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SciLook icon

SciLook for Mac

Quick Look extension that previews NWB, HDF5, MATLAB .mat and NumPy files with their structure and a plot.

By stanczykwyatt. Free and open source, MIT licence.

Get it with OpenDMG View source on GitHub

SciLook at a glance

Version
0.1.0
Released
3 November 2026
Download size
622 KB
Works on
Apple silicon and Intel
Licence
MIT
Category
Utilities
Developer
stanczykwyatt
GitHub stars
0

About SciLook

Quick Look for scientific data on your Mac. Press Space on NWB, HDF5, MATLAB .mat and NumPy files to see their structure and a plot. Free, sandboxed, no permissions.

Screenshots

SciLook screenshot 1

How to install SciLook on a Mac

  1. Get OpenDMG. It is a free app store for open source Mac apps. Download OpenDMG.
  2. Search for SciLook and press Get. OpenDMG downloads version 0.1.0 from stanczykwyatt's own GitHub release.
  3. Open it. The download is checked against its SHA-256 fingerprint and its signature is checked on your Mac before it lands in Applications.

Updates to SciLook show up in OpenDMG and install with one button. No account is needed.

Prefer to do it by hand? The developer's file is on GitHub: SciLook.zip (622 KB).

What is new in SciLook 0.1.0

First release of SciLook, a free, open-source Quick Look extension for scientific data on the Mac.

**Early release:** the preview code and the extension bundle are tested on every build, but SciLook hasn't been loaded by Quick Look on a real Mac yet. If Space still shows the plain preview after opening the app once, please open an issue.

- **Press Space** on an NWB, HDF5, MATLAB (.mat v5 and v7.3) or NumPy (.npy, .npz) file in Finder to see what's inside.
- **The structure:** groups and arrays with their shapes, types and units.
- **NWB facts:** session, start time and subject.
- **A plot:** the recorded signal as lines, or images and grids as a heatmap.
- **Big files are fine:** HDF5 and NWB are read a little at a time.
- **Private:** sandboxed with no permissions, read-only, no internet access. Pickled NumPy objects are never loaded.

## Install or update

1. Download **SciLook.zip** below, unzip it, and move SciLook to Applications.
2. Open it once. It isn't notarized yet, so macOS asks first: in System Settings › Privacy & Security, choose **Open Anyway**.
3. Select a file in Finder and press Space. If nothing shows, turn SciLook on in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look.

macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. SHA-256 of SciLook.zip: `7bcf0be62e737921de05923fb346e32f87df835d5562f9232b69c86a7fffda5c`
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