📷 The Hero Section

See Beneath the Pixel with Image-Peek.

Native, high-performance image specification analyzer, deep EXIF/optical inspector, and A-B image comparator for macOS

📖 The Product Story

Why we built Image-Peek

In modern digital photography, graphic design, print publishing, and web development, managing visual assets is fraught with hidden complexities:

• Color space stripping: Did your export retain Display P3 or Adobe RGB (1998) wide-gamuts, or was it silently clipped to generic sRGB?
• Optical & EXIF parameter verification: What focal length, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO were used? Are camera body/lens serial numbers and exact capture timestamps preserved?
• Quantization & bit depth drops: Did your 16-bit TIFF retain its smooth gradients, or did an automated pipeline compress it down to 8-bit with banding?
• Metadata & rights leakage: Are your IPTC copyright notices, EXIF lens parameters, and GPS location tags properly embedded or scrubbed for privacy?
• Bloated tooling: Opening Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Bridge just to check an image’s DPI, embedded ICC profile, or bits-per-pixel ratio takes 20+ seconds. macOS Preview’s Inspector hides structural data, and terminal tools like exiftool disrupt your visual workflow.

We asked a simple question: What if you had a blazing-fast, visually pristine Mac app that reveals the complete DNA of any image file in under 200 milliseconds?

Image-Peek was created at Tara Design Studio to answer that need. Built from the ground up in 100% native Swift and SwiftUI, Image-Peek taps directly into Apple’s low-level ImageIO, CoreGraphics, and CryptoKit frameworks. No web runtimes. No full-bitmap RAM bloat. Just pure, instant visual intelligence.

⚡ Key Features

🖼️ Deep Image Stream Demuxing Inspect true dimensions, pixel densities (DPI), Megapixels, bit depths (8/10/12/14/16-bit), color models (RGB, CMYK, Lab, Grayscale), alpha channels, and animation frame counts without loading gigabytes of raw uncompressed bitmap arrays into memory.	📷 Deep EXIF & Optical Shooting Telemetry Decodes Aperture (ƒ-stop), Shutter Speed fractions, ISO speed, 35mm-equivalent focal lengths, Exposure Bias (EV), Metering Modes, Flash status, White Balance, and Camera/Lens hardware models & serial numbers.
⚖️ Side-by-Side A-B Image Comparator Compare two images simultaneously. Image-Peek aligns property keys and instantly highlights dimension scaling, megapixel deltas, color gamut shifts, and missing IPTC copyright tags.	🗺️ GPS Telemetry & One-Click Maps Extracts DMS coordinates, signed decimal latitude/longitude, altitude meters, velocity, and UTC capture timestamps with a built-in one-click shortcut to launch the location in Apple Maps.
📐 Precision Dimension & Megapixel Deltas Detect exact pixel scaling (Δ: -4240 × -2832 px) and megapixel differences (down to 0.01 MP) between camera RAW masters and compressed web deliverables.	🎨 ICC Color Space & Profile Introspection Instantly extract embedded ICC Color Profiles (Display P3, Adobe RGB 1998, ProPhoto RGB, Rec. 2020, sRGB) and verify true quantization depth per channel.
📷 Comprehensive EXIF, GPS & IPTC Rights Inspect optical camera data (Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, Lens Model, Focal Length), exact GPS coordinates with altitude, and IPTC creator/copyright attribution.	🛡️ Hardware-Accelerated SHA-256 Stream massive multi-hundred-megabyte medium format RAW files or uncompressed TIFF archives in 64 KB binary chunks through Apple Silicon’s hardware cryptographic engine.

