Pixea Plus 8.4.0 — macOS

Pixea Plus opens over a dozen image formats — JPEG, HEIC, PSD, RAW, WEBP, PNG, GIF — without turning your Mac into a photo library. It’s a focused viewer that shows you the data you actually need: a color histogram, EXIF metadata, and basic file info. The current version (8.3.0) adds three things experienced users have been asking for.

• Masks — apply non-destructive masks to layers, then tweak or remove them later. This makes Pixea Plus useful for quick compositing checks without launching a full editor.
• Pixea Image format — a container format that preserves layers, masks, and undo history. Useful if you’re working on a file across sessions and want to keep everything editable.
• Undo and redo — full undo/redo history for edits, so you can experiment with flips, rotations, or mask changes and step back if needed.
• Keyboard shortcuts and trackpad gestures — zoom, pan, and switch images without reaching for the mouse.
• Minimal modern interface — no toolbars you have to hide, no import dialogs. The UI stays out of the way.

Pixea Plus runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs under macOS 11 or later. If you regularly work with RAW files or layered PSDs and need a viewer that shows you the technical details, this is worth a look.

A photographer's morning with Pixea Plus

Say you're a wedding photographer back from a Saturday shoot. You have a memory card with a hundred Sony ARW files, a handful of JPEG proofs you sent the couple, and a layered PSD from last month's album layout you need to reference. Pixea Plus handles all of that without asking you to import, catalog, or organize anything. Just double‑click the RAW file, check the histogram and EXIF data to confirm exposure, then flip through the JPEG proofs with the arrow keys. If you need to grab a detail from the PSD, it opens in seconds — no waiting for a catalog rebuild.

The ZIP archive trick matters here too. Clients often send deliverables as ZIP files. Pixea Plus opens them directly, so you can browse the contents without extracting. One less folder to clean up later.

macOS 11 and newer, Intel or Apple Silicon

Pixea Plus 8.3.0 runs on macOS 11 (Big Sur) and newer, on both Apple Silicon and 64‑bit Intel Macs. The installer is a disk image you mount, bypass Gatekeeper via a Terminal command, and drag into Applications. No background services, no import daemons.

Because Pixea Plus is a viewer rather than a library, it won't scan your drives or build thumbnails in the background. It's a straightforward app that stays out of your way until you need it.

Set the masks panel first

Pixea Plus doesn't bury you in preferences, but there are a few things to set early. After installing, open any image and take a look under the hood.

• Masks panel — if you plan to work with layers, open the masks panel and get familiar with the exposure, hue, and saturation sliders. You can create a mask, adjust these values in the masked region, and undo if you overshoot. Try it on a test image before you need it on a real job.
• Save in Pixea Image format — the first time you make a meaningful edit, save a copy as a Pixea Image file. That preserves your mask, non‑destructive adjustments, and full undo history. If you close and reopen later, everything is still editable. The original file stays untouched.
• Keyboard shortcuts — Pixea Plus supports keyboard shortcuts and trackpad gestures. Check the menu to see what's assigned for zoom, pan, and image switching. Customizing these early saves clicks later.

• Masks added.
• Pixea Image format added.
• Undo and redo actions added.

• macOS 11 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel processor