Photo and video

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

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

• Affinity — free professional creative app from Canva combining vector design, photo editing, and page layout tools
• Pixelmator Pro — Apple image editor for Mac and iPad with AI-assisted tools, layer-based editing, and Apple Creator Studio integration
• Procreate — professional digital illustration app for iPad (not macOS)

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

• DaVinci Resolve — professional video editor with color grading, audio post, and VFX tools; free version available
• LumaFusion — touch-first multi-track video editor for iPad, iPhone, Apple Silicon Macs, Android, and Chromebook
• 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

• Kap — older open-source screen recorder that exports to GIF, MP4, WebM, and APNG; check current macOS compatibility before relying on it
• 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
• Recordly — open-source (AGPLv3) Screen Studio alternative built on Electron/TypeScript; auto-zoom, smoothed cursor animations with loopable cursor paths, generated backgrounds, dynamic webcam bubble that resizes to give the camera the spotlight, drag-and-drop timeline for speed/zooms/annotations/audio, separate microphone and system audio tracks, imported audio and webcam footage, .recordly project files, and MP4 or looping GIF export; ships as a .dmg for Apple Silicon and Intel, plus Windows and Linux builds

FFmpeg and Apple format compatibility

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

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

For ProRes output (supported in iMovie 10+):

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

For Apple-native workflows, prefer common MP4/MOV exports with H.264, HEVC, or Apple ProRes. Older or specialized codecs may require conversion or a third-party player.

See Apple’s media compatibility guide for current troubleshooting guidance.