Move through images in a folder with Preview.app

Question

When looking at an image in a directory with the Preview application, I'm used to the Windows behaviour of using the ←/→ keys to move through all the other viewable images in that directory.

Preview.app doesn't do this - I first have to select all the images and then open Preview.app. This is a little annoying.

Is there something I can turn on or install to get this behaviour?

Also, how do I open an image in a new instance of Preview.app, say for comparison purposes?

score 240 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 10 '21 at 19:55

240

If you are just skimming the pictures do this:

Instead of opening a picture in Preview.app by double-clicking it, press space to preview the picture in Quick Look when selected in Finder.

Quick Look offers a fast, full-size preview of nearly any kind of file without opening the file. You can rotate photos, trim audio and video clips, and use Markup — directly in the Quick Look window.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh14119/mac

This way you can still use the arrow keys to navigate between the pictures.

↑ and ↓ in list view
↑,↓,← and → in icon view

You can still open the picture in Preview.app when needed (top right corner).

enter image description here

edited Nov 10 '21 at 19:55

pkamb

8,791

answered Jan 22 '12 at 14:34

gentmatt

49,722

4

Using preview shows both images and non-image content, making it impractical for presentations. – SimplGy Dec 12 '12 at 14:38
@SimpleAsCouldBe Which I actually a nice feature, don't you think? Without having to open all the appropriate applications you can view documents, spreadsheets, videos and images. If you require a more complex selection you can still search in Finder for pictures only using search rules: example. – gentmatt Dec 13 '12 at 12:58
15

Someone give this man a medal - works great! – Stephan Tual Aug 09 '15 at 13:33
1

Hi, this just helped me in 2018. I just wonder why preview can`t do this. Was it completely surpassed by the Quick Look feature in finder? – franksands Dec 29 '18 at 12:49
20

it works.. but who developed this is really mad. – Krishnadas PC Jul 15 '19 at 15:48
Loved it. That was an awesome answer. – smilyface Jul 30 '19 at 18:14
instead of pressing space on the keyboard to open the QuickLook, one can also select the image and do 2nd level press on mac trackpad to see the preview of the image in QuickLook. Someone might prefer this method because there is no need to remember keyboard shortcuts in this case – firstpostcommenter Sep 06 '19 at 12:31
Not all heros wear caps! – AlphaX Jan 30 '21 at 13:01
3

This does not work if you maximize the display window. Up and down arrow just give the "not available" beep sound. I cannot believe that after all this time Mac OS still does not include a simple viewer that can scroll through a folder of images. – Jim Garrison Oct 05 '21 at 23:44
Thanks. Found this really helpful! Prevented a lot of unnecessary frustrations XD – Sreekiran A R Dec 13 '21 at 23:15
2

is there a way to go to the next image when you reach the end of the finder row? – Salomanuel Mar 18 '22 at 13:40

Constantin · Answer 2 · 2015-04-30T07:52:36.880

34

Select all of the photos by pressing " Command + A" and then right click "open with preview" it will open all of your selected photos and you can scroll through them! example screenshot

edited Apr 30 '15 at 07:52

answered Apr 29 '15 at 20:52

Constantin

341

82

Too many steps for an operating system thart claims to be superior to the rest. – Clint Eastwood Jun 23 '15 at 18:52
5

Or simple press Command + A (select all) and then Command + Arrow down (open). – Albus Dumbledore Mar 16 '18 at 19:30
2

@ClintEastwood what's wrong with simply pressing space, and then using the up and down keys? – Blake Oct 14 '18 at 03:49
2

@Blake In Irfan its just one image and enter and you can start previewing files do some basic editing as well. – Srihari Karanth Jul 27 '20 at 11:32
2

@Blake It's the total disregard for standard behavior. Even the spacebar+up/down arrow (everybody else would use left/right)... but oh, by the way, if you went to full-screen on the preview the arrows no longer work. Really? This is no longer "the computer for the rest of us". – Jim Garrison Oct 06 '21 at 00:07
1

The Cmd + arrow down is best. Using space alone doesn't open the images in big for me, they look like thumbnails-ish (bigger than that but not big enough). Too bad I'll need to lookup the internet every time I need this because the shortcut doesn't make sense! – Vadorequest Sep 04 '22 at 06:14
this is such a bad implementation if you have other files together with images in the same folder, you have to first sort and group them and ctrl+a and right click to choose a program. a lot of steps. year 2023 and Apple cannot implement a basic funtionality. – Emil Feb 18 '23 at 16:05

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 17 '18 at 13:05

Preview can be used for much more than just a quick glance at an image file when you get out of the habit using it like on a Windows machine.

