Your images. Your metadata. Your rules.
$14.99 on the Mac App Store · macOS 13 Ventura or later · No subscription
Features
Built native with SwiftUI. Designed around one principle: you control your data.
View every EXIF detail — camera, lens, exposure, GPS. Then write your own Copyright, Artist, Description, Keywords, Headline, Source, and location fields directly into image files, one at a time or in batch.
Organize with custom tags and hotkeys. Tags live in a sidecar JSON file next to your images — never embedded, never in a database, never in the cloud. Your data stays yours.
Export to 6 formats. Strip all metadata for privacy — or choose to keep your authored fields (Copyright, Artist, Description) while removing camera data and GPS. You decide what travels with your images.
Filter by tags, camera model, lens, flash, date, location — any combination of EXIF data and custom tags. Click any EXIF value to instantly add it as a tag.
Rotate images with ⌘[ and ⌘]. Slideshow with auto-advance and shuffle. Thumbnail carousel for quick navigation. Zoom up to 5x with trackpad or keyboard.
Automatically resolves GPS coordinates to readable place names. See where every photo was taken — then strip that location data before sharing if you choose.
Metadata
Open the info panel and see exactly what your camera embedded. Then stamp your Copyright, Artist, Keywords, Headline, and location into the file — one image or a thousand.
Compatibility
Over 70 file formats supported natively, including every major RAW format.
Workflow
Every action is a keystroke away. No menus required.
Organization
A tagging system built for the speed of a photo shoot, not the pace of a spreadsheet.
Open the tags drawer with ⌘T. Create tags or click any EXIF value in the info panel to add it instantly.
Use ⌘K to bind your most-used tags to keyboard shortcuts. One key, one tag.
Combine tag and EXIF filters to find exactly the images you need. Filter by camera, lens, date, location, and more.
Data Control
Every image carries invisible data — GPS coordinates, camera serials, timestamps. shuttlecar gives you full control over what you keep, what you add, and what you share. No cloud. No accounts. No tracking.
Embed your Copyright, Artist, Description, Keywords, Headline, Source, Credit, and location fields directly into image files. Apply to a single photo or batch-write across your entire collection. Supports JPEG, TIFF, DNG, and HEIC. Your authorship, in the file itself.
Every photo embeds hidden data — GPS location, camera serial number, timestamps. On export, shuttlecar strips all of it. But here's the difference: you can choose to keep your authored fields (Copyright, Artist, Description) while removing everything else. Strip the surveillance. Keep the credit.
Tags are saved as a plain JSON sidecar file right next to your images — not in a proprietary database, not in the cloud, not embedded in your files. Move your folders anywhere and your tags travel with them. No account required, ever.
shuttlecar is 100% local. No telemetry. No analytics. No network calls (except optional GPS reverse geocoding). Your images are never uploaded, indexed, or processed remotely. The app works fully offline.
Documentation
Press ⌘I to open the info panel. shuttlecar extracts comprehensive metadata including camera make and model, lens information, exposure settings (shutter speed, aperture, ISO), flash status, GPS coordinates with reverse geocoding, and image dimensions.
Press Space to start auto-advancing through images. The default interval is 3 seconds. Use ⌘R to shuffle the order, or ⌘⇧P to sort by file path.
Press ⌘I to open the info panel on the left side of the window. It shows read-only EXIF data and editable metadata fields.
The info panel displays comprehensive metadata organized into sections:
The panel has editable fields for the most common authorship and editorial metadata. The first four are always visible; expand More Fields for the rest:
Use the scope picker to apply metadata to:
The panel shows which formats support metadata writing (JPEG, TIFF, DNG, HEIC) and how many images in your selection are writable vs. skipped.
Metadata writing is supported for: JPEG, TIFF, DNG, and HEIC/HEIF. Other formats (PNG, WebP, RAW, etc.) will be skipped during batch writes. Original files are modified in place using atomic writes to prevent data loss.
Click on any EXIF value in the info panel to instantly add it as a tag. This works for camera models, lenses, locations, dates — any metadata field. It is the fastest way to organize images by their capture properties.
Press ⌘K to open the hotkey manager. Assign any single key to a tag for instant tagging without opening the drawer. Tags and hotkeys are saved per-folder in tags.json and tag_hotkeys.json.
In the tags drawer, click on a tag name to filter images. Multiple tags use OR logic — any image matching at least one selected tag will be shown. Combine with EXIF filters for precise results.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘O | Add folder |
| ⌘⌫ | Clear all images |
| ← / → | Previous / Next image |
| Space | Play / Pause slideshow |
| H | Toggle controls |
| T | Toggle tags (when controls hidden) |
| I | Toggle info (when controls hidden) |
| L | Toggle thumbnails (when controls hidden) |
| ⌘T | Toggle tags drawer |
| ⌘I | Toggle info panel |
| ⌘L | Toggle thumbnail carousel |
| ⌘R | Shuffle images |
| ⌘⇧P | Sort by file path |
| ⌘K | Manage tag hotkeys |
| ⌘F | Show in Finder |
| ⌘E | Export images |
| ⌘C | Copy image to clipboard |
| ⌫ | Move image to trash |
| ⌘[ | Rotate left |
| ⌘] | Rotate right |
| ⌘+ | Zoom in |
| ⌘- | Zoom out |
| ⌘0 | Reset zoom |
| ⌘1–⌘9 | Tag hotkeys |
| ⌘? | Show keyboard shortcuts help |
Press ⌘E to open the export dialog.
shuttlecar gives you granular control over what metadata travels with your exported images:
tags.json file alongside your imagesBuilt for macOS
Built with SwiftUI and ImageIO for native performance on every Mac. No Electron. No web views.
The image viewer that puts you in charge of your data.