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Photo and video

Apps for viewing, editing, and recording photos and video on macOS.

Image viewers

Section titled “Image viewers”
  • FlowVision — image viewer and organizer with a grid layout and folder navigation
  • qView — minimalist open-source image viewer with no sidebars or toolbars

Image editing

Section titled “Image editing”
  • Affinity Suite — vector design (Designer), photo editing (Photo), and desktop publishing (Publisher) tools
  • Pixelmator Pro — native macOS image editor with ML-powered tools and a layer-based workflow
  • Procreate — professional digital illustration app for iPad (not macOS)

Video players

Section titled “Video players”
  • IINA — open-source video player for macOS built on mpv; supports modern media formats with a native interface
  • Elmedia Player — video player for Mac supporting AirPlay streaming and a wide range of formats

Video editing

Section titled “Video editing”
  • DaVinci Resolve — professional video editor with color grading, audio post, and VFX tools; free version available
  • LumaFusion — professional multi-track video editor for iPad and iPhone
  • Final Cut Pro — Apple’s professional video editor for Mac with a magnetic timeline
  • iMovie — Apple’s free video editor for Mac with basic trimming, titles, and transitions

Screen recorders

Section titled “Screen recorders”
  • Kap — open-source screen recorder that exports to GIF, MP4, WebM, and APNG
  • Screen Studio — screen recording app with automatic zoom, cursor effects, and background styling
  • MacShot — free, open-source screenshot and recording tool with annotation, OCR, scroll capture, and cloud upload; GPLv3

FFmpeg and Apple format compatibility

Section titled “FFmpeg and Apple format compatibility”

To export H.264 video compatible with iMovie and Apple devices, add -pix_fmt yuv420p:

Terminal window
ffmpeg -i input.avi -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

For ProRes output (supported in iMovie 10+):

Terminal window
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v prores -c:a pcm_s16le output.mov

macOS Catalina and later support these video codecs: Apple ProRes, AVCHD, DV/DVCPRO, H.264, HEVC, HDV, iFrame, Motion JPEG (OpenDML), MPEG-4 SP, Photo JPEG, XAVC-S.

Container formats: 3GP, AVI, M4V, MOV, MP4. Audio formats: AAC, AIFF, BWF, CAF, MP3, MP4, RF64, WAV.

See Apple’s incompatible media guide for details.