Finder: Inspector and Quick Look

Read any photo's metadata straight from Finder, without adding it to your library.

Quick Look: press Space on a RAW file

Select a camera RAW file in Finder and press Space. Instead of macOS’s plain preview, you see the photo beside its camera and lens, exposure, date and location, maker notes, description, copyright and file details, with the focus point drawn where the camera recorded one. The arrow keys move through the folder as usual. Show focus point turns the rectangle on or off and is remembered.

It works for RAW files only (see Supported files and cameras); JPEG, HEIC, PNG and TIFF keep macOS’s own preview.

To use macOS’s standard preview instead, turn off Use ExifXplorer for Quick Look on RAW files in Settings ▸ Finder. The same switch appears in System Settings, under General ▸ Login Items & Extensions ▸ Quick Look; the two always agree.

The Inspector: a window that stays open

For a longer look, or for JPEG and other files, select photos in Finder, right-click and choose Inspect in ExifXplorer. Depending on how many services you have, it’s either in the menu directly or under Services. You can also choose Open With ▸ ExifXplorer, or drop files on ExifXplorer in the Dock.

The Inspector window shows the photo, its metadata and maker notes, and the focus point. The arrow keys (or ‹ ›) move through:

• the whole folder, in Finder’s name order, when you inspected one photo
• just the photos you chose, when you inspected several

Show in Maps opens a photo’s location in Apple Maps. Add this folder to library imports the folder into ExifXplorer, if you want to work on it properly.

Nothing is changed or imported

Both only read the file; neither writes to it or adds it to your library. If a photo has an XMP sidecar, they show what’s in the file itself and say a sidecar exists.

After your trial ends, Quick Look shows just the photo, and the Inspector asks you to enter a license in the main window. See Trial, license and updates.