InstantRAWDownload ↓Instant RAW previews.
See a RAW file the moment you preview it: the camera’s own full-size frame in milliseconds, the true RAW render right behind it. No app to open and no spinner to stare at.
SONYShoot Sony? InstantARW runs our own ARW engine and finishes the full RAW render four times faster.
The camera's frame, instantly
Your camera saves a full-size JPEG inside every RAW file. That is what you see first, in your own colours, about 50 ms after the preview opens.
The real RAW, moments later
The true RAW render replaces it in place. Nothing shifts or flickers; the picture simply becomes the RAW.
Histogram and EXIF, on the photo
The RGB histogram and your shot settings sit over the frame, with toggles that remember how you left them.
Measured on an M3 Max. Out of the box, macOS decodes the whole file before it shows you anything. That wait is what this removes.
Nothing new to learn
No app to open, no window to manage. Press Space or flip Finder into gallery view, the way you already do. It works on the desktop and in Open panels too.
Every camera your Mac reads
ARW, CR2, CR3, NEF, RAF, ORF, RW2, DNG and the rest. A new body works without waiting for an update, and your other previews stay exactly as they are.
Small and private
One small app. Nothing runs in the background, and your photographs never leave your Mac.
The colours your camera chose
The first frame is the camera’s own rendering, so your picture profile arrives intact. With InstantARW the full render is matched to it too. How that works.
InstantRAW
The instant preview, every camera
- Quick Look preview for every RAW format your Mac reads
- The instant first frame, delivered in 50ms
- Histogram and EXIF panels over the photograph
- One purchase, every Mac you own
InstantARW
Everything from InstantRAW, plus the Sony engine
- All of InstantRAW, for every format
- A native ARW decoder that reaches the full render four times faster
- Colour fitted to the camera's own JPEG
- The colours you saw when you pressed the shutter
InstantCull
The culling suite, in development
- A full-screen viewer built on the same engines
- Arrow through thousands of frames, cull to the Trash
- RAW + JPEG pairs folded together
- Coming after the extensions ship
One-time purchases, VAT included, on every Mac you own. No subscription, no account. Keys are signed and checked on your own Mac; nothing about you is stored here.
Time until you see the photograph
| first imagefastest / p95 | full RAW renderfastest / p95 | |
|---|---|---|
| macOS out of the boxone frame; you wait for the whole decode | 195 / 438 ms | 195 / 438 ms |
| InstantRAWcamera JPEG first; Apple's decoder renders behind it | 18 / 55 ms | 195 / 438 ms |
| InstantARWcamera JPEG first; the Sony engine renders behind it | 18 / 55 ms | 41 / 100 ms |
Both products open with the frame your camera already developed, so the first images tie. The difference is behind them: with InstantARW the finished render lands four times sooner, in the camera’s colour.
Questions
- What exactly am I installing?
- A small app. Move it to Applications and open it once; from then on, every RAW preview on your Mac is this one, behind the spacebar and in gallery view alike.
- Does it change anything else about my Mac?
- No. It only claims the preview of camera RAW files. JPEGs, PDFs, videos and everything else keep their normal previews, and removing the app puts RAW previews back exactly as they were.
- Which one should I buy?
- If you shoot Sony, InstantARW: the instant first frame everywhere, plus a native ARW decoder that produces the full render four times faster and fitted to your camera’s own colour. Any other make, InstantRAW. The two behave identically on everything that is not an ARW.
- Will it open my camera’s files?
- If macOS can read them, it can. It asks the system what it supports instead of shipping a fixed list, so any camera your Mac already understands works without an update from me: ARW, CR2, CR3, NEF, RAF, ORF, RW2, DNG and the rest. The full picture on formats.
- Is it a subscription?
- No. €5 or €8 once, VAT included, on every Mac you own. There is no account to make and nothing to renew.
- Does it run on Intel Macs?
- No. Apple Silicon only, on macOS 14 or later.
- Does it phone home?
- The preview itself never touches the network. The app checks this site once at launch for a newer version, sends nothing about you, and carries on quietly if it cannot. There is no analytics, no crash reporting and no account, and your photographs never leave your Mac. What that means in detail.
- What happened to the InstantRAW viewer app?
- It grew into InstantCull, the culling suite: the same engine, full-screen, built for going through thousands of frames. It ships after the extensions do; the preview turned out to be the better first product.
- What if I lose my key?
- Ask for it again and it is emailed to you. The key is derived from the payment record rather than stored in a database, so there is nothing that can have been lost. Get your key again.