Question :
In the past, I used to create my own custom Quartz-filters in ColorSync Utility, and they were instantly available system-wide in MacOSX. Now, in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion and OSX 10.9 Mavericks ( and OSX 10.10 Yosemite and OSX 10.11 El_Capitan ), I don’t have access to my Quartz-filters anymore…
What is wrong ? And how can I fix this ?
Answer :
In the latest versions of OSX [*], there seems to be a bug preventing OSX to find Quartz-filters stored outside of the ‘official’ “Filters”-folder that is inside the “Library”-folder in the “System”-folder… so, since all custom-made Quartz-filters are stored inside the “Filters”-folder that is inside the (invisible) “Library”-folder in the User’s “Home”-folder, your custom-made Quartz-filters are not found by OSX…
The solution is to just move them into the right (official) “Filters”-folder. [**]
(Yep, it’s that easy…)
For an in-depth step-by-step guide for doing so, follow the procedure outlined here.
NOTES :
[*] this bug was solved/removed with the introduction of macOS 10.12 Sierra
[**] put differently :
In all versions of OSX from OSX 10.8 Mountain_Lion up to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan,
new Quartz-filters created in Colorsync Utility are/were automatically saved in :
~/Users/[username]/Library/Filters/
But all other applications (including e.g. Preview) weren’t able to access or use them as they could only load Quartz-filters from :
~/System/Library/Filters/
and – only if you created the following folder manually – from :
~/Library/Filters/
So you had to manually move your custom Quartz-filters to :
~/Library/Filters/
to be able to use them in Preview.app and alike
MacManus.nl 
This needs to be updated. Firstly, if there was ever a bug that stopped the OS reading user Quartz filters, it was very short-lived.
Secondly, users can’t save files to /System anymore. You could create a Filters folder for them in the root level /Library, and they will be found there.
Also note that depending on the Domain settings, Quartz filters may be placed in the (user’s) PDF Services folder or other Library folder.
@Ben :
Thank you for your feedback.
I’m not exactly sure why you think this post should be updated…
So I just tested :
in macOS 10.13 High_Sierra this bug no longer exists
in OSX 10.11 El_Capitan this bug is/was still there
So, yes I am going to update the original post to include OSX 10.10 Yosemite and OSX 10.11 El_Capitan
(thanks for informing me)
But then, I can’t put your ‘very short-lived’ remark into perspective as it was a bug that was there for at least 4 generations of OSX, so for 4 years… from 2012 to 2016…
So, maybe it’s good to rephrase :
In all versions of OSX from OSX 10.8 Mountain_Lion up to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan,
new Quartz-filters created in Colorsync Utility were automatically saved in :
~/Users/[username]/Library/Filters/
But all other applications (including e.g. Preview) weren’t able to access or use them as they could only load Quartz-filters from :
~/System/Library/Filters/
and – only if you created the following folder manually – from :
~/Library/Filters/
So you had to manually move your custom Quartz-filters to :
~/Library/Filters/
to be able to use them in Preview.app and alike
Luckily we no longer have this problem in macOS 10.13 High_Sierra
😉