Settings

Open settings with Seula ▸ Settings (⌘,). Changes take effect immediately. The window has General, Viewer, and Commands tabs.

General

Appearance

• Theme: System, Light, or Dark.
• Language: select an app language or System default. Seula restarts after a language change.
• Animations: turn transitions and feedback effects on or off. Seula also follows macOS Reduce Motion.

Browser

• Show JPEG and RAW pair as one image: show a JPEG and RAW shot as one tile. See Working with RAW photos.

File Operations

• Delete key behavior: choose Ask every time, Move to Trash without asking, or Delete permanently without asking. ⌘⌫ follows this setting; ⌥⌘⌫ always deletes permanently.
• Auto-refresh on folder changes: update the list when files are added, removed, or renamed outside Seula.

Advanced

Click Advanced to show these settings:

• Cache thumbnails on disk: keep thumbnails between sessions. Turn it off for memory-only thumbnails. Clear thumbnail cache now removes the disk cache. See Performance and cache.
• Restore Default Settings: reset preferences, custom shortcuts, and mouse-button bindings. Photos and ratings are unaffected.
• Stacks: set Longest gap within a stack and choose Use image content when detecting stacks. Content-based detection requires macOS 14 or later. See Photo stacks.

Viewer

RAW

• Choose Fast – camera-rendered image for quick culling or Detailed – RAW development for sensor-based detail, sharpness, noise, and histogram. RAW development is slower the first time, and colors may differ from the camera-rendered image. Survey always uses the camera-rendered image. See Working with RAW photos.

HDR

• Show HDR photos at full brightness: show gain map, PQ, and HLG photos with their highlights above white. Needs a display with the brightness range for it. The section is there only on macOS 14 and later, and the histogram's HDR range needs macOS 15. Thumbnails and Survey are unaffected. See Opening and browsing photos.

Auto-hide Controls

Choose Don't auto-hide controls or a delay from 1 to 10 seconds. Controls reappear when you move the pointer or press a key.

Rating bar visibility

• Rating bar in Viewer: Always, On hover, or Hidden. The Auto-hide Controls setting still applies. This does not change the toolbar.
• Show rating bar in Compare: show rating controls in Compare.

Stars, flags, and color label

• Show star rating, Show pick / reject flags, and Show color label: choose which marks the controls offer. The same choice applies in the viewer, in Compare, and on Survey tiles. A mark already saved to a photo stays visible either way, and the keyboard shortcuts keep working.

Auto-advance after

• Auto-advance: move to the next photo after a Pick/Reject, Rating, Color Label, or Any decision. See Rating your photos.

Rating bar color and style

• Color: Ice Blue, Gold, Lime, Coral, or Silver for stars and flags.
• Solid background: adds a solid background that follows Light or Dark appearance and makes the bar easier to read over photos. Auto-hide controls still applies.

Hover Reveal

• Reveal filmstrip and info panel on hover: moving the pointer to the bottom or right edge shows the matching panel. When off, use F, I, or the toolbar.

Filmstrip

• Filmstrip position: Bottom or Left.

Advanced

Click Advanced to show these settings:

• Focus Peaking: choose Highlight amount and Highlight color. See Comparing and reviewing photos.
• Zoom: Click-zoom factor and Scroll-zoom step.
• Default comparison pair: set whether Compare and Blink Compare (B) prefer the Next or Previous photo.
• Live Photos: Treat Live Photo as one item shows the still and its video as one item, so that they are moved, renamed, and deleted together. See Opening and browsing photos.

Commands

The Commands tab lists commands and their keys or mouse buttons. Click a binding, then press a new key combination, a middle mouse button, or a side mouse button. Delete clears a binding and Esc cancels. The left and right mouse buttons cannot be assigned. Locked system commands, such as ⌘C and ⌘O, cannot be changed. Reset All restores defaults. See Keyboard shortcuts.