Quick Look is great feature of OS X Leopard — it provides the previews for Quick Look (just select a file and press the space bar) and also the thumbnails for icon generation and CoverFlow. Apple provided support for a number of file types and now developers are starting to create plugins for different file types. I’ve decided to compile a list of different Quick Look plugins. Let me know if you’ve found any useful ones in the comments. Also, see a guide for how to install these plugins at the bottom of the page– it couldn’t be easier

So far we have Folders, zip, eps, illustrator, xml, TextMate, medical images, flash movie file Quick Look plugins. Do know any others?

Quick Look for Folders

A great Plugin — and one Apple should have made. It lets you view the contents of a folder in Quick Look (and the source is editable). Download here
This is a great plugin and the first of many custom plugins I hope.
Alternative themes are here (replace the folder plugin with these ones).

Quick Look for .zip files

Download .zip plugin.
Lets you see the contents of a .zip file without decompressing it… not super fast but much better than decompressing the archive to find you need to compress it again.
Alternative themes are here (replace the folder plugin with these ones).

Quick Look for flv files (Flash)

Quick look for Flash video. Laura says this works fine “I am using that FLV plugin – it works just fine. You do need to also install the Perian plugin which is linked to on that same page as the QuickLook plugin.”

Quick Look for eps files

A frequently requested plugin which is freeware from Eternal Storms software: download here. It works great, fast and makes nice previews.

Quick Look for XML

CEDLecca has a syntax coloured and indented plugin for XML download it here

Quick Look for Adobe Illustrator Files

Partial Fix (the plugin only works for .ai files saved with PDF compatibility)download it here

Quick Look image viewer for zip/cbz files

Quickcomic by dancingtortoise shows the first 20 images in a zip/cbz file. download (note only one plugin will work for a filetype at a time — only one .zip plugin will be active at a time)

Quick look for TextMate

Haven’t tested this one but it need TextMate to be running to generate Quick Looks (also enable QLs inside the TextMate programme). Download here from Ciarán Walsh’s Blog.

Brainsightâ„¢ QuickLook Generator

I haven’t installed this as I don’t use these file types — seems useful for medical images (MINC1, MINC2, DICOM (using the .dcm extension), and NIfTI file formats.)download

Spectrum SCR files

I’m not exactly sure what a SCR file is or why you’d need to take a Quick look at one but here is where you can download the plugin

Installation of Quick Look Plugins

Plugins can be installed in either of these folders (create the QuickLook folder if it doesn’t exist):
/Library/QuickLook/
OR
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/QuickLook/
(replace YOURUSERNAME with your short user name)

Programming Your Own Quick Look Plugins

Apple has a guide to making your own plugins for Quick Look. So, if you don’t see a plugin you want for Quick Look and can program get to it — send me a link and I’ll include on this list.