Support for eps images has been turned off in office

Because of a security vulnerability in EPS files, Office 2019, Office 2016, Office 2013, Office 2010, and Microsoft 365 have turned off the ability to insert EPS files into Office documents. This change is effective as of the April 11, 2017, security update.

The security update is described in technical detail in this security bulletin.

All Windows-based versions of Office are affected. (This change had already been in place in Office 2007 since 2015.)

Office for Mac 2011 and Office 2016 for Mac are unaffected by this change.

Changes beginning in May 2018

Beginning with the April 2017 security update, support for inserting EPS files was turned off, by default. But it has been possible to turn back on the ability to insert EPS files with changes to a registry key. Beginning in May 2018, the registry-key method was turned off for Microsoft 365 subscribers and Office 2019 customers. This change will roll out gradually to everyone during May and June. It will no longer be possible for subscribers to insert EPS files in Office documents by any means.

It looks like a product bug, but it's intentional

If you attempt to insert an EPS file into an Office document, you'll only get an image placeholder with a message that says the picture can't be displayed:

In the case of EPS files, this message means that Office has turned off the ability to insert EPS files, because we think the vulnerability to malicious attacks is too great.

Beginning with Office 2010, the vulnerability was addressed by automatically converting EPS files to a more secure metafile format (EMF) upon insertion into an Office document. Files containing these converted EMF files continue to behave normally—the metafiles are retained and remain visible in the document.

Why this change was made

This change was done in response to active security incidents involving files. EPS files allow embedded scripts, which makes them a means of malicious attack for anyone who inserts an EPS file or opens a document that has an EPS file in it. In spite of previous efforts to mitigate the problem in Office documents, the EPS format continues to be a source of malicious attacks. To completely eliminate the risk of EPS files containing malicious code, Office decided to entirely turn off the ability to insert them.

Can I still use EPS files in Office?

Which version of Office are you using?

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• Which version of Office are you using?
• Office 365 or Office 2019
• Office 2016
• Office 2013
• Office 2010

No. For Microsoft 365, Office 2019, and future releases of Office, there is no way to use EPS files in Office documents. This change is being rolled out to customers during April and May.

Although we strongly recommend against it, it's possible for you to turn back on the ability to insert EPS files. Read KB article 2479871 for the instructions, which are complicated and involve making changes to the Windows registry. It is important to be aware that making this change would increase your vulnerability to malicious code.

If you perform the change to the registry, you will be able to insert EPS files in the application on which you have applied the registry change. The EPS files will be automatically converted to EMF, saved, and visible in the saved document, even by people who haven't performed the registry change. Be aware that making this change to the registry makes you vulnerable to malicious attacks based on EPS files.

We recommend that you no longer add EPS images to your Office documents, and instead use a substitute, as described in the next section.

Although we strongly recommend against it, it's possible for you to turn back on the ability to insert EPS files. Read KB article 2479871 for the instructions, which are complicated and involve making changes to the Windows registry. It is important to be aware that making this change would increase your vulnerability to malicious code.

If you perform the change to the registry, you will be able to insert EPS files in the application on which you have applied the registry change. The EPS files will be automatically converted to EMF, saved, and visible in the saved document, even by people who haven't performed the registry change. Be aware that making this change to the registry makes you vulnerable to malicious attacks based on EPS files.

We recommend that you no longer add EPS images to your Office documents, and instead use a substitute, as described in the next section.

Although we strongly recommend against it, it's possible for you to turn back on the ability to insert EPS files. Read KB article 2479871 for the instructions, which are complicated and involve making changes to the Windows registry. It is important to be aware that making this change would increase your vulnerability to malicious code.

If you perform the change to the registry, you will be able to insert EPS files in the application on which you have applied the registry change. The EPS files will be automatically converted to EMF, saved, and visible in the saved document, even by people who haven't performed the registry change. Be aware that making this change to the registry makes you vulnerable to malicious attacks based on EPS files.

We recommend that you no longer add EPS images to your Office documents, and instead use a substitute, as described in the next section.

Substitutes for EPS files

EMF and SVG are other graphics metafile formats that can be substituted for the EPS file format:

File Type	Supported by this version of Office
EMF	Office 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and Microsoft 365
SVG	Microsoft 365

Export or convert from EPS to a different format

If you have a graphics application such as Adobe Illustrator, you can open an EPS file in it and save or export the file to EMF or SVG.

Similarly, you can use an online conversion tool such as CloudConvert.com or Convertio.co to convert an EPS file to EMF or SVG.

Once you've converted the file to a compatible format for Office and saved it to your computer, you simply insert it in your document as usual.

Avoiding the use of EPS files makes your Office documents more secure in general.

Supported image-file formats in Office

File name extension	Name of image type	Raster or Vector?
svg	Scalable Vector Graphic	Vector
emf	Windows Enhanced Metafile	Can contain both
wmf	Windows Metafile	Can contain both
jpeg, jpg, jfif, jpe	JPEG File Interchange Format	Raster
png	Portable Network Graphics	Raster
bmp, dib, rle	Windows Bitmap	Raster
gif	Graphics Interchange Format	Raster
emz	Compressed Windows Enhanced Metafile	Can contain both
wmz	Compressed Windows Metafile	Can contain both
pcz	Compressed Macintosh PICT	Raster
tif, tiff	Tagged Image File Format	Raster