Viewing and organizing photos is a common thing people do on their computer. Recently, I received a mail from a reader John. He wrote that he is searching for an alternative to Photos App and what are the best image viewers for Mac.
Download Free Image Viewer for Mac - Seashore. Sequential is an image viewer for Mac OS X. It was originally designed for opening a folder of images and displaying them in order. Sequential is compatible with most image formats, and compressed folders. Miele LXIV is a free DICOM viewer for Mac operating systems. It has advanced features including MPR, MIP, volume rendering, and image fusion. In addition, it also allows 4D viewing of cardiac CTs. It is PACS-integrated and can send and receive files from a PACS database.
Hello Saurabh,
I have been using Mac for years, and I store and manage all my photos on my Mac Mini. I know that I can press spacebar to get a preview of the selected photo on the finder. But I don’t like Mac’s built-in photo editing and viewing options and I don’t want to spend money on Adobe’s Image Management apps.
Can you recommend me some of the best image viewers for Mac?
Thanks
John
One thing that I don’t like with finder’s image preview is that to navigate all photos through arrow keys on keyboards, you need to select them with Command-A.
On Windows 10, Microsoft has a good photo viewing app called Photos where you can view photos and start a slideshow. Let’s take a look at some of the best image viewing apps on Mac.
Best Image Viewers for Mac
Sequential
Sequential is a slick and good looking image viewer for Mac OS X. It supports all common image formats including jpg, PNG, GIF. Additionally, Sequential can open files in ZIP, RAR and PDF format. One of the unique features of Sequential is that it can open CBZ and CBR formats that are used for digital comics. With Sequential, you can easily open a folder containing images and then view them in the correct order. At the time of writing, the app is completely free.
Sequential for Mac is a good image viewing software
Its lightweight too, making sure that it will run well even on your aging Mac Mini or MacBook Air.
Xee
While Xee costs $4 on the Mac app store. The streamlined user interface and good functionality. Xee can open all photos inside a folder and compressed archives. After launching Xee, you can see an image and its metadata.
The image viewer of Xee is fairly minimalistic and it hides al unnecessary info when you are inside a preview. Just like Sequential, Xee can also open CBR and CBZ files making it good for reading comics. One of the strong points of Xee is its good support of gestures. You can zoom and rotate images with your touchpad. If all you want is a minimal and strong image viewer for Mac, Xee is worth a look.
XnView
XnView is a popular image viewer. The developer claims that XnView has support for almost 500 different formats. In my testing, it did open most types of image formats that I had. As a cherry on top, XnView can also convert images to another format should you need to.
XnView’s features don’t stop there. It has built-in options for applying basic fixes and filters. Also, it can create slideshows for you. In image management departments, XnView has great support for batch renaming, metadata management, and a duplicate file finder.
XnView is one of the best image viewers for Mac
XnView makes it a great replacement for built-in photo preview in finder if you deal with tons of image formats every day or you want some extra control with your pictures. It is free for personal use and does not include any adware or spyware.
Google Picasa
Picasa is probably one of the most polished image viewers for Mac OS. Sure, Google Killed off Picasa recently, but the photo viewer app is still polished enough for most people. The Picasa Photo Viewer is fast, stable and still looks and performs as good as most other photo viewers for Mac.
Rather than looking like an image viewer in Android’s Gallery app, the Photo Viewer for Mac has a similar feeling to a media player. You can press Enter key on your keyboard to see any image in the fullscreen mode, and if you need, with just one click, you can start a slideshow.
Now that Google has shut down Picasa’s web service, the image upload feature will not be supported. Still, the app should run fine, and you can always use other services to upload photos to the cloud.
Even if you don’t want advanced image editing that Picasa offers, you should give Picasa a try. I have been using it on all my computers, and it has never let me down.
GIMP
If you have been editing photos for some time, you must have heard about GIMP. It’s a powerful image edition program that has been around for decades. It is an open source application that supports not only viewing but it also has airbrushing, fixing, penciling and a ton of other features. GIMP for Mac UI opens with a folder and file directly tree on is left pace. Next to it is a set of thumbnail images and there are buttons with a set of commands surrounding these panes.
