Preview Quartz Composer (.qtz) files in Safari

Jan 31, '08 07:30:03AM

Contributed by: jpalm1977

I was hunting for a very specific screensaver the other day online, and was thrilled to find a direct link to the Quartz Composer (.qtz) file in question. So I clicked on the URL in Safari, expecting it to start downloading, and was pleasantly surprised when Safari began rendering the screensaver from directly within the active Safari window. Nice one!

Additional investigation revealed that any .qtz file on your computer will render in Safari via the drag and drop method. Right-clicking on the active window in Safari brings up an option to "Save Composition," which allows you to download the .qtz file to a location of your choice.

Some additional notes:

  1. I have Developer Tools installed, and haven't tested this without Developer Tools installed.
  2. Not tested in 10.4.x (Tiger)
  3. Quartz Composer files are pretty darn small and they load and render very quickly. They are easily created with Developer Tools and can access all kinds of system information and can link to, fetch, and deliver all kinds of information (eg. RSS feeds) online.
  4. So one REALLY big question that this now poses, is what kind of wonderful potential uses, if any, do these have in the realm of web design and development?
  5. Quicktime can also render and play .qtz files. So is Safari using the QuickTime Plug-in to render these files? Or is Safari accessing the Quartz graphics engine directly?
  6. If Safari is using the QuickTime Plug-in, then Windows users might be able to benefit from any potential web applications that these files have to offer. If this is not the case, then any potential applications would be limited to Mac OS X platforms only. Either way it is still a tantalizing thought for Mac users.
[robg adds: I tried this in Safari on Windows XP, and wasn't able to open the .qtz file.]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080126063306561