---
title: Quick Look Thumbnailing
framework: Quick Look Thumbnailing
role: collection
role_heading: Framework
platforms: [iOS 13.0+, iPadOS 13.0+, Mac Catalyst 13.0+, macOS 10.15+, visionOS 1.0+]
path: quicklookthumbnailing
---

# Quick Look Thumbnailing

Generate thumbnails for common file types and add a Thumbnail Extension to your app to enable others to create thumbnails of your custom files.

## Overview

Overview You may want to create a miniature representation, or thumbnail, of a file and its contents to display within your app. The QuickLookThumbnailing framework provides an API to generate thumbnails using the QLThumbnailGenerator object. It can generate thumbnails for common file types, including: Images Live Photos Text files PDFs Audio and video files Augmented reality objects using the usdz file format (iOS and iPadOS only) Many apps use custom file types to persist their data. Finder and Spotlight on macOS, other features of the operating system, as well as other apps, often display a generic file icon instead of a thumbnail for these files. However, if an installed app implements a Thumbnail Extension that supports the custom file types, the operating system and other apps can leverage the extension to display rich thumbnails of the custom file types through the QLThumbnailGenerator object. Add a Thumbnail Extension to your app to provide rich thumbnails of your custom file types to your users throughout the operating system and third party apps.

## Topics

### Thumbnail Generation

- [Creating Quick Look Thumbnails to Preview Files in Your App](quicklookthumbnailing/creating-quick-look-thumbnails-to-preview-files-in-your-app.md)
- [QLThumbnailGenerator](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailgenerator.md)
- [QLThumbnailRepresentation](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailrepresentation.md)

### Thumbnails for Custom File Types

- [Providing Thumbnails of Your Custom File Types](quicklookthumbnailing/providing-thumbnails-of-your-custom-file-types.md)
- [QLThumbnailProvider](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailprovider.md)
- [QLFileThumbnailRequest](quicklookthumbnailing/qlfilethumbnailrequest.md)
- [QLThumbnailReply](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailreply.md)

### Error Information

- [QLThumbnailErrorDomain](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailerrordomain.md)
- [QLThumbnailError](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailerror-swift.struct.md)
- [QLThumbnailError.Code](quicklookthumbnailing/qlthumbnailerror-swift.struct/code.md)