spacebarCompare Quick Look Apps
spacebar next to Apple’s Quick Look and four popular extensions
Each does something well.
- spacebarThe whole folder in one pane, and with the optional Space helper, Space opens every file.
- QLMarkdownThe deepest Markdown options.
- Syntax HighlightA long list of code formats, with a choice of render engines.
- PeekInstalls from the Mac App Store.
- GlanceCode, Markdown and archives in one open-source extension. Glance and spacebar
Apps, packages and .rtfd documents stay with Apple’s Quick Look, and ⌘Y still opens it. spacebar as a Quick Look replacement goes deeper.
At A Glance
| Feature | spacebar | Apple’s Quick Look | QLMarkdown | Syntax Highlight | Peek | Glance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Built into macOS | Free | Free | 7.99 USD | Free |
| Open source | Yes, MIT | No | Yes, GPL-3.0 | Yes, GPL-3.0 | No | Yes, MIT |
| Notarized | Yes, Apple Developer ID | Part of macOS | Yes | Yes | Mac App Store | No, per its README |
| Install | A .dmg, or one Terminal command | Nothing to install | Homebrew cask or download | Homebrew cask or download | Mac App Store | Homebrew cask or download |
| Latest version | 0.5.0, | With macOS | 1.5.7, 2 Oct 2026 | 2.1.32, 16 Sep 2026 | 2.6.4, 2 Apr 2022 | 1.6.0, 8 Sep 2026 |
| Oldest macOS | 13 | Built in since 10.5 | 12 | 12 | 10.15 | 10.15 |
| What Space opens | Every file with the optional Space helper (needs Accessibility), except apps, packages and .rtfd documents; Office and iWork in Apple’s preview. Without it: folders, Markdown, code, config, plists, archives, disk images, logs and files with no extension | Its own types: text, HTML, images, PDFs, media, Office | Markdown and its variants (.rmd, .qmd, .mdx and more) | Source code and config, about 180 formats, and files with no extension | Markdown and source code, “500+ extensions” by its developer’s count | Its own types: source code, Markdown (.md, .Rmd, .qmd and more), archives, Jupyter (.ipynb) and TSV |
| PDF, RAW, CSV with Space | Yes, with the Space helper; without it, from the sidebar | Yes, its own previews | No, Markdown and its variants only | No; .pdf, RAW and .csv aren’t on its list | No; its developer lists .pdf and .csv as unsupported, though a PDF renamed .ePDF previews | No; .pdf, RAW and .csv aren’t on its list |
| Folder sidebar | Yes, with a filter | No | No | No | No folder view mentioned | No folder view mentioned |
| Rendered Markdown | Yes, with Mermaid and KaTeX | No, plain text | Yes, with Mermaid and MathJax | No; its developer points to QLMarkdown | Yes, with Mermaid and MathJax | Yes; no Mermaid or math mentioned, and images in the file don’t load |
| Editing | Markdown, code, config, text, JSON and CSV, in place | Markup, rotate and trim; not text | No | No | No | None mentioned |
| Archives | Contents listed, not extracted; a file inside opens in place, read-only | Icon and size | No | No | Not on its list | Contents listed: zip, tar, tar.gz and 7z |
| Plists | Binary shown as XML | XML ones as plain text | No | Yes, binary decompiled with plutil | .plist listed; binary unverified | No; its README says macOS doesn’t allow it |
| Search the text of files | Yes: Markdown, code, JSON, CSV and text in a folder | No | No | No | Within one file’s preview | None mentioned |
spacebar also opens any file in a window that stays open, draws it in a sandboxed viewer and sends no telemetry. Drag a file out of the Space window, or pick an app for it from Open With.
Folder previewers such as Folder Preview, Folder Quick Look, SpacePeek and LookQuick also browse a folder in Quick Look, so the folder row above is not a claim to be the only one. spacebar differs in opening its browser from a file as well as a folder, and in editing in place.
Checked on 3 October 2026 against spacebar 0.5.0, QLMarkdown 1.5.7, Syntax Highlight 2.1.32, Peek 2.6.4 and Glance 1.6.0. spacebar’s speed was measured warm in the Space window on one Apple-silicon Mac. Apple’s column is macOS 13 to 15 with no extensions. Spot a mistake? Tell us on X (opens in a new tab).
Can I Run More Than One
Yes. Quick Look picks one previewer per file type, but you switch whole extensions, not types. Keep both on and let each cover what the other doesn’t claim, such as QLMarkdown for R Markdown and MDX, or turn one off. Help has the steps.
One at a time: Glance and spacebar, and a QLStephen alternative for files with no extension.
Install It
Or paste this in Terminal
curl -fsSL https://spacebar.patebryant.com/install.sh | sh
The script downloads the latest notarized release from GitHub, checks its SHA-256 and installs to ~/Applications, no sudo. Read the script.
Sources
Fetched on 3 October 2026:
- QLMarkdown: README (opens in a new tab), release 1.5.7 (opens in a new tab) and its Homebrew cask (opens in a new tab)
- Syntax Highlight: README (opens in a new tab), release 2.1.32 (opens in a new tab) and its Homebrew cask (opens in a new tab); “about 180 formats” is our count of its supported-formats list
- Peek, by Big Z Labs: Mac App Store listing (opens in a new tab) and the developer’s page (opens in a new tab) (its certificate had expired when we checked on 3 October 2026)
- Glance, by chamburr: README (opens in a new tab) and release 1.6.0 (opens in a new tab); the Glance on the Mac App Store is a different app
- Folder previewers: the Mac App Store listings for Folder Quick Look (opens in a new tab) and Folder Preview (opens in a new tab)
- spacebar: README (opens in a new tab) and changelog for 0.4
- Apple’s Quick Look: its Quick Look guide (opens in a new tab) for macOS 15, and Apple’s Leopard announcement (opens in a new tab), the release Quick Look came with
- Quick Look settings: Apple’s Login Items & Extensions guide (opens in a new tab) for macOS 15