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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Preview doesn't open .ps files

Hermann - Oct 11, 2006 - 7:12 am

Hi,

My Preview does not convert .ps and .eps files to .pdf. There used to be no problem, until it suddenly stopped working. The message is in a popup window,

File Error

Couldn't open the file

I can't think of anything I did that could have created this problem, except maybe update OS X to 10.4.8 (on a PowerBook G4).

By the way, I can convert the files with the ps2pdf command (in /usr/local/bin),
but that has to be done from the command line and is very inconvenient.

Thanks for your help,

Hermann

Thunderthud - Oct 11, 2006 - 12:18 pm

I'm assuming that you double-click on the .ps/.eps file and the operation fails. If this is the case click once on the file then type cmd-I for the file info box.

In the lower half of the info dialog you will see a section that says "Open this file with...". Preview should be selected. If it isn't navigate to Preview and designate it as the application of choice. If you want all files with that extension to be opened in Preview when you double-click it select that option.

Also do this for the other extension.

Hermann - Oct 11, 2006 - 5:06 pm

The files that lead to the error message all have "Open with Preview" selected. I checked a few more things. Eps graphical files that I created recently with Octave and xfig don't convert; I had saved some older ones, and they still convert. Older ps text files convert as they used to, but nothing I now download or get through email does. Just now I tried to open one of these (again), and Preview froze three times in a row (I had to Force Quit). It all seems very strange.

Natobasso - Oct 12, 2006 - 8:57 am

Howdy! Check at the bottom of this post on another forum. A user created Actions with a different app that might be a good work-around instead of using Preview:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...7738&lsrc=osxh

Let me know if this helps. If not, I'll re-open this question.

Hermann - Oct 13, 2006 - 5:05 am

Hi. I found the post you suggested but will need more time. Thanks!

Natobasso - Oct 13, 2006 - 6:03 am

Ok.

Hermann - Oct 14, 2006 - 8:04 pm

Hi! You were referring to PS2PDF and Friends, right? I downloaded it, and it works just fine. It's a neat application.

(I'm still wondering--why did my Preview suddenly become unable to handle ps to pdf conversion??).

Thanks for your help,

Hermann

Natobasso - Oct 14, 2006 - 9:21 pm

I can only guess you need to repair permissions: apps/utilities/disk utility/repair permissions

When permissions files go bad (all apps and files have permissions that go with them) you start losing functionality. Repairing them brings the lost functionality back.

Let me know if this doesn't fix the problem. It should be done once every month or when issues crop up, as needed.