EPSViewer Pro for macOS — open PostScript and PDF artwork, and find out what’s actually inside it before it reaches the press.

Contents

  1. What EPSViewer Pro does
  2. Supported files
  3. Getting started
  4. The document window
  5. Viewing and navigation
  6. Rulers, boxes and measurement
  7. The colour eyedropper
  8. Separations preview
  9. Document info and preflight
  10. Repairing a file
  11. Printing
  12. Quick Look and Finder previews
  13. Free and Pro
  14. Settings
  15. What’s new
  16. Troubleshooting
  17. Frequently asked questions
  18. Support

1. What EPSViewer Pro does

macOS stopped rendering EPS files years ago. Preview shows you a grey placeholder, the Finder shows you a generic icon, and the only way to see what a supplier sent is to open Illustrator — if you have it.

EPSViewer Pro renders EPS and PostScript natively on the Mac, and then goes further: it tells you things about the file that no viewer tells you. Is the bounding box wrong? Are the fonts really embedded, or did something substitute them quietly? Is that logo 96 dpi at the size it’s placed? Which plates will this job actually separate onto? What’s the total ink coverage on page 7?

It is an analysis tool, not an editor. Files are opened read-only. The one thing it will write is a repaired copy, and only when you press the button that offers it (see Repairing a file).

2. Supported files

FormatExtensionNotes
Encapsulated PostScript.eps, .epsf, .epsiIncluding files with a DOS binary header and embedded TIFF/WMF preview
PostScript.psSingle and multi-page
Adobe Illustrator.aiBoth PDF-compatible and legacy PostScript-based Illustrator files
PDF.pdfFull analysis, including the PDF-only checks

What analysis is available for which format

Some checks are inherently format-specific. The table below is worth a glance before you wonder why a panel is empty.

FeatureEPS / PSAIPDF
Rendering, navigation, measurement✅✅✅
Document info✅ DSC comments✅ DSC comments✅ PDF metadata
Bounding Box Doctor✅✅— PDFs use MediaBox / TrimBox
Ink coverage and TAC✅✅✅
Separations preview✅✅✅
Colour eyedropper✅✅✅
Font embedding and subset audit✅✅✅
Effective image DPI✅✅✅
PDF/X advisory checks——✅

Known limitations

  • EPSViewer Pro does not edit artwork. No moving objects, no recolouring, no text changes. It reports; you fix the file in the application it came from.
  • Soft proofing to an ICC target is not in this release. Colour is shown as it is stored in the file, without an output profile applied.
  • Advisory, not certified. The PDF/X checks flag likely problems. They are not a substitute for a certified preflight suite when a printer contractually requires one.
  • Font analysis reads what the file declares. A file can declare a font as supplied and still be missing the actual font program; EPSViewer Pro reports the discrepancy rather than guessing.

3. Getting started

Opening a file

  • Double-click it in the Finder. If EPSViewer Pro is the default app for the format, it opens straight away.
  • Drag it onto the app icon in the Dock or the Finder.
  • Choose File ▸ Open (⌘O).
  • Drag it into an open window.

Large PostScript files are rendered progressively — the first page appears while the rest is still being read.

Making EPSViewer Pro the default app

  1. Select any .eps file in the Finder.
  2. Choose File ▸ Get Info (⌘I).
  3. Under Open with, choose EPSViewer Pro.
  4. Click Change All… and confirm.

Repeat for .ps and .ai if you want those to open here too. Leave .pdf set to Preview unless you specifically want PDFs analysed by default.

4. The document window

AreaWhat it is
CanvasThe rendered artwork. Rulers run along the top and left edge when enabled.
ToolbarZoom, page navigation, eyedropper, measurement, separations, and the inspector toggle.
Page sidebarThumbnails for multi-page documents. Each thumbnail carries an ink indicator showing that page’s coverage at a glance, so a heavy page stands out before you visit it. Toggle with View ▸ Show Sidebar (⌥⌘S).
InspectorThe analysis panels — document info, preflight, colour, separations. Toggle with View ▸ Show Inspector (⌥⌘I).

