A simple, sleek, efficient macOS image viewer — built to bring the Windows 11 Photos "page through the folder" experience to the Mac. Open one image and use Next/Previous (arrow keys or on-screen chevrons) to flip through every other image in that folder, the way Preview never quite let you.
Not affiliated with Microsoft or Windows. "Windows 11" is referenced only to describe the interaction model this app emulates.
- Folder as album — open one image, page through the whole folder in Finder's natural (numeric-aware) order. Stops at the ends.
- Open by drag-and-drop — drop an image onto the window (or the app icon) to start paging its folder; or ⌘O / "Open With".
- Fit-to-window on open, never upscaling small images past 100%.
- Fast zoom & pan — ⌘+ / ⌘−, trackpad pinch, ⌘-scroll, double-click to toggle fit ⇄ 100%, drag to pan. Live zoom-percent readout.
- Click to hide chrome — one click on the image hides the toolbar, chevrons, and filmstrip for a distraction-free view; click again to bring them back.
- Bottom filmstrip of folder thumbnails; click any to jump.
- Two-finger swipe left/right to page between images.
- Rotate left/right (non-destructive — never rewrites your file).
- Delete to Trash with a confirm prompt, then auto-advance to the next image.
- Copy (⌘C), Reveal in Finder (⌘⇧R), and a Share button (AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Add to Photos, …).
- Info overlay — dimensions, file size, type, and basic EXIF (⌘I).
- Remembers its window size and position across launches.
- Broad format support via macOS ImageIO: JPEG, PNG, GIF (animated plays inline), TIFF, BMP, HEIC/HEIF, WebP, AVIF, and camera RAW.
- Sleek dark chrome with a hidden title bar; fullscreen support.
- Automatic updates — MacView checks for new versions and updates itself (App menu → Check for Updates…, or in the background; toggle in Settings). Powered by Sparkle, with an EdDSA-signed appcast served from GitHub Pages.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open… | ⌘O |
| Next / Previous image | → / ← |
| Toggle chrome | Space |
| Zoom in / out | ⌘+ / ⌘− |
| Zoom to fit | ⌘0 |
| Actual size (100%) | ⌘1 |
| Toggle fit ⇄ 100% | double-click |
| Rotate left / right | ⌘L / ⌘R |
| Info overlay | ⌘I |
| Copy image | ⌘C |
| Reveal in Finder | ⌘⇧R |
| Move to Trash | ⌫ |
| Full screen | ⌃⌘F (or the toolbar button; Esc exits) |
Download the latest MacView-x.y.z.dmg from Releases, open it, and drag MacView
to Applications. From then on MacView keeps itself up to date automatically.
To make it your default image viewer, either:
- open MacView → Settings (⌘,) → "Set MacView as the Default Image Viewer", or
- right-click an image in Finder → Open With → Other… → MacView, check "Always Open With".
(Install to /Applications first so the association points at a stable location.)
Requires macOS 14+ and the Swift toolchain (Xcode or Command Line Tools).
git clone https://github.com/thefinder808/macview.git && cd macview
./build.sh run # build a .app bundle and launch itOther build.sh subcommands: app (assemble bundle), open (launch via
LaunchServices), release / install (to /Applications), dmg,
gen-appcast / publish-appcast (Sparkle update feed), clean.
pip3 install pillow
python3 tools/make_icon.py # rewrites Resources/AppIcon.iconset; build.sh makes the .icnsbrew install create-dmg
./build.sh notarize # Developer ID sign + DMG + notarize + stapleUses the shared traceview-notary keychain profile. See CLAUDE.md for details.
SwiftUI owns layout, state, and chrome; AppKit (an NSScrollView with
magnification) owns the image canvas for efficient zoom/pan and large-image
handling. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the layer map and
design decisions, CLAUDE.md for conventions and hard-won gotchas, and
CHANGELOG.md for version history.
If MacView is useful to you: Buy me a coffee ☕
MIT — see LICENSE.