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Preview App on macOS Ventura Drops Support for PostScript Files
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Instead of new features, I’m more interested in what features have been removed. This is terrible! Hopefully they add it back.
Has Apple EVER given in to “nooo don’t remove this 30 year old feature” feedback?
Not good news. I still used that function fairly often.
Starting with macOS Ventura, released this week, the built-in Preview app on Mac no longer supports PostScript (.ps) and Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files, according to a new Apple support document. Preview can still be used to open these files on macOS Monterey and earlier. Apple did not provide a reason for the change.
Apple recommends using other third-party Mac apps that can view or convert PostScript files. It also remains possible to print .ps and .eps files by dragging them into a Mac's printer queue with these steps on macOS Ventura, according to Appleeveloped by Adobe in the 1980s, the .ps and .eps file formats were once widely used for desktop publishing/printing purposes. PostScript was the basis of rendering on the NeXT operating system, and was mostly replaced by the PDF format in Mac OS X.
Article Link: Preview App on macOS Ventura Drops Support for PostScript Files
It’s not even that…it’s just Apple being stupid for no discernible reason. This is selective feature removal based on who knows what criteria. I almost always move at least one machine to the latest version of macOS almost immediately and this stupidity plus the “new” Settings app are complete head scratchers. I have a mixture of Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey Macs and it’s going to stay that way for a while. This seems to be the most abysmal release in quite a few years. I despise Windows, but working on it 40 hours a week has softened my edges with regard to simply using it. Being productive with it is another matter entirely. Apple seems to not have a handle on either macOS or iPadOS anymore, which is truly pissing me off.
Thanks for the reply. Makes sense but I suppose Skim also support .ps files and was wondering if it is impacted by this change.
Can somebody who already updated to Ventura tell me if hey still have at least thumbnail image previews in the Finder? Or is that gone too?
I noticed Finder's ability to generate thumbnails go to **** over the years, and work with lots of stock vector files all the time so that would be a bummer
I noticed Finder's ability to generate thumbnails go to **** over the years, and work with lots of stock vector files all the time so that would be a bummer
If they had at least made the ability to have extension support for Preview to view and edit custom file formats (or at the very least, have Preview utilize Quick Look extensions), then I don't think this would be a problem (anyone would be able to download and install it if they need it). I do still use it for logos that are formatted in .eps, so this is indeed frustrating to me.
If this were for security concerns, I would have suspected that Apple would have made it in such a way that the file would be sandboxed while viewing it in both Quick Look and Preview (unless there's something related to the format that doesn't allow that to work as a solution).
If this were for security concerns, I would have suspected that Apple would have made it in such a way that the file would be sandboxed while viewing it in both Quick Look and Preview (unless there's something related to the format that doesn't allow that to work as a solution).
It doesn't,... but at least some developer could create a Quick Look extension to add support for .eps and .ps files. (Unless someone has indeed done it a while ago). I understand it's not ideal and we've rather have it built-in, but that's the best option.
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I’ve dropped an .eps file (a logo) into Pages and it’s worked perfectly for years now…
Hmm. I wouldn't think so, if it was good support.
There is internal support on macOS to create a postscript to PDF converter (eg CGPSConverter) . That AFAIK has not gone anywhere, it also isn't a deprecated API.
The printing system also has code to convert things to postscript, including PDFs.
However, postscript and PDF have some pretty different assumptions about things. They were created to solve very different problems. The conversion is imperfect and lossy in both directions.
Odd, are you running Ventura? I’m on Monterey and it just worked for me. My .eps is just a black and white/clear logo, going around in a circle. It works on my 13” M2 MacBook Pro and also my last Intel MacBook Pro.
Ahh yes, it looks like it does work - I just had a broken EPS file 😅😅
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
What OS version are you on? I’d be greatly relieved if you’re on Ventura!
Considering many of stock image provider provide an .eps files as an exchangeable format for various vector editing program, what the Apple think of next?
Done.Please - everyone - submit feedback on this.
Feedback - macOS
Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about macOS.www.apple.com
Tell them to stop!
I'm not impressed by this move, but by the same token I've not depended on Preview for handling PostScript files for a long time. I generate PS files all the time, and use ghostscript to convert them to PDF. If I need some other format, such as PNG for web graphics, I use a combination of ghostscript and various Netpbm tools.
This was my first thought too. Given that ancient code can be tough to deal with, I think this could be a good step.
For security reasons and/or elimination of a licensing fee?
Microsoft removed support for Encapsulated PostScript back in 2018 for security reasons.
Microsoft removed support for Encapsulated PostScript back in 2018 for security reasons.