Thumbnails render lazily. In a 200-page PostScript file, the sidebar fills in as you scroll rather than blocking the window at open.

Windows use macOS tabs by default. Window ▸ Merge All Windows collects open documents into one tabbed window; drag a tab out to separate it again. Tabbing can be switched off in Settings.

5. Viewing and navigation

ActionHow
Zoom in⌘+ · pinch out on a trackpad · ⌥-scroll up
Zoom out⌘− · pinch in · ⌥-scroll down
Actual size (100%)⌘0
Fit to window⌘9
PanScroll, two-finger drag, or drag with the space bar held
Next / previous pagePage Down / Page Up, or the toolbar arrows
Go to pageClick a thumbnail in the sidebar
Full screen⌃⌘F

Nothing in this section modifies the document. EPSViewer Pro opens files read-only.

6. Rulers, boxes and measurement

Turn rulers on with View ▸ Show Rulers (⌘R). They track zoom and page rotation, and the origin sits at the page corner.

Units

Click either ruler to switch units: millimetres, points, inches or pixels. The choice applies to the rulers, the measurement tool and the box overlays together, so a single switch changes every readout in the window. The default unit is set in Settings — millimetres out of the box.

Bleed and trim overlays

View ▸ Show Bleed / Trim draws the page boxes over the artwork:

  • The trim box — where the job will be cut.
  • The bleed area — the margin artwork must extend into so a slightly misaligned cut doesn’t leave a white sliver. The default is 3 mm; change it in Settings.

Each overlay shows its dimensions. This is the fastest way to answer “did they actually build the bleed, or does the background stop at the trim?”

Measuring

Choose the measurement tool from the toolbar and drag on the canvas. The readout shows distance, and the horizontal and vertical components, in the current ruler unit. Drag a second time to replace the measurement; press Escape to clear it.

Measurement is taken against the rendered page at the current resolution. It is accurate for checking sizes, margins and placement — it is not a vertex-snapping CAD measurement.

7. The colour eyedropper

Choose the eyedropper from the toolbar, then move the pointer over the artwork. The inspector shows the colour under the cursor as CMYK, RGB and HEX.

  • Click to lock a sample. A pin badge marks the sampled point on the canvas so you can zoom, scroll and compare without losing it.
  • Copy puts the values on the clipboard, ready to paste into a spec, an email to the client, or a swatch in another app.
  • Click the pin again, or press Escape, to release the sample.

The eyedropper samples the rendered page, which is what you want when you are asking “what colour is this, as it will image?” It is not reading the object’s declared colour from the source, so a mark that is 100% K in the file reads as 100% K, while a mark that is a rich black build reads as the build.

Tip: pair the eyedropper with Separations when a black looks wrong. If the sample comes back with C, M and Y in it, you’re looking at a rich black where someone expected flat black — and it will show up on all four plates.

8. Separations preview

View ▸ Separations renders the document the way a RIP will separate it, and lets you inspect each plate on its own.

  • Process plates — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are listed for every document.
  • Spot plates — any named separation in the file (a Pantone, a varnish, a die line, a white underbase) appears as its own plate under its own name, read from the document rather than guessed.
  • Toggle plates on and off to view them individually or in any combination. Turning everything off but one plate is how you check whether an element is where it should be.
  • Zoom works inside the separations view, so you can go in close on a small element and see exactly which inks build it.

Common uses:

  • Finding art that was left in RGB, and so lands on the wrong plates.
  • Catching a spot colour that should have been converted to process — or converted when it should have stayed spot.
  • Confirming a die line or varnish sits on its own plate and not on Black.
  • Checking that fine black text is on the Black plate only, and won’t fringe on press if registration drifts.

9. Document info and preflight

The inspector’s analysis panels are where EPSViewer Pro earns its name.

