As of v1.1 (2026-03-20), you can now quicklook Freesurfer's MGH/MGZ files for volumes.
A quick and very messy Quick Look Preview Extension for macOS 15 and beyond.
Due to changes in macOS 15, (non-Apple) Quick Look plugins are part of apps. The NIFTIViewQL app is very simple, and just needs to be installed (/Applications) to enable NIfTI Quick Look in Finder.
Rough Development process:
- Link nifti_clib to xcode and run as command line
- Code GUI using Objective-C to open/read NIfTI files
- Create Quick Look Preview target in Xcode
- Fail at #3 multiple times due to macOS 15 API changes
- Turn to AI to for help, fail more times
- Eventually things start to work
- Start sharing things on Github
Currently requires you to have Xcode installed on your system.
New way to build with Makefile (handles dependencies):
git clone https://github.com/pmolfese/NIfTIViewQL
cd NIfTIViewQL
make all
make install
#Close the app (forever?) and Finder Quick Look (space) will work
If you receive an error related to Command Line Tools when you have Xcode installed, you may need to redirect the xcode-select:
sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
xcode-select -p #should return: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
Enjoy Quick Look Previews of NIfTI files! Select any .nii or .nii.gz file press the button and you should get a preview of the contents.
If you find this helpful, please give us a Star!
Very open to feature suggestions and PRs.