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Happiness Engineer at Automattic, lover of knitting, crochet, sci-fi and more

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Edit EPS files in Inkscape on Mac

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EPS files have their uses, for sure, but they seem to be a standard output of Adobe Illustrator, which is a bit sad, because Inkscape (the open source vector editor I use) can’t open them (without some hassle with ghostscripts or something).

Recently I needed to change the colour of an EPS image and I didn’t want to do a hack job by just filling a new colour over a bitmap versions. I did a quick search for converting EPS files and saw several references to PDF and opening the PDF in Inkscape. I realised I didn’t need extra software to convert an EPS to PDF. Everything I need is already on my computer: Preview.

I bet loads of people view their PDFs in Preview every day with no idea of its hidden power…

One thing Preview is quite good at is saving files in different formats. All I had to do was open the EPS in Preview and Save As… PDF. I was then able to open it directly with Inkscape and the objects were all in tact for me to change their fill and stroke to my heart’s content.

Update 26 October 2012: Since X11 support has been dropped from OS X you have to take some extra steps to install Inkscape on Mountain Lion.

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  2. Great Post
    Specially ” Recently I needed to change the colour of an EPS image and I didn’t want to do a hack job by just filling a new colour over a bitmap versions. I did a quick search for converting EPS files and saw several references to PDF and opening the PDF in Inkscape. I realised I didn’t need extra software to convert an EPS to PDF. Everything I need is already on my computer: Preview.”

    Thanks A lot

  3. ‘with no idea of it’s hidden power’

    hi, don’t want to be a nerd or know-all, but that ‘it’s’ HAS to become ‘its’ ..

    hello from a newbie to Thesis. Found your site of the showcase of ‘Kiiller’ Thesis sites, am checking through them one by one as I prepare my Pianophonics site to sell a ‘killer’ piano method…

  4. Mark — Thanks, I’ve fixed that misapostrophication. It’s okay, your disregard of spelling and capital letters in the rest of your comment saves you from nerd status. 😉

    Best of luck with your new site! Be sure to check out http://thesisgallery.com/ as well. Some of the sites might not be quite as good as the official Thesis gallery, but some are very good and you will probably find a broader selection.

  5. A bit late to the party, but the problem that I have seen is that preview interprets colors in his own way if I am not mistaken (open a jpg in preview and then in photoshop for example).

    I am therefor afraid that converting an eps to a jpg will mess up your colors.

  7. thanks so much for this tip! you have saved me from spending the rest of the afternoon pointlessly downloading naff freeware!

  8. Great tip Kristen. Thanks! helped me achieve what I wanted (after downloading an .EPS file from iStockphoto) and now I have the transparent PNG files I need (which I created using SnagIt, by screen capturing a very good resolution PDF, that your tip helped me create). Thanks!

  9. So simple, yo’re a lifesaver! I’ve been digging around for several minutes, and this is the first thing that’s made sense!

  11. i’m new to inkscape (and vectors in general) so i’m not sure what you mean by “open the eps in preview.” i see the preview when i try to open the file, but when i try to open the eps it’s just too big, i guess. i’ve looked through the “the book of inkscape” and around the web for help, but i’m forced to ask this silly question.

    • Karrie — you have to be using a Mac, and Preview is a built in application for viewing and limited editing of files including PDFs, images and maybe other file formats. So you should be able to right click on the file and “open in Preview”.