GIMP has a slight learning curve if you have never used professional image editing applications. But. GIMP is the most powerful free image editing and viewing too around.
Which one is your favorite?
Photo Viewer For Mac Free
Among all the app in this post, which ones do you think is the best image viewers for Mac and why? Share with others in the comments below.
NEXT STORY: Is Sleeping Next To Your Phone Dangerous?
- January 02, 2020
- 18 min to read
Most free photo editors available on the App Store are quite basic, offering just a limited number of filters and allowing you to easily and quickly liven up your photos before posting them on social media.
But if you’re an aspiring or professional photographer, you probably need a more powerful app with a broader set of tools to use your creativity to the fullest. Besides, you probably use your Mac for photo editing because working on a large screen makes it possible to adjust the slightest details.
1. Apple’s Photos (Built-in app)
Apple’s Photos app is included for free on all recently released Macs. It does a good job at organizing your photos, but its collection of photo enhancement tools leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, our selection of the best free programs for photo editing on Mac will help you choose the right app to suit all your creative needs.
2. Luminar (7 days trial)
Luminar is another full-featured photo editor that’s popular with both Mac and Windows users. It can work as a standalone app as well as a plugin for such popular programs as Apple Photos.
Luminar uses Artificial Intelligence to enable sophisticated yet quick photo enhancements. Among these AI features are Sky Enhancer, which adds more depth and detail to the sky in your photos while leaving other areas untouched; Accent AI, which analyzes a photo and automatically applies the best combination of different effects to enhance your image; and Sun Rays, which allows you to place an artificial sun and adjust the lighting to your liking or make the sun rays already in your photo look even more incredible.
Luminar has over 60 filters you can apply to your photos to enhance them in a moment. Luminar also provides a set of powerful tools for cropping, transforming, cloning, erasing, and stamping, along with layers, brushes, and many more incredible features. Luminar supports the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, making photo editing even more effortless and pleasing.
3. Photolemur 3 (Free Version with watermark)
Photolemur is a relative newcomer on the photo editing market but it has all the chances to win the favor of beginner photographers and hobbyists. Running on Artificial Intelligence, Photolemur is a completely automatic photo enhancer, meaning that it does all the editing for you in no time. It has the simplest interface, with only a few buttons and sliders to adjust the enhancement to your liking and view the before and after results.
All you need to do is choose a photo (or a few) that you want to improve, drag and drop or import them using the Import button, and let the program make enhancements. After it’s done, you can compare the edited version with the original image by using the before–after slider and, if you want, adjust the skin tone or even enlarge the eyes using additional sliders. Pretty easy, huh?
Photolemur also offers a number of impressive styles to touch up your photos and give them a sophisticated and professional look. With this app, you don’t need to stuff your head with photo editing nuances and terms. Just run Photolemur and watch the magic happen!
4. Aurora HDR (14 days trial)
As you probably can tell from the name, Aurora HDR is designed to help photographers enhance their HDR photos, making them even more detailed and beautiful. It’s an ideal tool for editing your photos, with an extensive collection of more than 20 tools including details, tone, mapping, color, glow, and vignette. Each tool has its unique selection of controls to adjust its effects.
Aurora HDR enables you to work with brushes, layers, and masks, and provides a number of automatic AI tools for recognizing and removing noise, enhancing colors, lighting, and details, improving clarity, and adding contrast to dull areas while leaving other areas untouched.
Aurora HDR does a great job dealing with difficult lighting situations and creating full-of-life images while being easy to use.
5. Pixelmator (Trial 30 Days)
Pixelmator is a photo enhancer beloved by many Mac users, as it offers a good combination of a modern and simple interface, the ability to work on multiple layers, and powerful features that take photo editing to a whole new level. With so many editing tools, brushes, and effects, you can enhance your photos to your liking. You can choose between two versions of Pixelmator – standard and pro – depending on your needs. The standard version is great for basic photo editing with its selection of essential tools and filters, while the pro version is packed with extra brushes, tools, and effects that let you push your creativity to new boundaries. You can decide which version is suitable for you according to what features you’re looking for in a photo editing app.