🎯 Universal Image Format Support

Image-Peek parses professional RAW camera masters, vector graphics, print containers, and next-gen web images:

Category	Supported Formats & Containers
Professional Camera RAW	Adobe DNG (.dng), Canon RAW (.cr2, .cr3), Nikon Electronic (.nef), Sony Alpha RAW (.arw), Generic RAW (.raw)
Next-Gen Web & Modern Formats	Apple HEIC / HEIF (.heic, .heif), Google WebP (.webp), AV1 Image File Format (.avif)
Standard Raster & Vectors	JPEG / JFIF (.jpg, .jpeg), PNG / APNG (.png), Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg), Windows Bitmap (.bmp)
Print, Prepress & Animation	Tagged Image File Format (.tiff, .tif in 8/16/32-bit RGB & CMYK), Graphics Interchange Format (.gif with frame counts)

🏆 Why Image-Peek is Different

Most image inspection utilities are either bloated photo managers or terminal scripts. Image-Peek is built exclusively for macOS:

Capability / Metric	Image-Peek	Adobe Bridge / PS	ExifTool (CLI)
Native Architecture	✅ 100% Swift / CoreGraphics	❌ Heavy Suite	⚠️ Perl Script
Launch Time	⚡ < 10 ms (Instant)	🐢 3,000+ ms	⚡ Fast
Memory Footprint	🪶 ~ 22 MB (No Bitmap Buffering)	🐘 800 MB – 2 GB	🪶 ~ 25 MB
Visual A-B Diff Mode	✅ Built-in Split-Table	❌ None	❌ Manual diff
Dual-File Drag & Drop	✅ Instant Auto-Compare	❌ Single file	❌ No GUI
120Hz ProMotion UI	✅ Liquid Smooth	❌ UI Stutter	❌ Terminal only
Hardware SHA-256	✅ CryptoKit NEON Engine	❌ Not included	⚠️ Separate tool

✨ User Experience Highlights

1. Dual-Drop Compare Mode

Select two image files in Finder (like your 100 MP medium-format RAW master and your web WebP render) and drag them together onto Image-Peek. The app instantly presents a two-column comparative diff table, highlighting mismatches in bold amber and matching parameters in calm green.

2. Quick Shooting Stats & Optical Introspection

When you load a photo containing EXIF headers, Image-Peek immediately shows an EXIF badge and a shooting summary pill (📷 50mm • ƒ/2.8 • 1/500s • ISO 100) directly in the header banner.

3. Interactive GPS Map Integration

Clicking the View Map button next to any decimal GPS coordinate immediately opens Apple Maps at the exact geolocation where the photograph was captured.

4. Zero RAM Bloat on Gigapixel & RAW Files

Thanks to stream-header demuxing via ImageIO, dropping a 500 MB 16-bit uncompressed TIFF or a 45 MP DNG RAW takes the exact same fraction of a second as opening a 50 KB thumbnail icon.

🚀 Elevate Your Digital Photography & Imaging Workflow

Stop guessing what is inside your image files. Verify color profiles, confirm bit depths, and validate copyright attribution with pixel-perfect precision.

💬 Help & Support

Frequently Asked Questions

💡 Click any question below to expand the answer.

Which EXIF and camera metadata tags does Image-Peek inspect? + View Answer ▾

Image-Peek decodes Camera Make & Model, Lens Hardware Model, Camera Body & Lens Serial Numbers, Aperture (ƒ-number), Fractional Shutter Speeds, ISO Sensitivity, Focal Length & 35mm Equivalent, Exposure Bias (EV), Exposure Program (Manual/Av/Tv/AE), Metering Mode, Flash Status bitmasks, White Balance, Orientation, and original capture timestamps with timezone offsets.

Does Image-Peek alter, strip, or recompress my images? + View Answer ▾

No. Image-Peek operates strictly in read-only mode. It inspects metadata dictionaries and image stream headers without modifying a single pixel or byte of your files.

Where are diagnostic logs stored? + View Answer ▾

Image-Peek maintains rolling daily logs formatted as image-peek-YYYY-MM-DD.log. You can reveal your log folder directly in Finder anytime by pressing ⇧ + ⌘ + L (or via Help → Show Logs in Finder).

Is Image-Peek private? + View Answer ▾

Yes. Image-Peek is 100% secure. It contains zero analytics, no telemetry, no tracking, and never makes unauthorized network connections.

How do I report a bug or request a new image format? + View Answer ▾

You can open an issue or start a discussion on our official Issue Tracker.

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© 2026 Santak Das, Tara Design Studio. All rights reserved.