To open up the power of Preview, I keep it on the dock so it is handy all the time (doesn't have to be open and running). Select the group of files you want to see, or just drag the whole folder to the dock, and drop on Preview.

Check in Previews presences under the General tab and check the "Open groups of files in same window" is checked. Preview will open with all the images in a side bar and some buttons will appear on the bottom right in OSX before Lion. On Lion there wil be buttons at the top by the Search box. Before Lion one of these buttons is "Contact Sheet"; when you click on it a Slider will appear and you can adjust the size of the thumbnails. In Lion one is called thumbnails and you can drag the divider bar to change the size.

By dropping multiple files on Preview you can now do batch operations too, like adjust the size, or flip and rotate. You can easily crop images and do color adjusts in Preview as well. Preview does more than these things too if you will spend a little time learning about it.

To open an image in a new window after you have done the above, just right click on the image in the side bar and choose "Open in a new window".

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 25 '21 at 06:25

6

I recommend using Xee instead of Preview, and that will allow you to jump from photo to photo in a directory after only opening one. If you wish to change Xee to the default photo viewer, just right click on the file with the type that you want to change the default for, choose "Get Info", and select "Xee" under open with. Then, press "Change All..."

To answer your second question, you can open a new instance of Preview by opening one image, then double-clicking and opening the second image. Preview automatically realizes that you want a new instance (that is, of course, if Preview is your default application for that file type).

edited Jan 25 '21 at 06:25

Mat Gessel

131

answered Jan 22 '12 at 14:43

Nathan Walker

6,562

2

Note updated link is https://theunarchiver.com/xee and they now charge $3.99 for it. – studgeek Oct 16 '20 at 17:23
1

while I believe it's the best viewer, it's not supported anymore and hasn't been updated in 3-4 years. – Thomas Oct 12 '21 at 18:26

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 16 '12 at 19:54

6

You could also try Sequential. The last update was in 2010, but it's still less buggy than Preview.

answered Aug 16 '12 at 19:54

Lri

105,117

Anon Ymous · Answer 6 · 2018-01-09T16:50:01.467

5

start Preview, File > Open... > name_of_folder > Open

Preview will open a window, displaying all the images in the folder, with a sidebar of thumbnails. Use the up and down arrow keys to navigate.

I'm using Preview on High Sierra.

edited Jan 09 '18 at 16:50

answered Jan 09 '18 at 16:09

Anon Ymous

51

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered May 09 '15 at 19:23

2

Select all of the pictures in the directory at once and double click them.

That will open them all up in Preview at the same time, and you can use the down/up arrow keys to view them sequentially, just like you mentioned in windows.

answered May 09 '15 at 19:23

Brian Ritz

21

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 11 '22 at 08:10

2

Does not answer the question for Preview.app but I started using qView and am quite happy with it.

It's lightweight, can move between pictures with arrow keys and zoom in/out.

answered Aug 11 '22 at 08:10

kuzdogan

151
2

Works a charm, thanks for the suggestion. I replaced Preview with this app as my default app for images. – Geesh_SO Sep 27 '22 at 16:39
thats really nice a good replacement Irfanview on Windows. This answer shoulder be higher on the top and the solution is open source – Emil Feb 18 '23 at 16:16

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 14 '17 at 05:50

1

Since I prefer using keyboard shortcut, I generally use like:

Open the directory & select all pictures using - "⌘ + A"
Use - "⌘ + ↓" to open the selected images using default app (Preview.app)

answered Apr 14 '17 at 05:50

Sudheesh.M.S

111

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 14 '20 at 00:41

Drop your folder onto Preview.app and then you can do as you desire with the keyboard moving between images.

My favourite alternate to this is using QuickLook:

Cmd+A to select all images in a folder
Space to QuickLook
Keyboard to change image
Markup to edit/crop image if required

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered May 30 '16 at 21:28

0

You can use Hot Simple Image Viewer

It has keyboard shortcuts you are looking for.

answered May 30 '16 at 21:28

dimicountzero

21
1

True, but it doesn't solve the question at hand. They asked specifically about Preview.app. – JMY1000 May 30 '16 at 22:50

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 08 '24 at 05:20

Inside the Finder, press Cmd+4 to enter the gallery view, then press left or right arrows to switch between the images.

Other useful shortcuts:

Command-1: View the items in the Finder window as icons.
Command-2: View the items in a Finder window as a list.
Command-3: View the items in a Finder window in columns.

Move through images in a folder with Preview.app

12 Answers12