ARCHIVED: For Mac OS and Mac OS X, what programs can I use to view and manipulate graphic and animation files?

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

This document describes programs you can use to view and manipulate graphic and animation files in Mac OS and Mac OS X. The programs described in this document are either freeware or shareware. You will find more information about commercial applications in Macintosh catalogs and publications such as Macworld. This list is not exhaustive, but represents some of the more popular and useful titles. For more about downloading software, see ARCHIVED: For Mac OS X, where can I download freeware, shareware, commercial software, and software updates?

Program name and home page	Description	Developer	Formats supported	System requirements	Mac OS X-native	Price
A Smaller GIF	A Smaller GIF allows you compress a GIF animation, reducing the size without a loss in quality.	Pedagoguery Software	GIF	Mac OS 6 or higher	No	$28
GifBuilder	GifBuilder is a tool for constructing GIF animations. You can convert an animation from a movie file, or construct each frame of the GIF with multiple images. GifBuilder also includes features to fine-tune the resulting animation.	Yves Piguet	Imports GIF, PICT, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop, PICS, QuickTime movie, Adobe Premiere FilmStrip; creates animated GIF files	System requirements: Mac OS 7 or higher, Color QuickDraw; AppleScript, Macintosh Drag and Drop, and QuickTime recommended	Separate Mac OS X version available	Freeware
GIFConverter	GIFConverter can convert, create, and manipulate static images and GIF animations. It is scriptable via AppleScript and Frontier, and supports transparency and interlacing.	Kevin A. Mitchell	GIF, JPEG, PICT, MacPaint, CompuServe RLE, TIFF, RIFF, PNG, EPS (export only)	Mac OS 7.0 or higher and a Macintosh Plus or newer	No	$30
GraphicConverter	GraphicConverter is a versatile image conversion and manipulation program. Some of its capabilities exceed those of more expensive applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is particularly useful for developers who wish to create images optimized for the Internet. Newer versions of GraphicConverter can also perform batch conversions and create slide shows.	Thorsten Lemke	GraphicConverter can handle most static image and movie formats. Its capabilities can be extended with plug-ins.	Mac OS 7.0 or higher, Color QuickDraw, 68020 processor or better, and 3MB of free RAM(4MB for PowerPC computers)	Separate Mac OS X version available	$35 ($30 without CD or disk)
Iconographer	Iconographer is a powerful icon editing tool.	Mscape Software	Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Windows icons	Mac OS 7.5.3 or later and a PowerPC processor	Separate Mac OS X version available	$15
Program name and home page	Description	Developer	Formats supported	System requirements	Mac OS X-native	Price
IconToGif	IconToGIF is a drag-and-drop utility for converting Mac OS icons into transparent GIF files.	Dan Crevier	Imports Mac OS icons and exports transparent GIF files	Color QuickDraw and Macintosh Drag and Drop	No	Freeware
Imagery	Imagery is a drag-and-drop utility that allows you to convert a wide variety of image, animation, and sound files into a number of popular formats in Mac OS. It will also extract icon and other image resources from applications and save them as individual image files.	Jeff Lewis	Imagery recognizes nearly 100 different sound, animation, bitmap, and vector image formats. It exports to TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPSF, PCX, PICT, Targa, Display Image, QuickTime, and several sound formats.	Mac OS 7.0 and higher and QuickTime	No	Freeware
iView MediaPro	iView MediaPro is a flexible application that can catalog and view most kinds of graphic, video, and audio files. It is scriptable and integrates well with the operating system.	iView Multimedia Ltd.	iView handles a broad variety of graphic, video, and audio formats, as well as fonts and desktop publishing documents.	PowerPC, Mac OS 8.6 or later, QuickTime 4.1.2 or later, CarbonLib 1.0.4 or higher, 8MB of RAM	Yes	$45
JPEGView (no home page, but available from most online Mac OS archives)	JPEGView is primarily an image viewer, though it has limited conversion and alteration capabilities. It provides functions that let you easily zoom in and out on an image, view it in full-screen mode, or view a series of images as a slide show.	Aaron Giles	PICT, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, MacPaint, and StartupScreen	Mac OS 7.0 or higher and QuickTime	No	JPEGView is "postcardware". The author requests that, if you like JPEGView, you send him a postcard. For an optional $20 registration fee, you can get a printed and bound version of the documentation.
