying systems folders. I followed the instructions and was able to complete everything except for placing the new file into the library QuickLook folder. It would not allow me access and I could not figure out how to get access to that folder but I did discover that I had a second library folder associated with my hard drive and not so much with my computer, so I copied and paste the illustratorQL generator file as well as the other folders into the second library folder, restarted the computer, and all of my EPS file quickly had photo icons that were visible. Thank you so much for all your assistance with this problem. You’ve solved a big problem.

[wendip96970651]

Thank you so much absolutely worked. I did hear from one person that EPS format was being phased out

and to use the ai format when saving Illustrator files. The preview icon does show up on files saved in ai.

As to the reason EPS is being phased out I do not know.

Thanks to the ABOBE community.

[ssanagustin]

This is very interesting to hear. While I'm not too worried about vector files I create (I 99% save in .ai format), I see EPS files a lot with assets you find on stock websites. I know a lot of people will at some point have to deal with files in this way and EPS is still so prevalent, so I'm wondering how the landscape will look once this really happens. 

[vickyg8495618]

Losing the previews for eps files is extraordinarily annoying and time consuming now. Why on earth did Adobe do this? PLEASE FIX THIS.  I've tried the work around suggested in the thread and I was not able to edit the library files because of permission issues. I'm not converting my eps files to ai as I need to send out eps files to various people. They have expressly asked for eps NOT ai's. WHY? PLEASE FIX.

[Monika Gause]

WHY? PLEASE FIX.

By @vickyg8495618

If you want to request a feature, please post to https://illustrator.uservoice.com

[paulflong]

tried the below method.. didn't work. none of the illustrator icon previews are working..

if you download a file from Adobe stock, the previews don't work. you need to open the file, save as .ai, then it will work

.eps does not work no matter what you do. 

super lame.

[Monika Gause]

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@paulflong  schrieb:

super lame.

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If anything is lame, then it's your system. It doesn't support EPS anymore, because EPS can contain bad code. 

Apart from that EPS is a dinosaur and has no place in Creative Cloud workflows.

[paulflong]

what are you even talking about...troll much?

EPS is a widely used format. Your statement is irrelevant and has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I think that your gripe is with Adobe...

[Monika Gause]

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@paulflong  schrieb:

what are you even talking about...troll much?

EPS is a widely used format. Your statement is irrelevant and has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I think that your gripe is with Adobe...

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Operating systems have stopped supporting EPS and that's why you do not see a preview anymore.

The file format EPS hasn't been updated in 2 decades. It doesn't support transparency or ICC color profiles, which makes it useless in today's workflows (apart from some very specialized productions, such as engraving)

[kglad]

@paulflong 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community-discussions/adobe-community-guidelines/td-p/47881...

[paulflong]

?

[kglad]

everyone needs to heed the guidelines.  both parties here would do well to lower the temp.

and i'm sorry for singling you out with that guideline reference. i should have addressed it to all,

again, my apologies.

[Anubhav M · Accepted solution]

Hello @paulflong,

Thanks for reaching out. Newer macOS versions no longer include built-in support for viewing PostScript (.ps) and Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files. Learn more here: (https://adobe.ly/4aXH4tq). As a workaround, would you mind using Adobe Bridge (https://adobe.ly/4bJ5wzV) to view and manage your creative assets to see if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[paulflong]

what a shame that apple doesn't support that. thanks for your reply.