Simple photo viewer for Mac

Question

kirk12003 Author

Level 1

3 points

Simple photo viewer for Mac

Hello Everyone,

I am a new Mac user (Macbook Pro). I made the purchased because everyone has been telling me it would be much better than Windows for my photo and video work.

Well I am stumped.

Is there a simple photo viewer in the Mac OS that is similiar to the "Windows Photo Viewer"? The MS Windows photo viewer allows you to view photos at full screen and easily scroll back, forth and delete with one or two clicks. It's very effecient when going through a folder with 200+ pictures. You simply pic a folder and start browsing. No importing etc...

Now with the Macbook i've tried this through Finder with the different views and nothing even comes close. In order to view the picture at full screen I need to open it in preview, but I cannot delete from there. Doing this for 200+ pictures can take a lot of time. There is a preview window in finder that makes deleting easy, but the pictures are not even half screen size. I also looked into using iPhoto, but this seems like even more steps (importing etc...). I am just looking for an efficient way to screen and sift through lots of pictures with just a few clicks like "windows photo viewer".

I spoke with Apple support and they showed me a solution that requires me to toggle back and forth between photo viewer and finder. I'm thinking there is a more efficient process to streamline the workflow on this machine.

Please see the inserted images of Windows Photo viewer. Notice the Right, Left and Delete controls. It's a simple viewer, but makes going through your initial batch of photos and deciding wich ones to keep or delete a breeze. Not to mention it allows you to do this at nearly full screen. This allows you to see the picture detail.

Is there a recommended third party app that would do this on the Mac?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Kirk

Macbook Pro, OS x 10.8

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 18, 2012 1:45 PM

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Answer 1

zimbow

Level 1

4 points

Sep 24, 2017 10:34 PM in response to kirk12003

Phiewer - Image Viewer on the Mac App Store

or

http://phiewer.com/

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Answer 2

Sep 18, 2012 4:08 PM in response to kirk12003

You can easily view the files in a folder with Quick Look: simply select the first file and hit the Spacebar. Use arrow keys to navigate to the next file. (Quick Look works for more than just pictures.) To delete the current file, Command-Delete. You can view a slide show by selecting a number of images and hitting Option-Spacebar.

There are other ways to quickly look through files in a folder, for example using Cover Flow view (menu View > as Cover Flow [Command-4]).

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,562 points

Sep 18, 2012 2:18 PM in response to kirk12003

I second the recommendation for Graphic Converter. Personally, I first use Preview just to quickly look at the photos to see if they are "keepers" or need to be deleted (drag to trash can). After that, I use either Graphic Converter, Aperture, Photoshop Elements or a couple of others to do some "digital enhacing".

FWIW, Preview can be customized and can do quite a few things - take a look under View > Show Edit Toolbar and/or Customize Toolbar - lots of tweaking options available (except for the trash bin):

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Answer 4

MichelPM

Level 10

81,535 points

Jul 15, 2015 5:08 PM in response to kirk12003

New to Macs?

While these links mostly cover OS X Yosemite, much of the info and tours still apply to earlier OS X versions, as well.

https://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/

https://www.apple.com/support/osx/

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Answer 5

Sep 18, 2012 2:10 PM in response to kirk12003

I usually use GraphicConverter for doing things like that.

You can drop a folder of images onto GC's icon (or onto an alias to it) and the contained images will be displayed in catalog format, in user-adjustable image sizes. From that screen you can open fully any image. or throw it away or move it to one of many predefined target folders using keyboard shortcuts.

It also has a slideshow function from within which you can dispose of images viewed.

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Answer 6

kirk12003 Author

Level 1

3 points

Sep 18, 2012 8:04 PM in response to kirk12003

THANKS!!!!!!

Jeffrey Jones that tip helped a bunch!

Don and Babowa I like your recommendation. I can't wait to try it. Were do I find that program?

Is this it?

http://download.cnet.com/GraphicConverter/3000-2192_4-10057380.html

Thanks again everyone. I knew it could be done!

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Answer 7

Jul 15, 2015 1:30 PM in response to Jeffrey Jones2

Thank you, Quick Look. This did the trick. No need to download a new app. I have been trying to figure this out forever, and could not think of good search terms to find what I wanted to do.

However, I can't stand Cover Flow as the pictures are too small (even after zooming in), and the scroll is impossible to control. I move my finder a bit and skip several pictures. I have used the arrow keys, but the picture, while probably the same size as in Quick Look, doesn't seem as large.

So for now, space bar and arrow keys work for me. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Answer 8

dcinpa

Level 1

9 points

Jul 5, 2016 4:35 PM in response to kirk12003

Jeffrey Jones,

Thanks for the Quick Look tip. I was looking through applications, but it wasn't there. That's why these forums are so valuable to a new Mac user such as myself.

I like the CoverFlow, as I can still press the space bar and bring up the 'current' image in Quick Look, then navigate in Quick Look. Then I can press Esc to return to CoverFlow and pick right up.

Thanks,

Doug

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Answer 9

Apr 10, 2017 4:56 PM in response to ilmyinc

The QuickLook is not a showstopper solution for me. It will scroll to a few pictures in a folder with the arrow keys and just stop. The original poster was right. Windows Photo Viewer, though simple, allows you to scroll to all pictures in a like area, such as the desktop or within a folder with your keyboard and delete immediately. Preview is horrible. And I am not particularly interested in dropping $39 on a really technical program like GraphicConverter to do this. Shaking my head!

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