Quick Look Is More Than It Seems

What’s the thing you think of first when I say “Quick Look”? Probably you think of the window that Finder, Mail, and Time Machine can open as a way to preview the document that is selected/ the attachment in an email. Well, Quick Look is embedded at a deeper level than just that. First of all, the Cover Flow view in Finder and the preview of the file in general (icon/ column view preview) is generated by the Quick Look engine. Secondly, iChat Theater uses the Quick Look engine to display the files to the people you’re chatting with. All of these uses for QuickLook base off of the engine itself which is stored in the /System/Library/Frameworks folder by the name of “QuickLook.framework”. Also, Quick Look is a wide open range of 3rd party development using the “… .qlgenerator” file format. I already have 4 of these plugins installed on my machine (not counting the 2 that Apple installed). All of this proves the point that Quick Look isn’t only what it shows and what Apple says it is, but is truly a part of the OS that is used all over the place. Enjoy, Alex.