kuller

Cull images from the command line. Point it at files or folders, flick through them with two keys, and get your picks and rejects side by side at the end.

The image window is the image: it takes the picture's aspect ratio, floats over your desktop, drags by grabbing it and resizes by pinching. Thumbnails live in a panel docked to the left edge of the screen.

Build

./build.sh          # -> build/kuller

A single swiftc invocation, no Xcode project and no package manifest. Requires macOS 14+.

Usage

kuller <path> [path ...]
kuller --copy-picks-to ~/Desktop/selects ~/Pictures/shoot

Folders are scanned recursively for jpg, jpeg, png, tiff, tif, gif, bmp and webp files.

Option
-h, --help	Show help and exit
--version	Show version and exit
--copy-picks-to <dir>	On finishing, copy picks to <dir> (created if needed) and quit, skipping the review screen

Cropping

Press c while culling to crop the current image. The screen dims to a full-screen overlay with the image centered and padded on all sides; drag any corner or edge handle to resize, or drag inside the image to start a fresh selection. Pick an aspect ratio from the dropdown, or cycle through the 13 built-in ratios (original, free, 9:16, 10:16, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5, 1:1, 5:4, 4:3, 3:2, 16:10, 16:9) with ⌥+/⌥-; ⌥1-⌥9 jump straight to one, ⌥0 to Free. The last ratio used carries over to the next image you crop.

Confirming a crop (↩) doesn't touch the original file — it inserts a new, independent "virtual copy" right below it (named photo_crop1.jpg, photo_crop2.jpg, ...) that can be picked, rejected, Quick Looked, copied, or deleted on its own. The crop is applied lazily wherever the copy's bytes actually leave the app — thumbnails, Quick Look, ⌘C, drag-to-Finder, and --copy-picks-to export all hand out the cropped image, at full resolution.

c	Enter crop mode on the current image
drag corner / edge	Resize the crop area
drag inside image	Start a new crop area
⌥+ / ⌥-	Cycle aspect ratio
⌥1-⌥9, ⌥0	Jump to a specific ratio, or Free
↩	Confirm — creates or updates the cropped copy
esc	Cancel, discarding changes to this crop

Keys

While culling:

p / x	Pick / reject, then advance
j / k, ← / →	Next / previous, without deciding
c	Crop the current image (see Cropping)
⌘↩	Finish now — undecided images become rejects
esc, ⌘W	Exit (confirms if anything is still undecided)
⌘Q	Quit

In the review screen, both columns support rubber-band selection and dragging files out to Finder or across to the other column:

p / x	Move the selection to Picks / Rejects
space	Quick Look the selection
⌘A	Select all in the focused column
⌘C	Copy the selection as files