I remember working in digital prepress decades ago that .eps files were just kinda weird, and I didn’t love it when I had to deal with them. Like, what even made this? Why? I assumed it was some kind of antiquated software or practice, and I’d just deal with it, and eventually the world would improve.
But here we are in 2026, and EPS is still here. How I come across EPS files is that it’s the download format from stock art sites that deliver vector artwork.
It actually sorta makes sense:
- Stock art sites can’t deliver vectors as like
.ai(The Adobe Illustrator format, now a funny and unfortunate file extension) because it’s too vendor-specific. Not everyone uses Adobe software, and that format changes on a whim. - Stock art can’t deliver in
.svg, even though it’s a great open format, because it’s too web-specific. Graphic designers use vector art too, and SVG isn’t designed for the CMYK world of print. - Stock art sites can’t deliver in
.pdfbecause it’s just too weird. It doesn’t scream “editable source art” like it needs to.
But EPS is still weird! It’s a “frozen” format in that it hasn’t been touched in decades. That’s kinda good, but it feels like if Adobe really wanted to entirely move on from supporting it at all, they could. Plus, you get no preview for EPS files whatsoever.
That makes EPS files feel like a pretty low-class citizen on macOS.
OK, so EPS is a non-proprietary format that more-than-Adobe software can deal with, fine.
Can Figma open them?
Nope.
Can Sketch open them? Nope.
So by avoiding too much Adobe lock-in using EPS format, that locks me into needing to keep Adobe Illustrator around so I have something that can open an EPS file and get it converted into something useful.
I feel like just going full SVG would be the way to go, and I imagine print designers could figure it out.