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 (Trial link)
Photoshop Elements isn’t as affordable as other photo enhancers for beginner photographers. But luckily there’s a trial version available, so you can check it out before deciding whether this app is worthy of your money. Photoshop Elements acquired many powerful features from Photoshop, only Elements is simplified for amateur photographers and enthusiasts. It includes a good number of effects and filters, plus automated editing options for improving lighting, color balance, and exposure, and even opening closed eyes and reducing the effects of camera shake.
In addition to all of these awesome features, Photoshop also offers editing modes for beginners, intermediate users, and experts. Beginners will probably prefer Quick mode, as it focuses on essential tools to quickly enhance your photos by improving color, lighting, and other basic settings. Guided mode provides intermediate users with step-by-step guidance with more professional features like artistic effects, skin tone correction, and background replacement. Expert mode gives you full access to the app’s really powerful editing features and is ideal for creating stunning images.
7. Affinity Photo (Free Trial)
Affinity Photo’s interface may seem overwhelming at first, especially for novices, but when you come to grips with it you’ll find that the app is just what you’ve been looking for. Its numerous professional tools, effects, and filters encourage you to get creative with your photos. Among the coolest features Affinity Photo has to offer is a before and after view to compare the original photo with its edited version.
Affinity Photo works with 15 file types, including common ones like PDF, PSD, JPG, and GIF as well as some less popular ones. The app amazes with its abundance of basic and top-notch editing tools, allowing you to tweak your photos using all possible kinds of instruments. Affinity Photo allows you to edit HDR photos, apply artistic filters and effects, play with masks and layers, and create breathtaking compositions by combining several images in one. If you find its interface a bit much and are afraid of getting lost in all those advanced tools, you should probably look for something more suitable for your level. But Affinity Photo is worth mastering.
8. Google Photos
Google Photos is a popular cloud storage service for photos and videos. It can’t boast countless masterly tools like other photo enhancers that we review in this article, but it includes some fundamental features like filters, color adjustment sliders, and transformation tools.
Although Google Photos may not be that helpful when it comes to editing photos, it does a pretty good job at storing high-resolution images and videos with 15GB of free online storage, compared to iCloud’s mere 5GB (which you can upgrade to 50GB for a monthly fee). If you’re planning to go on a trip and take plenty of photos, then it might be smart to sign up for Google Photos to use that extra storage space when you come back.
Best Image Viewer For Mac
9. PhotoScape X (Free)
A relatively new photo editing app, PhotoScape X has been gaining popularity with many Mac and PC users since its release in 2008. Its interface is simple but unconventional, with a number of tabs running along the top of the window. Each is responsible for a specific stage of editing. The Viewer tab allows you to browse and organize your photos. After you pick a photo, you can switch to the Editor tab, which includes a broad set of instruments, filters, and effects and a useful feature that enables you to compare the adjusted photo with the original.
Image Viewer Download
The next tabs, including the Batch tab, mainly concentrate on editing and renaming multiple photos at once. The GIF tab allows you to easily create an animated GIF from a group of selected photos.
The downside of PhotoScape X is a lack of selection tools, so all changes are applied to the whole image rather than to a selected part.
10. Gimp (Free)
Gimp is a free open-source photo editing app that has been on the market for over 22 years and is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unlike many free apps, Gimp doesn’t have any ads or in-app purchases. Its grey interface might seem a little old-fashioned and it may be a bit sluggish when it comes to complex effects, though.
Gimp offers a vast collection of advanced tools that hardly any free photo editor can boast. It has numerous enhancement options such as clone and heal brushes, layers and channels, accurate selection tools, a number of transformation instruments, and, of course, color adjustment controls. Gimp is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing photos and is beloved by so many users for its price (free) and versatility. But if you can’t come to grips with Gimp’s interface, it may be worth paying some cash for a more user-friendly program.