LiveQuartz is a basic graphic editor developed for

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

by Romain Piveteau. Each document is in a single window with layers and filters on both sides, tools are displayed on the top and document settings or at the bottom in the status bar. LiveQuartz features layers-based image editing, non destructive filters and selection, painting and retouching tools. LiveQuartz was one of the first public raster image editors built on top of

Core Image Core Image is a pixel-accurate, near-realtime, non-destructive image processing technology in Mac OS X. Implemented as part of the QuartzCore framework of Mac OS X 10.4 and later, Core Image provides a plugin-based architecture for applying fil ...

to be made public. In May 2005, when the first beta of iMage (the original name of LiveQuartz) was released, its singularity was that it was the first graphic editor to use two new

Mac OS X Tiger Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4) is the 5th major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Some ...

frameworks:

and Core Data. LiveQuartz was also, back in early 2005, the first macOS X image editing app to use a unique window user interface without "palettes".

Features

* Uses technologies like

Cocoa (API) Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface (API) for its desktop operating system macOS. Cocoa consists of the Foundation Kit, Application Kit, and Core Data frameworks, as included by the Cocoa.h header file, ...

Quartz (graphics layer) In Apple's macOS operating system, Quartz is the Quartz 2D and Quartz Compositor part of the Core Graphics framework. Quartz includes both a 2D renderer in Core Graphics and the composition engine that sends instructions to the graphics card. ...

, Core Data and

. * Uses layers-based editing and non destructive filters (filters can me merged onto their layer when using certain tools or when doing certain actions like cutting a selection, etc...). * Selection and retouch tools. * LiveQuartz provides unlimited (per document) undos (since app opening). * Integrates with macOS and applications such as Photos. Support for Drag and Drop and standard image formats ( JPEG, PNG,

TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word process ...

HEIF High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video. HEIF ...

). * Pictures can be imported a lot of different ways: They can be drag and dropped from Finder or other applications. They can be opened from the "File" menu. They can be shared from the Photos app. They can be taken with an

iSight iSight is a brand name used by Apple Inc. to refer to cameras on various devices. The name was originally used for the external iSight webcam, which retailed for US$149, connected to a computer via a FireWire cable, and came with a set of mou ...

camera from within the app, imported from a scanner or plugged camera or with an iOS device having the same iCloud account as the mac with Camera Continuity in

macOS Mojave macOS Mojave ( ; version 10.14) is the fifteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. Mojave was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, and was released to the ...

. * Support for other

features such as multi-touch gestures, versions, auto save, and full screen mode.

Tools

Supported image file formats

Comparison of graphics file formats This is a comparison of image file formats (graphics file formats). This comparison primarily features file formats for 2D images. General Ownership of the format and related information. Technical details See also * List of codecs Referen ...

Version history (in decreasing date order)

LiveQuartz

References

External links

Rhapsoft website

LiveQuartz Mac App Store page

LiveQuartz Lite (with in-app subscriptions and purchases) Mac App Store page

Ars Technica about LiveQuartz 1.0

{{Raster graphics editors Raster graphics editors MacOS graphics software MacOS-only software