Download FotoMagico for Mac

In the edit

Wedding photographers, event shooters, anyone who builds polished slideshows from a big library of images — FotoMagico is the kind of app you keep coming back to when a quick export from Photos won't cut it.

It works on both Mac and iPad, and it plays slideshows in real time at full resolution. No pre-render, no waiting around while the timeline builds. You can drop in transitions, layer text captions, and pull from the included addons for music, titles, frames, and visual storytelling guides. When you're done, export for iPad, for a screensaver, or to any QuickTime-compatible format. If you still burn DVDs, it'll hand off to iDVD or Roxio Toast.

Good for

• Editing a slideshow live while the client watches — instant playback without a render step
• Exporting a standalone version that plays on any Mac, even one without the app
• Working across Mac and iPad on the same project

Keep in mind

• Requires macOS 14 Sonoma — support for Catalina through Ventura was dropped
• Built on Apple's Metal, Swift, and SwiftUI, so it feels native on modern Macs
• Interface is in English, German, or French

Building a client-ready slideshow from start to finish

A common task in my workflow is turning a wedding edit into a playback that the couple can watch on their own laptop. Here's how that goes in FotoMagico.

I start by creating a new project and dragging the final selects straight from a Finder folder into the stage area. The app picks up the full-resolution files and lays them out as a sequence. From there, I adjust the order by dragging thumbnails in the filmstrip — no import dialogue to fight through.

With the images in place, I set a global transition. The crossfade is my default for weddings, but the app has a few to choose from. I keep it simple because the photos are the main event. Next, I add text captions to a handful of key images: the couple's names, the date, a short line about the venue. Each caption sits on its own layer, so I can position it without affecting the photo underneath.

Music comes next. I pick a track from the included addons — enough variety that I don't need to open another app for audio. The timeline shows the music waveform alongside the slide markers, so it's easy to see where the beat falls. I trim the track to match the slideshow length, then adjust a few slide durations so the key moments land on the music's natural peaks.

When the edit feels right, I export using the standalone player option. This creates a self-contained package that the couple can open on any Mac, even one that has never seen FotoMagico. I set a play count limit — thirty views — so the file doesn't live on their desktop forever. The export finishes, and I hand it over on a USB drive.

Turning engagement portraits into a vertical slideshow

Thursday afternoon, I have a stack of portraits from an engagement shoot that need to become a short slideshow for the couple's preview gallery. I open FotoMagico and create a new project from the Instagram vertical preset — the client specifically asked for a version they can post on Stories.

The app starts with an empty stage. I drag in twenty-three images from a Finder window. They appear as thumbnails in the filmstrip at the bottom, and the first one loads on the stage at full resolution. No render spinner, no progress bar. I click through each slide to check composition; a couple need cropping, so I use the built-in resize and reposition controls to frame the subject better.

Between slides two and three, I add a dissolve transition. Between slides five and six, a subtle zoom. I keep it restrained — the portraits are strong enough on their own. For the final slide, I drop in a text caption with the couple's names and a thank-you message, set in a clean sans-serif from the title addons.

I preview the whole thing from start to finish. The playback is instant, no buffer. I notice one slide lingers too long, so I trim its duration in the timeline. Another image needs rotating by a couple of degrees — done in seconds. When I'm satisfied, I export directly to an iPad-compatible format. The file lands in my downloads folder, ready to transfer via AirDrop.

Total time from opening the app to handing over the file: about twenty minutes. That speed matters when you're editing between client calls.

Bridging your photo library and video editor with export options

FotoMagico doesn't try to replace your photo library or your video editor. It sits between them. I import from Lightroom or Photos, do the slideshow work here, and export to whatever playback format the client needs. The export options cover most scenarios: QuickTime for web use, iPad format for tablet viewing, and the standalone player for offline delivery.

iCloud Drive is where the project files live. The project syncs in the background, and the iPad version of FotoMagico opens it without fuss. That cross-device flow saves me from emailing files to myself or carrying a cable.

For clients who still want a physical disc, the app hands off to iDVD or Roxio Toast. I don't burn DVDs often, but when a venue asks for one to play on a loop during the reception, it's good to have the option without leaving FotoMagico.

The standalone player deserves a special mention in this context. It's a separate app that gets bundled with the export, so the recipient doesn't need to install anything. I include it with every client delivery. They double-click the player, and the slideshow runs in full resolution, respecting whatever play count or expiry limit I set. That control is useful for time-limited previews before the final album is ready.

And because the app uses Metal and SwiftUI, it behaves like a proper macOS citizen. Full-screen mode works as expected, the stage honours the display's native resolution, and dragging files in from Finder feels natural. No wrestling with import dialogues or format converters.

New this release

• macOS 27 Golden Gate support added
• Dropped support for macOS 10.15 through 13
• Fixed a crash on quitting the app
• Snippets now match stage aspect ratio more reliably for unusual stage sizes
• Localised some controls in the Map Assistant
• Various stability improvements

Mac it needs

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon