Apple's Preview does not display png, jpg, or tiff images

S

StevenP6

Bit poster
I'm doing a trial of Snow Leopard Server (10.6) running in a Parallels 12 VM hosted on MacOS Sierra (10.12).
I found that whenever I try to open an image file (e.g. png, jpg, or tiff), Apple's Preview app displays a blank window for the image. The following error message appears numerous times in the console log
Preview [xxx]: invalid pixel format
Preview [xxx]: invalid context​
PDF images seem to display properly with Preview.
I haven't found anything that gives me a clue as to what I am doing wrong.
 
This appears to be a shortcoming of Parallel's virtual machine. I've tried several generic installs of OS X 10.6.3 Server. I found the problem in each instance. Applying patches to bring 10.6.3 up to the latest Snow Leopard Server version (10.6.8) does not solve the problem. I compared MD5 hashes of the Preview.app folder contents on the guest VM versus the Preview app on a non-virtual machine system where the app works properly - I found the hashes to be identical which tells me that Preview.app is not corrupt in the VM.
I am interested to know
  1. ... does anyone have a combination of Mac host OS and Parallel's versions where Preview in a Snow Leopard Server guest works properly? [I don't have the option of downgrading my host OS from Sierra to anything earlier, but it would be good to know if there is hope that Parallels might fix the issue with an update in the future.]
  2. ... has anyone found a workaround for opening png, jpg, and tiff files in a Snow Leopard Server guest VM?
Thank you in advance for any advice you may be able to provide.
 
I'm having this issue aswell and I agree it might not be Preview's fault. Running Sierra host and Parallels 11, and 10.6.8 guest. I've installed Snow Leopard server using VirtualBox and then transfered the file to Parallels. Wasn't expecting it to work, but it did.
The guest seems to be unning acceptably, as far as I'm aware. This Preview issue is the only thing bugging me, since I was hoping of using it instead of the new Preview, because it was a much better experience with saving a bunch of edited images and managing pdf documents.

I found that if I zoom out all the way, it crashes everytime. Maybe there would be some usefull info in that crash log?
 
@mindbs - thanks for confirming that someone else is seeing the same issue.
I opened a ticket (Id: 2362576) with Parallels support on Jan 12. They are presumably working on a resolution, but so far I have not heard of any progress.
In the mean time I have found that I can view images using a third party app (Graphic Converter) in in lieu of using Preview. I suspect that Graphic Converter and Preview don't use the same graphics calls and that is why one works and the other does not.
I hope that Parallels can fix this bug soon.
BTW - I could not reproduce the crash you experienced when resizing an image.
 
Yes, this is my experience too (Snow Leopard Server 10.6.8 running in Parallels 10 in 10.9.5). Preview displays pdf's fine, complete with embedded images, but .jpg .png and .gif, no, just a blank window.
Those same images display ok in other applications, even in QuickLook. Just not in Preview.
It would be good to have a fix of this bug. (I even tried increasing the video graphics from its rather miserable 32MB of RAM to 128MB, but no difference).

P.S. I've found a little app called 'File Viewer' which does what it says on the tin. It hasn't got Preview's range of tools, but at least it will let you see images.
 
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I have submitted a support request in support of the ticket raised (I can't seem to find where tickets are displayed, and where you can add relevant information).
 
I've received a reply to MY ticket asking for a Problem Report. Following the article on how to do this, I can only say that you at KB make such things far too complicated. Please advise ALL OF US who have this problem - as you can see from this thread there are several of us - what the status is in your resolving the problem? Please note - IT IS NOT MY PROBLEM - IT'S A BUG IN PARALLELS. There is enough information in this topic to proceed. PLEASE ADVISE.
 
Same problem with Preview. I've also discovered problems with iPhoto. You can open a jpg file but that's about it. No editing etc. Also found a problem of dragging a webloc from 10.12 to 10.6.8. If you drag it to the 10.6.8 desktop, it will give a file error. If you drag the same to a Windows desktop first, then to 10.6.8, it works fine.
 
BobF1 said:
Same problem with Preview. I've also discovered problems with iPhoto. You can open a jpg file but that's about it. No editing etc. Also found a problem of dragging a webloc from 10.12 to 10.6.8. If you drag it to the 10.6.8 desktop, it will give a file error. If you drag the same to a Windows desktop first, then to 10.6.8, it works fine.
Click to expand...
Have you tried running iPhoto in 10.12?
 
Hi @BobF1, we got your response to this forum thread as a forum admin alert.

It looks like you responded to the forum notification by email instead of posting it back to the forum. To post messages to the forum thread, please do that on the forum directly.
Here is a copy of your message:


Yes, iPhoto 9.6.1 works fine in Sierra (10.12.3). Of course I can always use this instead of the iPhoto in the guest OS 10.6.8 but my comment was more related to the fact that something is amiss with working image files in the guest OS 10.6.8.
BTW, I can open an image file with Safari in 10.6.8. It displays but Safari doesn't allow you to do much with it.
 
Yes, iPhoto 9.6.1 works fine in Sierra (10.12.3). Of course I can always use this instead of the iPhoto in the guest OS 10.6.8 but my comment was more related to the fact that something is amiss with working image files in the guest OS 10.6.8.
BTW, I can open an image file with Safari in 10.6.8. It displays but Safari doesn't allow you to do much with it.
Click to expand...

If you can work with image files in the host, do you really need an equivalent in the guest? I only ask because I've got Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop Elements 6 (and much else besides) running in Mavericks, so don't want to duplicate files, apps and activities in 10.6.8 which I run in Parallels for other reasons.
However it is possible to view image files in guest 10.6.8 by getting all such files to open with a little app called File Viewer, though you can't work on them. I was tempted to install iPhoto '09 to see if your editing problem was evident on my Mac too, but I haven't found time yet. I could also install Photoshop Elements there too. However the quickest way to test it would be to download a very small image editing app called Seashore. If that too doesn't allow image editing, then something is very wrong indeed with Parallels in this regard and Maria (above) would be better spent devoting her energies to investigating that instead of merely reposting stuff from email to here.

ETA: i did download Seashore and edited a file with it and saved it as a new JPEG - seemed to work without problem.
 
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I recently completed a trial of PD 12 where I encountered the reported issue with images (OS X 10.6.8 guest). The same issue occurs with Fusion so I assumed the underlying cause is the OpenGL support. For me this is a blocker.
 
I recently had tech support look at my system and this was their determination.
"The reason why you're experiencing such an issue is related to Apple restrictions for their products. We understand your frustration - however, you could see this is indeed a matter of Mac OS limiting our virtualizer."
The bottom line is Parallels does not take ownership of the problem.
 
BobF1 said:
I recently had tech support look at my system and this was their determination.
"The reason why you're experiencing such an issue is related to Apple restrictions for their products. We understand your frustration - however, you could see this is indeed a matter of Mac OS limiting our virtualizer."
The bottom line is Parallels does not take ownership of the problem.
Click to expand...
It's also total rubbish. Quick Look works and so do other Apple products. Not to mention the fact that PNG JPG and TIFF are all universal standards for images and nothing to do with Apple. You're right - Parallels refuse to take ownership of this problem, which is entirely down to them and not Apple. Just about everything else in 10.6.8 runs fine in Parallels including Apple and 3rd-party software, so they've just decided this is too much bother and won't do anything.
 
A small workaround... you can use colorsync utility to view the jpgs in 10.6.8. server in Parallels 13. But I cannot seem to get preview to open bmp jpg or other graphical files. Weird.
 
Here's a workround to this Parallels bug:

If you open more than one image in Preview, you can see the thumbnails in the sidebar, which should be widened to its maximum size. Then invoke the Adjust Color... menu and the adjust panel appears. As you make adjustments to the image you can see the effect on the thumbnails. Not a brilliant solution, but it could do for now.

Preview's other functions such as Adjust Size... and Save As... seem to work normally.
 
  • JPG is a lossy format while PNG is a lossless format.
  • JPG is better for photographs while PNG is better for created images.
  • JPG supports the embedding of EXIF data while PNG does not.
  • PNG supports transparency while JPG does not.

Which one to use?
  • JPG is the most common format that's in use. But you should be careful as image quality degrades with every save.
  • PNG makes for great screenshots if there are no gradients in the original source. PNG is also a good option for images which need transparency.
 
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