Document info

Everything the file declares about itself: creator application, creation date, PostScript language level, page count, declared bounding boxes, the type of embedded preview if there is one, and the fonts and resources the document names.

For PostScript and EPS this comes from the DSC comments. Because some applications — CorelDRAW notably among them — write their declarations near the end of the file rather than the top, EPSViewer Pro reads the whole file rather than sampling the header. Files that show as “no information” in other tools generally report fully here.

Bounding Box Doctor

The most common real defect in EPS files: the declared %%BoundingBox doesn’t match the artwork.

EPSViewer Pro renders the file, measures the true extent of the marks, and compares. You get the declared box, the actual box, and the difference. A file whose box is too large places with unexplained white space; too small, and the artwork gets clipped. Either way it happens silently in the layout application, hours later, in someone else’s hands.

Where the boxes disagree, Pro can write a corrected copy — the Fix and Save As… button appears in the panel alongside the finding.

Ink coverage and TAC

Per-page coverage for each of C, M, Y and K, plus total area coverage — the sum of all inks at the heaviest point.

Exceed the TAC limit and the sheet doesn’t dry properly: ink sets off onto the back of the next sheet, or the job has to run slower than it was quoted at. The limit is configurable in Settings and defaults to 300%, which is a reasonable general figure — your printer will have their own number for the stock and press in question. Pages over the limit are flagged, and the sidebar’s ink indicators let you spot them without opening every page.

Font and asset audit

For every font the document uses: whether it is embedded, whether it is subset (embedded but only the glyphs actually used — fine for print, a problem if anyone downstream needs to edit text), or whether it is missing and will be substituted.

This audit reads the source document’s own declarations. That matters more than it sounds: converting a PostScript file to PDF first and inspecting the result gives false confidence, because the converter substitutes missing fonts and then embeds its substitutes — so everything reports as embedded and nothing looks wrong. EPSViewer Pro reads what the original file actually declares.

Some applications write contradictory declarations, listing the same font as both supplied and needed. Where that happens, EPSViewer Pro treats it as needed — the pessimistic reading, because a font you thought was there and isn’t costs far more than one flagged unnecessarily.

For placed images: pixel dimensions, placed size, and effective DPI — the resolution the image actually has at the size it is used. A 300 dpi photo scaled up 200% is a 150 dpi photo. Low-resolution images are flagged against a threshold.

PDF/X advisory checks

For PDF documents: output intent present, all fonts embedded, colour spaces consistent with the declared intent, and transparency where it may not be permitted.

These are advisory. They catch the ordinary problems that get jobs bounced. They are not certification, and where a printer requires certified PDF/X validation, use their preferred validator.

10. Repairing a file

Where the Bounding Box Doctor finds a mismatch, the inspector offers a Fix and Save As… button. There is no menu command for this — the repair lives next to the finding that justifies it, so you can’t run it without first seeing what it’s correcting.

What the repair does:

  • Rewrites the bounding box declaration to the true extent of the artwork, measured from the rendered page.
  • Tidies the file while it’s there — redundant whitespace and padding left behind by the originating application are removed. Repaired files are usually smaller than the originals, sometimes noticeably so.
  • Leaves the artwork alone. No re-rendering, no re-encoding, no colour conversion. The marks on the page are byte-for-byte the marks that were there before.

The original is never modified in place. The button opens a save dialog; you choose a new name and location, and the file you opened is left exactly as it was. That is deliberate — you should always be able to go back to what the supplier sent.

11. Printing

File ▸ Print (⌘P) opens the standard macOS print dialog. Output is sent as vector data, so it stays sharp at any size. Page ranges, scaling and paper size come from the system dialog.

Printing is deliberately simple in this release: there is no n-up printing, no booklet or imposition layout, no separation printing and no printer’s marks. Those belong to production output rather than inspection, and they are planned rather than present.