MacGSView	A Mac OS port of GhostScript, MacGSView is a PostScript viewer that can also display and convert EPS files.	Bernd Heller	PostScript (including EPS files), PDF; can export to a number of common formats, including Adobe Illustrator and PDF files	PowerPC, Mac OS 8.5 or greater, and at least 5MB of free RAM	Beta Mac OS X version available	Freeware
Program name and home page	Description	Developer	Formats supported	System requirements	Mac OS X-native	Price
NIH Image	NIH Image is a powerful application for image analysis and modification. In addition to supporting many Photoshop plug-ins, it has a sophisticated macro language that can greatly extend its capabilities.	The Research Services Branch (RSB) of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)	TIFF, PICT, PICS, MacPaint, QuickTime, ASCII text (8-bit [256 colors] only, but can import 16-bit [thousands of colors] images)	Mac OS 7.0 or higher, Color QuickDraw, and 4MB of free RAM	No	Freeware
Preview	Preview is an Apple application designed to be an all-purpose static image viewer.		TIFF, JPEG, PICT, QuickTime Image, Photoshop, Silicon Graphics, MacPaint, Targa, BMP, and PNG; preview can also save images as PDF (Portable Document Format).	Mac OS X	Mac OS X only	Included in Mac OS X
QPict	An image cataloger and viewer, QPict makes it easy to organize and preview large numbers of images from a hard drive, CD-ROM, or off the Internet. It can scan an entire volume very quickly and display thumbnails of the images it finds.	Rune Lindman	A large number of image, movie, and sound files, enhanced with QuickTime	Mac OS 9 or higher	Yes	$35
QuickTime Player and PictureViewer	QuickTime Player (formerly MoviePlayer) and PictureViewer are two applications included in Apple's QuickTime distribution. You can use QuickTime Player to view movies, such as MPEG and QuickTime. PictureViewer is useful for displaying a number of image formats. Neither is particularly sophisticated, but they are easy to use; the Pro version of QuickTime Player has some editing capabilities.	Apple	Any format supported by QuickTime; notably, QuickTime movies and QuickTime image files (QTIF)	Mac OS 8.6 or higher	Separate Mac OS X version available; PictureViewer is not available for Mac OS X	Freeware; to get extra features, you must purchase QuickTime Pro, available for $29.99
RealPlayer and RealOne Player	With RealPlayer or RealOne Player, you can watch and listen to RealMedia content.	RealNetworks	Several Real formats as well as streamed MP3s	For RealPlayer: Mac OS 8.1 through 9.x, a 200MHz 604 processor or better, 32MB of physical RAM (bumped to 64MB with virtual memory); for RealOne Player: Mac OS X 10.1.1 or later	RealOne Player only	There are freeware versions of both RealPlayer and RealOne Player, but Real also offers commercial clients with enhanced capabilities.
Program name and home page	Description	Developer	Formats supported	System requirements	Mac OS X-native	Price
Sparkle (No home page; Sparkle is available from most Mac OS archives)	The first major MPEG player for Mac OS, Sparkle is less important now that QuickTime has integrated MPEG support. Sparkle supports MPEG-1 movies, but included in its distribution is a separate program called MPEG2Decoder that will also play MPEG-2 movies. Sparkle can also convert between PICT, QuickTime, and MPEG formats.	Maynard Handley	PICT, QuickTime movies, MPEG movies, as well as several sound formats	Mac OS 7.5 or higher, QuickTime, and a computer with a 68020 processor	No	Freeware
TextureMill	TextureMill is an application that lets you create seamless patterns suitable for deployment as backgrounds for web pages or screen wallpaper.	Deep Devices	Export patterns as either GIF or PICT files	Undocumented	No	$20
VideoLAN client	VideoLAN client is a cross-platform program that plays a number of video formats.	VideoLAN	DVD, VCD, SVCD, MPEG, MPEG2, AVI, MP3	Mac OS X 10.1 or later	Mac OS X only	Freeware
Windows Media Player	Windows Media Player for Macintosh lets you view and listen to several proprietary Microsoft formats.	Microsoft	Windows Media Format, AVI, DRM	Mac OS 8.1 or higher (8.6 or higher recommended), PowerPC 603e 180MHz processor or better, 32MB of RAM; Mac OS X 10.1 or higher for Mac OS X version	Separate Mac OS X version available	Freeware