MetaScope Features

Hardware-accelerated image viewing using Apple's Metal framework with Display-P3 color management for accurate color reproduction.

Smart thumbnail-first loading with progressive refinement for responsive browsing even with large files.

Native support for professional camera RAW formats including CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, ORF, RW2, DNG, and many more.

View Adobe Photoshop PSD files with embedded thumbnail extraction for quick previews.

Professional video playback with J/K/L shuttle controls, zoom presets, and frame-accurate navigation.

Intelligent memory management that adapts to available system resources for stable performance with large collections.

Separate XPC process for image decoding prevents memory pressure when cycling through large images. Supports 22 RAW formats with zero-copy Metal rendering via IOSurface.

Full support for Apple's high-efficiency image formats including HEIC photos and HEIF sequences.

Smooth zoom from fit-to-window to 100% and beyond with trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

Powered by ExifTool (exiftool.org), extracting over 500 metadata elements from images including EXIF, IPTC, XMP, MakerNotes, and format-specific data.

Organized metadata viewing across Favorites, Essentials, Editor, Location, and Advanced tabs for efficient browsing.

Pin your most-used metadata fields to the Favorites tab with inline editing support for quick access.

Curated metadata model with 86 base fields and 33 structured fields across 7 categories, presenting the most useful data from ExifTool's comprehensive extraction.

Side-by-side metadata comparison for up to 12 images simultaneously to identify differences and similarities.

View GPS coordinates with reverse geocoding for address lookup, interactive resizable map (100–500px), GPS offset for bulk adjustments, coordinate copying, and cross-standard sync.

Detailed camera body and lens metadata including make, model, serial number, lens specifications, and MakerNotes data extracted by ExifTool.

Toggle visibility of empty metadata fields to focus on populated data and reduce clutter.

Edit metadata fields directly in the info panel with instant save and validation. Free version allows up to 5 edits per day.

Create, manage, and organize metadata templates for consistent metadata application across your library.

Professional templates across Metadata, Technical, and Custom categories ready to use for common workflows.

Build your own templates with any combination of the 119 available metadata fields.

Apply templates to hundreds or thousands of files at once with progress tracking and error handling.

Template-driven metadata removal with 3 built-in templates for location data, client delivery cleanup, and GDPR compliance. Preview affected fields before applying.

Edit Dublin Core and QuickTime metadata for video files with full format support. Video metadata tabs match the Photos interface with collapsible and reorderable sections.

Edit capture dates, modification dates, and GPS timestamps with timezone support.

10 previously read-only camera fields now fully editable: Camera Model, Lens Make/Model, Focal Length, Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, Exposure Program, Metering Mode, and Flash. Plus 9 new fields including serial numbers and exposure compensation.

GPS date display with UTC labeling, inline editing, bidirectional sync between GPS and EXIF dates, timezone-aware smart validation, and batch GPS date operations.

Search metadata directly from the browser toolbar. Toggle between filename and metadata search with results displayed in the main thumbnail grid.

Resizable filter panel with advanced IPTC/XMP filters, technical/EXIF filters, date ranges, and saved presets for both built-in and custom filter combinations.

Three display levels (Compact, Standard, Detailed) with inline metadata rows, hover popovers, and automatic thumbnail scaling per density level.

Color-coded relevance badges, multi-field match chips, and search term highlighting for quick visual assessment of result quality.

Build and maintain searchable indexes of your photo libraries for fast metadata queries with SQLite FTS5.

Filter by ISO, aperture, focal length, shutter speed, camera, lens, date ranges, GPS, and more.

Use AND, OR, NOT operators and exact phrase matching for precise search queries.

Save frequently used search queries for quick access to common workflows.

Visual analytics with histograms, timelines, and camera/lens usage rankings across your library.

Visualize distribution of ISO, aperture, focal length, and other numeric metadata.

See when photos were taken over time with interactive timeline visualization.

Toggle between grid and list layouts in the search window with adjustable thumbnail size (64–512px), match context chips, relevance scores, and search term highlighting.

Mini sidebar showing detailed metadata for selected search results including match context. Toggle with Option-Shift-Command-I.

Prominent toolbar with Focus in Browser, Open in Viewer, Send to Batch, and Edit Metadata buttons for quick actions on search results.

