A space for images,
sounds and thoughts.

Drag a file into the window — it becomes a tile.
Everything stays a real file on your Mac.

One board for every mind.

Real recordings from the app — swipe through the boards.

  • Designerin
  • Künstler
  • Musikerin
  • Banker

What Mesmerizing can do.

Drag anything in

Images, videos, audio, 3D models, PDFs, text, code and Markdown — just drag them into the window. Every file becomes a tile.

A real preview for every format

3D models spin, PDFs and design files show a still, text and code open up to read right in the board — not just file icons.

Arrange and resize freely

Move tiles by drag & drop, three sizes each — order and sizes are remembered.

Light & dark

One click on the background flips the whole board — right into the window chrome.

Mark for Claude

Mark an image on its tile and use it straight from Claude Code — “take the marked image”, no upload, no detour.

100% local, no subscription

Your media stays as normal files in your folder. No cloud, no account, no subscription — buy once, use forever.

Everything at a glance.

Canvas & boards

  • Drag files into the window — each becomes a tile in a dense masonry layout
  • Three tile sizes per tile via the three glass dots
  • Reorder tiles by drag & drop; order and sizes are remembered
  • Five backgrounds by double-clicking the empty canvas: black, white, dense glass, frosted glass, fully transparent
  • Up to nine boards — each its own folder, with its own background, whitespace and scrollbar setting
  • Switch boards with a two-finger swipe, number keys 1–9, or the dots bar
  • Keep the dots bar visible, show it on hover, or hide it entirely
  • Whitespace slider from 3 to 400 px, for one board or all of them
  • Lightbox: click an image or video to see it large
  • Fit toggle: whole image instead of cropped
  • Session restore — same scroll position on next launch
  • Interactive eleven-step tutorial

Formats

  • Images: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, AVIF, RAW and SVG
  • Video: MP4, WebM, MOV, M4V — muted, looping, plays only when visible
  • Audio: MP3, WAV, M4A, AIFF, OGG, Opus with a glass orb and waveform; MIDI plays back
  • 3D: GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY, FBX, 3MF, Rhino .3dm, STEP and IGES — drag to rotate, material follows light/dark
  • PDF: page previews you can page through with arrows or a swipe
  • Text, code and Markdown readable right in the board with syntax colours — and editable in place with auto-save
  • CSV as a table, Jupyter notebooks with cells and outputs, EPUB as readable text
  • Link cards from .webloc and .url with favicon, title and preview image
  • Colour palettes (.ase, .aco, .gpl) as swatch rows with hex values
  • Font specimens from TTF, OTF and WOFF2 — set in the font itself
  • G-code as a toolpath and DXF as a drawing
  • Sheet music: ABC and MusicXML rendered as real notation
  • Everything else via Finder’s own preview — PSD, AI, Sketch, DOCX, ZIP and more

Output & integration

  • Mark for Claude: one dot on the tile and Claude Code can reach it directly
  • Export as PDF — this board with ⌘E, all boards with ⇧⌘E
  • PDF either paginated to A4 without ever cutting a tile, or as one endless sheet
  • Share a board: a single .mesmerizingboard file, a double-click imports it
  • Open the storage folder in Finder with ⇧⌘O — these are real files

Product

  • 100% local and offline; internet only once, briefly, for activation
  • One-time purchase, updates within the major version included
  • License covers two Macs and can be released again at any time
  • Silent background updates, installed on quit
  • Universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, signed and notarised by Apple

Buy Mesmerizing.

A space for images, sounds and thoughts.

One-timeCHF 20

Buy now View all CHO CHI CHO apps

System requirements.

  • A Mac with macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
  • Universal — Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and Intel
  • Around 15 MB of disk space
  • Runs fully offline; internet is only needed once, briefly, to activate the license
  • Your files live in a folder you choose — no account, no database, no cloud
  • The license covers two Macs and can be released again inside the app
  • Not for Windows, iPhone or iPad

Frequently asked questions.

Where are my files stored?

In a folder you choose on your Mac, as plain files. You can open it in Finder anytime — Mesmerizing is just the nice view on top.

Does Mesmerizing need internet or a server?

No, Mesmerizing runs fully offline on your Mac. Internet is only needed once, briefly, to activate the license.

Which file formats does Mesmerizing understand?

Images (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC, TIFF, AVIF), video (MP4, WebM, MOV), audio (MP3, WAV, M4A and more), 3D models (GLB, OBJ, STL, STEP, IGES), PDF and many design/office files as previews, plus text, code and Markdown.

What does “Mark for Claude” mean?

Mesmerizing plays nicely alongside Claude Code: mark an image on its tile and refer to it directly in a Claude Code session — no uploading or dragging in. Handy when you work with your reference images.

Is there a subscription?

No. Mesmerizing is a one-time purchase — pay once, use forever. Updates within the major version included.

Does Mesmerizing work as a moodboard or reference board?

That is exactly what it is built for: arrange reference images, clips and notes freely on a canvas — except everything lives with you as real files instead of in someone’s cloud. Great for designers, photographers and anyone who thinks visually.