Apple dropped support for quicklooking and viewing Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file a while ago, but I wasn’t aware of that since I used OSX Mojave before turning back to macOS two years ago after a 4-year hiatus. I was in the middle of browsing some old Stata code for a biostatistical primer and I wanted to check some figures. All the code was written using Stata 13 which only supported EPS as a high-def graphical backend for further $\TeX$ processing.

Here’s one way to preview EPS file using a Quick Action from the Finder. It assumes you have the epstopdf program, which is usually bundled with MacTeX.¹ There’re probably other options but I was in a hurry and I’m no AppleScript expert.

Yes, this is using Automator to define a convoluted workflow (basically to filter Finder items based on their extension) but it does not quite do the job actually. The Quick Action remains available for any filetype. In order for this action to be visible only for EPS file, we need to edit the Info.plist that sits in the workflow folder manually. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that the NSSendFileTypes key is set to <string>public.item</string>. Update the key to the following values and it should work:

<key>NSSendFileTypes</key>
<array>
    <string>com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript</string>
    <string>public.eps</string>
</array>

Now, I can right click on an EPS file and it get converted on the fly (in the user home directory) and sent to Preview app. This action is not available for other filetypes. It would be cool if we could call the Quick Action when double clicking the file directly but it seems it is not possible. However, the Finder Preview Pane displays the quick action so in case I need to preview many files at once, I can just open it with its defualt shortcut (⇧⌘P).

If you want the full Service file, it is available here: Preview Encapsulated PostScript (fixed as of 2026-08-21). Unzip, rename, and put the workflow in $HOME/Library/Services.