Search within current folder or all indexed files with a scope picker in the filter overlay.

Export metadata to JSON, XML, CSV, Markdown, and Plain Text formats in the free version.

Pro unlocks XMP Sidecar, YAML, and HTML Report formats, plus unlimited exports (free limited to 5 exports).

Export in newline-delimited JSON format optimized for Elasticsearch and OpenSearch bulk imports.

Generate professional PDF documents with thumbnails, metadata tables, and custom cover pages.

Create web-ready galleries with responsive design and built-in lightbox functionality.

Design custom cover pages with title, creator, customer, and description fields.

Choose from 6 typography presets (Modern, Classic, Technical, Minimal, Serif, Creative) with font controls.

Apply professional color themes to your exports for consistent branding.

Add text or image watermarks to exported documents for copyright protection.

Browse your Photos library directly within MetaScope without duplicating files.

Navigate Photos albums and smart albums to find exactly the images you need.

Visual progress indicators when downloading originals from iCloud for editing.

Intelligent prefetching of nearby images for smooth browsing even with cloud-stored originals.

Export original files from Photos library to any location on your Mac for backup or sharing.

Import images from your filesystem directly into your Photos library with metadata preserved.

Access photos from shared iCloud albums for collaborative workflows.

Respects system low power mode to preserve battery life on MacBooks.

4 built-in vocabularies with 600+ industry-standard terms: IPTC Media Topics (17 categories), IPTC Scene Codes, ISO 3166 Country Codes, and Common Keywords.

Hierarchical vocabulary browser with cross-vocabulary search, language filters, usage tracking, synonym display, and IPTC code references. Access via Cmd+Opt+V.

Import custom vocabularies from CSV or JSON with validation for duplicates, hierarchy integrity, and IPTC code format. Export for sharing or backup.

Bidirectional sync: IPTC keywords write to Finder tags, captions sync to Finder comments. Batch sync with loop prevention for consistent metadata across macOS.

Multi-source suggestion engine combining recent terms, frequent terms, synonym matches, and vocabulary entries with weighted confidence scoring.

Automatically apply metadata based on keywords in your images using powerful rule definitions.

Add, remove, and organize keywords with hierarchical support and auto-completion, integrated with the keyword rules engine.

Match keywords using Exact Match, Hierarchy Prefix, Contains, or Regular Expression patterns.

Control how rules apply: Overwrite, Fill If Empty, Append, or Prepend to existing values.

Use dynamic placeholders like {keyword}, {root}, {parent}, and {leaf} for flexible metadata generation.

Organize rules into groups for batch enable/disable and logical organization.

Share rule sets between installations or team members using the .msrules format.

Control rule execution order with drag-and-drop priority management.

11 action types and 11 comparison operators for automated metadata transformation. Preview changes before applying, save and share rule configurations.

Keyword Rules and Transformation Rules in a single tabbed window. One toolbar button, preserved keyboard shortcuts (Cmd+Opt+K, Ctrl+Cmd+T).

Type in keyword rule fields to get instant suggestions from all loaded vocabularies with source badges and keyboard navigation.

Advisory validation shows when rule terms match or deviate from vocabulary standards. Non-blocking hints help maintain consistency without restricting custom terms.

Auto-generate keyword rules from IPTC vocabulary synonym mappings. MetaScope analyzes terms to create smart rules that catch variations automatically.

Customizable sidebar with pinned folders, recent locations, and smart shortcuts.

Add frequently used folders to the sidebar for one-click access.

Comprehensive keyboard shortcuts for all common operations with customization support.

Adjust sidebar, preview, and info panel sizes to match your workflow preferences.

Pause long-running batch operations and resume exactly where you left off.

Automatic checkpoints protect against crashes with cross-restart persistence.

Process entire folder hierarchies with recursive scanning and file type filtering.

Drag files and folders from Finder directly into MetaScope for quick access.

Open images, videos, and folders directly from Finder's right-click menu. Smart routing opens files in their parent folder with automatic selection.

Hide/show toolbar items via Settings, three density presets (Compact, Standard, Comfortable), and right-click context menu for quick customization.

Rename files directly in the browser with slow-double-click to edit. Works in both list view and thumbnail grid with Enter to confirm and Escape to cancel.