5 MacOS Quick Look Extensions: Hidden Productivity Secrets

Quick Look is a powerful macOS feature that allows you to preview files without opening them fully. You can customize Quick Look to make it even more efficient and tailored to your needs. In this article, we’ll explore how to unlock the hidden productivity with macOS Quick Look extensions.

Customizing with macOS Quick Look Extensions: A Game Changer

1. Change Quick Look Background Color

To modify the background color of Quick Look:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Enter the command below.
3. Replace the values (0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8) with your preferred RGBA color values. This example sets the background color to a light gray with some transparency.

defaults write -g QLPanelBackgroundColor -t rgba 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 

Afterward, restart the Finder for the changes to take effect:

killall Finder

Now, your Quick Look previews will have the background color you’ve specified.

2. Enable Quick Look Plugins

Quick Look has built-in support for various file types, but you can extend its capabilities by installing plugins. These plugins allow you to preview even more file formats, making Quick Look an even more powerful tool.

To enable Quick Look plugins:

1. Download Quick Look plugins from trusted sources like GitHub.
2. Install the plugins following the instructions provided for each one.

Once installed, you’ll be able to use Quick Look to preview a wider range of file types.

3. Adjust Quick Look Preview Duration

By default, Quick Look previews disappear after a few seconds. If you’d like to extend or shorten this duration, you can do so with a simple Terminal command:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Enter the following command to set the Quick Look preview duration to 10 seconds. You can replace “10.0” with your desired duration in seconds.

defaults write -g QLPreviewDisplayDuration -float 10.0

Afterward, restart Finder to have the changes take effect:

killall Finder

Now, your Quick Look previews will display for the specified duration, giving you more time to examine your files.

4. Customize Quick Look Window Size

You can also adjust the size of the Quick Look window to better fit your needs:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Use the following command to set the Quick Look window width and height, replacing <width> and <height> with your preferred values.

defaults write -g QLPreviewWidth <width> && defaults write -g QLPreviewHeight <height>

This change allows you to control the size of the Quick Look preview window.

5. Disable Quick Look for Certain File Types

In some cases, you may want to prevent Quick Look from generating previews for specific file types. To do this:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Use the following command to disable Quick Look previews for a particular file type (e.g., PDF), replacing “com.adobe.pdf” with the Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) of the file type you want to disable.

qlmanage -r disable com.adobe.pdf

To re-enable Quick Look previews for the file type, run:

qlmanage -r enable com.adobe.pdf

By customizing with macOS Quick Look extensions, you can make it work more efficiently and effectively for your specific needs, ultimately boosting your productivity on macOS.