Search for a PIXA image cataloging browser replacement

I have been using Pixa as my main image browser to find local images amongst my many images. I really just need to be able to search for them by name or folder name, or visually select them by scrolling through where I think the images I want, are located, and then drag into a graphics app. Pixa has a live folder feature that monitors folders for new images and loads into Pixa, which is perfect when it works.

However, I have found Pixa to become increasingly problematic and it now takes up too much processing time during its live scan. Also I found out that Pixa is no longer under development.

Can anyone recommend an alternative image browser?

I used Pixave for a while - is pretty good.

But for all things like this now i tend to use Leap - it is useful for viewing/finding all file types and can group types together no matter where they are located on your machine. UI is a bit dated but is solid.

I have Pixave but find it really slow. There is a good App in there somewhere but I couldn’t use it.

Leap look like a more general file finder.

Yeah - that’s what it is. It does have inbuilt filters for Images etc. Would do exactly this:

Actually, once you configure it just for images , it is pretty good. I will certainly give Leap a go. Good to know that it is Mavericks ready!

Another option as a general file browser that can be easily customized to show images is HoudahSpot. I use it all the time: not just for images. Easy to create templates and those templates can be uber customized. Worth a look. More here:

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I finally managed to fix my Pixa installation. I suspect I had exceeded the number of images it could cope with because now that I have stopped a large folder of images being live scanned, it is behaving itself.

One thing I learnt from this experience is how much I rely on Pixa.