With macOS 12 Monterey, Apple started to remove the support for (Encapsulated) PostScript. QuickLook preview has been disabled, Preview.app is unable to display the contents of PostScript files anymore.

However this can easily be replaced by the following tools, essentially you need to install the GhostScript command-line software package.

MacTeX

Installing the MacTeX package either from our Managed Software Center or directly from the CTAN package by default also installs the GhostScript set of tools in /usr/local/bin.

This is the easiest way to obtain GhostScript, however using MacPorts is also an option.

XQuartz

Fans of the traditional UNIX command line/X11 combo can stop here and use /usr/local/bin/gs to view their PostScript data. Of course, XQuartz has to be installed as well. For this, either use our Managed Software Center or install it with MacPorts or download an installation package from xquartz.org)

TeXShop

The macOS way #1: Once MacTeX is installed, set TeXShop.app as your default (E)PS application: In Finder, select an arbitrary PostScript file, choose File->Get Info (or press ⌘-I), use the popup menu under «Open With…», navigate to TeXShop.app, finally click «Change all».

TeXShop will automatically convert the PostScript file to a PDF document with the same name in the same folder and displays this.

Skim

The macOS way #2: The free PDF viewer Skim.app, available through our Managed Software Center as well, also uses GhostScript to convert and display (E)PS documents. By default, it relies on the presence of /usr/local/bin/ps2pdf as installed by MacTeX.

If you installed GhostScript by some other means, MacPorts for example, then tell Skim.app where to find ps2pdf with the Terminal command

defaults write -app Skim SKPSConversionCommand $(which ps2pdf)

and restart Skim.app afterwards.

Other macOS apps

Surely there are plenty other options like Affinity Designer or Adobe (together with Apple, the creator of PostScript) Illustrator. However it’s a waste of money purchasing such an app just for the purpose of viewing/converting EPS files to PDF documents.

The conversion to PDF is always taking place – all Apple devices can display PDF’s natively without an additional app as the operating systems use a technology called DisplayPDF to render the screen/printout/whatever graphical output. DisplayPDF actually is the successor of Display PostScript developed by NeXT Inc. in the 1980’s.