A print from EPSViewer Pro is a proof, not a production output. It goes through the Mac’s print pipeline, which is not the RIP your job will image on — treat it as “is the content right”, not “is the colour right”.

12. Quick Look and Finder previews

Once EPSViewer Pro has been launched at least once, macOS can preview PostScript files system-wide:

  • Select an .eps or .ps file in the Finder and press the space bar.
  • Finder icons and column-view previews show the artwork instead of a generic document icon.

For a folder of EPS files from a supplier, this alone changes the day — you can see the whole folder at a glance instead of opening files one by one.

If previews don’t appear, see Troubleshooting.

13. Free and Pro

The principle: free diagnoses, Pro acts. You can see that a bounding box is wrong, that a font is missing, that a page runs at 340% TAC, before paying anything. Pro is for fixing, separating and exporting the findings.

FreePro
Open, view, zoom, pan, multi-page navigation✅✅
Quick Look and Finder previews✅✅
Print✅✅
Rulers, bleed/trim overlays, measurement✅✅
Document info✅✅
Bounding Box Doctor✅ detect✅ detect and repair
Preflight report✅ summary✅ full report
Colour eyedropper✅ RGB and HEX✅ full CMYK, locked samples, copy
Ink coverage and TAC✅✅
Font and asset audit✅✅
PDF/X advisory checks❌✅
Separations preview❌✅

Upgrading

Choose EPSViewer Pro ▸ Upgrade to Pro to see the available plans — a yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Purchases are handled by the App Store and tied to your Apple Account.

Restoring a purchase

On a new Mac, or after reinstalling: EPSViewer Pro ▸ Restore Purchases, signed in with the same Apple Account used originally.

Pro status is per-app. Owning CDRViewer Pro or VectorView does not unlock EPSViewer Pro, and vice versa.

14. Settings

EPSViewer Pro ▸ Settings (⌘,)

SettingWhat it does
Ruler unitDefault unit for rulers, measurement and overlays — mm, points, inches or pixels. Defaults to millimetres.
Bleed amountThe bleed margin drawn by the overlay. Defaults to 3 mm.
TAC limitTotal area coverage above which a page is flagged. Defaults to 300%.
Window tabbingWhether new documents open as tabs or separate windows. Tabs by default.
AppearanceLight, Dark, or follow the system setting.

15. What’s new

This release completes the colour and analysis work — the point at which EPSViewer Pro stops being a viewer with some information panels and starts being a prepress inspection tool.

Colour

  • Separations preview. Render the document plate by plate. Process inks plus every named spot separation in the file, individually toggleable, with zoom inside the separations view.
  • Colour eyedropper with CMYK. Sample any point on the canvas for CMYK, RGB and HEX. Click to lock a sample, with a pin badge marking it on the canvas, and copy the values to the clipboard.

Analysis

  • Font and asset audit. Embedded, subset or missing status for every font, plus effective DPI for every placed image with low-resolution warnings.
  • Bounding box repair. Where the declared box is wrong, Fix and Save As… writes a corrected copy — and tidies redundant whitespace while it’s there, so repaired files usually come out smaller than the originals.
  • Font detection rewritten to read the source document’s declarations rather than a converted copy. Converting to PDF first hid missing fonts entirely, because the converter substitutes and embeds its own — files now report honestly.
  • Full-file scanning for document declarations. Applications that write their declarations near the end of the file — CorelDRAW exports in particular — were previously reported as having no information. They now report fully.
  • PDF/X advisory checks for PDF documents: output intent, font embedding, colour space consistency and disallowed transparency.

Viewing and measurement

  • Rulers with unit switching between millimetres, points, inches and pixels, correct under both zoom and page rotation.
  • Bleed and trim box overlays with dimension readouts and a configurable bleed amount.
  • On-canvas measurement tool reading in the current ruler unit.
  • Page sidebar with lazily rendered thumbnails and per-page ink indicators, so heavy pages are visible before you open them.
  • Quick Look extension — EPS and PostScript previews in the Finder, system-wide.

Settings

A settings window covering default ruler unit, bleed amount, TAC limit and window tabbing behaviour.

Fixes

  • Fixed a hang when opening files by double-clicking in the Finder. Files opened this way could stall on a blank window. Files opened from within the app were unaffected, which is why it took a while to catch.
  • Fixed thumbnail generation for image-heavy documents, which could fail silently on files with large embedded bitmaps.
  • Fixed page margins shifting under repeated zooming.
  • Corrected ruler alignment on rotated pages.

16. Troubleshooting

The file opens blank or only partly renders

PostScript is a programming language, and some files are genuinely broken — they error out partway through, on any interpreter. Check the document info panel for reported errors.

If the file renders correctly elsewhere but not here, please send it in (Support). A file in hand is worth a hundred descriptions.

The font audit says a font is missing, but the artwork looks fine

That is exactly the situation the audit exists to catch. The rendering looks fine because macOS substituted a similar face — which is what will happen everywhere the file goes, including at the printer, with different metrics and different line breaks each time.

Ask the sender to embed the font, or to convert the text to outlines.

The audit says a font is both supplied and needed

Some applications write contradictory declarations. EPSViewer Pro reports the pessimistic reading — treat the font as needed and get it embedded.

A spot plate has an odd name

Plate names come from the separation names in the document, and applications write all sorts of things there. A confusing plate name is usually a sign that the separation itself was set up loosely — worth checking before the file goes out.

Effective DPI looks wrong for a rotated or cropped image

Effective DPI is calculated from pixel dimensions against placed size. Heavily transformed placements can report imprecisely. Treat a borderline figure as a prompt to check, not a verdict.

Quick Look previews don’t work

  1. Launch EPSViewer Pro at least once, then quit it.
  2. In Terminal, run qlmanage -r and qlmanage -r cache.
  3. Log out and back in, or restart your Mac.

macOS registers preview extensions on its own schedule, and a restart is often what makes them appear.

A large file takes a long time to open

Complex PostScript — thousands of objects, large embedded photographs, heavy text — takes longer to interpret. The first page appears while the rest is still being read. If a file consistently takes more than about a minute, please report it.

I bought Pro but the app still shows limits

EPSViewer Pro ▸ Restore Purchases, signed in to the Apple Account used for the purchase. If that doesn’t resolve it, quit and reopen the app so it can re-check with the App Store.

17. Frequently asked questions

Can EPSViewer Pro edit artwork? No. It renders and analyses. The only file it writes is a repaired copy — a corrected bounding box and a tidied file — and only when you press Fix and Save As… in the inspector.

Do I need Illustrator or Acrobat installed? No. EPSViewer Pro interprets PostScript directly.

Does it send my files anywhere? No. All rendering and analysis is local. It works with no network connection — which matters when the file is under NDA.

Is this a certified preflight tool? No. The checks are advisory and catch the ordinary problems. Where a printer contractually requires certified PDF/X validation, use the validator they specify.

Can it do soft proofing to an ICC profile? Not in this release. Colour is displayed as stored, without an output profile applied.

What’s the difference between EPSViewer Pro and Prepress? EPSViewer Pro is the analysis tool — one file, inspected in depth. Prepress is the document tool — open, combine, annotate and produce. They overlap on formats deliberately; they answer different questions.

Can I open CorelDRAW files? Not directly — use CDRViewer, or export the CorelDRAW file to EPS or PDF first. EPSViewer Pro handles CorelDRAW’s PostScript exports well, including their unusual placement of document declarations.

Can I batch-process a folder? Not yet. Batch preflight and export presets are planned.

18. Support

When reporting a rendering or analysis problem, the most useful thing you can send is the file itself, along with the application that produced it and a note on what you expected to see.

© Bluetail Team. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. PostScript and Illustrator are trademarks of Adobe Inc. Pantone is a trademark of Pantone LLC. EPSViewer Pro is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe or Pantone.