spacebar Install

A Glance Alternative

Two free, open-source Quick Look extensions for code, Markdown and archives, compared

  • Works without the Space helper
  • Free and open source
  • macOS 13+
Glance
  • Free, MIT
  • Code, Markdown, archives, notebooks, TSV
  • Not notarized
  • macOS 10.15 and later
spacebar
  • Free, MIT
  • The folder in a sidebar
  • Edit in place
  • macOS 13 and later
The two at a glance, from the table below. Drawn in HTML.

Glance (opens in a new tab), by chamburr, is a free Quick Look extension that previews source code, Markdown, archives, Jupyter notebooks and TSV files. It revives an earlier Glance by Samuel Meuli. spacebar covers much of the same ground, and adds the folder in a sidebar and editing in place. If Glance does what you need, there is no need to switch.

Two other apps share the name. “Glance - Quick Look Code Files” on the Mac App Store is a different developer’s app, and glance.md is a separate Markdown viewer and editor. This page is about chamburr’s Glance on GitHub.

At A Glance

FeaturespacebarGlance
PriceFreeFree
LicenseMITMIT
InstallA notarized .dmg, or one Terminal commandHomebrew cask, or a .dmg; not notarized, so its README has you clear the quarantine flag in Terminal
Latest version0.5.0, 1.6.0, 8 September 2026
Oldest macOS1310.15
CodeHighlighted, with line numbersHighlighted with Chroma
MarkdownRendered with Mermaid and KaTeX; relative images loadRendered, also .Rmd and .qmd; images in the file don’t load
Archiveszip, tar.gz, 7z and rar contents listed; a file inside a zip, tar or 7z opens read-onlyzip, tar, tar.gz and 7z contents listed
Notebooks and tables.ipynb as cells; CSV and TSV as a sortable table.ipynb and TSV (.tab, .tsv) previewed
PlistsBinary shown as XMLNo; its README says macOS doesn’t allow it
Folder sidebarYes, with a filter and a search of the files’ textNo folder view mentioned
EditingMarkdown, code, config, text, JSON and CSV, in placeNone mentioned
Every file with SpaceWith the optional Space helper, which needs AccessibilityIts own types only

Checked on 4 October 2026 against Glance 1.6.0, its README and its releases, and spacebar 0.5.0. Spot a mistake? Tell us on X (opens in a new tab).

Which To Pick

Pick Glance If

  • You’re on macOS 10.15 to 12, which spacebar doesn’t support
  • You read R Markdown or Quarto files (.Rmd, .qmd)
  • You want one small extension and nothing more
  • You install your tools with Homebrew

Pick spacebar If

  • You read a file beside its folder, with the arrow keys
  • You fix a typo or tick a task without an editor
  • You want Mermaid diagrams, math and images in your Markdown
  • You open binary plists, rar archives and files inside a zip
  • You want a notarized app

More: how Glance sits beside Peek, QLMarkdown, Syntax Highlight and Apple’s Quick Look: compare Quick Look apps.

Running Both

Quick Look uses one previewer per file type, and where two extensions claim a type, macOS picks one. You switch whole extensions, not types. Keep both on and let each cover what the other doesn’t, or turn one off in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look (on macOS 13 and 14, System Settings › Privacy & Security › Extensions › Quick Look). spacebar’s Settings shows other previewers that are on, with a Turn Off button.

Questions

Is Glance free?

Yes. Glance is free and open source under the MIT license. The app called Glance on the Mac App Store is a different developer’s app.

Is Glance still updated?

Yes. Version 1.6.0 came out on 8 September 2026, after 1.5.4 in April 2026 and 1.5.3 in February 2026, as of 4 October 2026.

Can I run Glance and spacebar together?

Yes. Quick Look uses one previewer per file type, so where both claim a type, macOS picks one. Turn off the one you don’t want in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look.

Install It

Download for Mac

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

Checked on 4 October 2026: