Photos in macOS Catalina has an immersive, dynamic look that showcases your best photos. Find the shots you’re looking for with powerful search options. Organize your collection into albums, or keep your photos organized automatically with smart albums. Perfect your images with intuitive built-in editing tools, or use your favorite photos apps. And with iCloud Photos, you can keep all your photos and videos stored in iCloud and up to date on your Mac, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and even your PC.
You can print them using the Photos app. In the Photos app, select one photo using a click or tap to display the photo at full screen. Select the More button on the right side of the app bar. Select Print. The Print window appears, as shown here. Select your printer.
Photos App For Mac
A smarter way to find your favorites.
Photos in macOS Catalina intelligently declutters and curates your photos and videos — so you can easily see your best memories.
Focus on your best shots.
Photos emphasizes the best shots in your library, hiding duplicates, receipts, and screenshots. Days, Months, and Years views organize your photos by when they were taken. Your best shots are highlighted with larger previews, and Live Photos and videos play automatically, bringing your library to life. Photos also highlights important moments like birthdays, anniversaries, and trips in the Months and Years views.
Your memories. Now playing.
Memories finds your best photos and videos and weaves them together into a memorable movie — complete with theme music, titles, and cinematic transitions — that you can personalize and share. So you can enjoy a curated collection of your trips, holidays, friends, family, pets, and more. And when you use iCloud Photos, all edits automatically sync to your other devices.
The moment you’re looking for, always at hand.
With Search, you can look for photos based on who’s in them or what’s in them — like strawberries or sunsets. Or combine search terms, like “beach 2017.” If you’re looking for photos you imported a couple of months ago, use the expanded import history to look back at each batch in chronological order. And in the My Albums tab, you’ll find your videos, selfies, panoramas, and other media types automatically organized into separate albums.
Fill your library, not your device.
iCloud Photos can help you make the most of the space on your Mac. When you choose “Optimize Mac Storage,” all your full‑resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your Mac as space is needed. You can also optimize storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, so you can access more photos and videos than ever before. You get 5GB of free storage in iCloud — and as your library grows, you have the option to choose a plan for up to 2TB.
Make an edit here, see it there. When you make changes on your Mac like editing a photo, marking a Favorite, or adding to an album, they’re kept up to date on your iPhone, your iPad, and iCloud.com. And vice versa — any changes made on your iOS or iPadOS devices are automatically reflected on your Mac.
All your photos on all your devices. iCloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC. Even the photos and videos imported from your DSLR, GoPro, or drone to your Mac appear on all your iCloud Photos–enabled devices. And since your collection is organized the same way across your Apple devices, navigating your library always feels familiar.
Resize. Crop. Collage. Zoom. Warp. GIF. And more.
Create standout photos with a comprehensive set of powerful but easy-to-use editing tools. Instantly transform photos taken in Portrait mode with five different studio-quality lighting effects. Choose Enhance to improve your photo with just a click. Then use a filter to give it a new look. Or use Smart Sliders to quickly edit like a pro even if you’re a beginner. Markup lets you add text, shapes, sketches, or a signature to your images. And you can turn Live Photos into fun, short video loops to share. You can also make edits to photos using third-party app extensions like Pixelmator, or edit a photo in an app like Photoshop and save your changes to your Photos library.
- LightBrilliance, a slider in Light, automatically brightens dark areas and pulls in highlights to reveal hidden details and make your photo look richer and more vibrant.
- ColorMake your photo stand out by adjusting saturation, color contrast, and color cast.
- Black & WhiteAdd some drama by taking the color out. Fine-tune intensity and tone, or add grain for a film-quality black-and-white effect.
- White BalanceChoose between Neutral Gray, Skin Tone, and Temperature/Tint options to make colors in your photo warmer or cooler.
- CurvesMake fine-tuned contrast and color adjustments to your photos.
- LevelsAdjust midtones, highlights, and shadows to perfect the tonal balance in your photo.
- DefinitionIncrease image clarity by adjusting the definition slider.
- Selective ColorWant to make blues bluer or greens greener? Use Selective Color to bring out specific colors in your image.
- VignetteAdd shading to the edges of your photo to highlight a powerful moment.
- Editing ExtensionsDownload third-party editing extensions from the Mac App Store to add filters and texture effects, use retouching tools, reduce noise, and more.
- Reset AdjustmentsWhen you’ve made an edit, you can judge it against the original by clicking Compare. If you don’t like how it looks, you can reset your adjustments or revert to your original shot.
Bring even more life to your Live Photos. When you edit a Live Photo, the Loop effect can turn it into a continuous looping video that you can experience again and again. Try Bounce to play the action forward and backward. Or choose Long Exposure for a beautiful DSLR‑like effect to blur water or extend light trails. You can also trim, mute, and select a key photo for each Live Photo.
Add some fun filters.
With just a click, you can apply one of nine photo filters inspired by classic photography styles to your photos.
Share here, there, and everywhere.
Use the Share menu to easily share photos via Shared Albums and AirDrop. Or send photos to your favorite photo sharing destinations, such as Facebook and Twitter. You can also customize the menu and share directly to other compatible sites that offer sharing extensions.
Turn your pictures into projects.
Making high-quality projects and special gifts for loved ones is easier than ever with Photos. Create everything from gorgeous photo books to professionally framed gallery prints to stunning websites using third-party project extensions like Motif, Mimeo Photos, Shutterfly, ifolor, WhiteWall, Mpix, Fujifilm, and Wix.
No matter who you are, everyone loves to take pictures. These photos are memories that we want to preserve for a lifetime, or they can even be artistic ways that we express ourselves and want to show off around the home. This is why we like to get photos printed out, turned into books, turned into cards for special occasions, or even put them on mugs and other accessories.
Apple used to offer their own in-house photo printing service with its Photos app, but that was discontinued sometime in 2018. While Photos for Mac still has the option to get photo prints, it must be done through a third-party extension that you can get in the Mac App Store.
Let's go through the new way of getting photos printed on your Mac.
How to install a Photo Extension for Photos on Mac
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
Select one or more photos that you want to print.
Source: iMore
- Click File in the menu bar, or right click to bring up a menu.
- Hover over Create, then select what you want to print.
- Options include: Book, Calendar, Card, Wall Decor, Prints, Slideshow, and Other.
Click App Store to go straight to available apps that offer Photo Extensions.
Source: iMore
Click Get on an app to download it.
Source: iMore
You are able to download as many apps as you want or need and use the extension with Photos. These apps will simply appear in the list of apps available when you select the Create option next time.
How to use a Photos Extension to print photos from Mac
Once you have some apps installed that support Photos Extensions, it's easy to use them.
- Launch Photos on your Mac.
Select one or more photos that you want to print.
Source: iMore
- Click File in the menu bar, or right click on the selected photo to bring up the menu.
- Hover the cursor over Create, then select what you want to print.
Click the app you want to use.
Source: iMore
- Follow the on-screen instructions for that particular app to complete your photo print.
You can also click on the App Store option from the Create menu to once again bring up the section in the App Store with available Photo Extensions apps if you want to try out more.
My personal method for photo printing from my Mac
I take a lot of photos with my iPhones. Whenever I'm out and about, I end up taking photos whenever I can if it's something interesting, or just those moments with friends and family that I want to remember. I usually just use those photos in my Day One journal entries, but sometimes there are significant life events that deserve something more. Here's how I get my important photos printed from my Mac.
Photos in the cloud
Currently, I use a combination of Dropbox and iCloud Photo Stream for keeping backups of my iPhone photos on my Macs.
I like Photo Stream because it's automatic and fairly seamless, and I use this over iCloud Photos because I still have albums on my iPhone that were synced from my Mac, and I don't want to remove those. Photo Stream lets me access my photos from the last 30 days, which is fine for me.
My permanent photo backup solution, which I use as a failsafe in case something goes wrong with Photo Stream, is Dropbox. Sometimes I end up forgetting to upload my photos for a few days, but I try to launch Dropbox at least once a day so my photos automatically upload to my 2TB Dropbox Plus account. I have years of photos in my Dropbox, so I can always browse it for what I need.
For my wedding last year, I was given digital copies through Google Drive. I saved all of the photos to my hard drive, and then uploaded them into Dropbox in appropriately labeled folders.
When I need to get these photos into Photos on Mac, I simply import them from their source folder.
Create albums for what you want printed
As I said, I have a ton of photos. When they end up in Photos on Mac, it's kind of a big mess. I'll have to go through each Day to see what happened or go through a ton of photos in a folder, which I may not want all of them printed.
When I go through my pictures in Photos, I think about what I want to be printed. Whether it's just prints, or a photo book, or something I want to send my mom for the holidays, I think the photos I choose should tell a kind of story. Or just look good. I mean, why else would anyone want to print out photos?
To make it easier, I select the photos I want to print and create a new album for them. I label this album with what I want to do, such as 'Wedding Book,' 'Family Prints,' 'Christmas Cards,' etc. That way, these photos are already set aside, and I can quickly select them for printing.
Designing and ordering my projects
For my wedding, I wanted to have my favorite wedding photos arranged in a book to tell the story. While there are plenty of photo printing services out there, for this I chose to use Motif.
With Motif, it's easy to make a photo book in minutes. Just select your photos, then choose the size and format (hardcover or softcover) of your book. Then Motif loads up your photos in print-ready resolution, and you're off! As you pick a theme, it will give you some sample pages underneath the theme selector. If you want to go the easy route, just select Autoflow Book. With Autoflow, Motif goes through and picks out your best images and removes duplicates. You can always go back and add more photos, reduce the number of pages, and Motif will do all the heavy lifting for you.
If you want to have complete control, select Don't Autoflow. You'll then be able to design each page by choosing what photos should be shown, and you can add text to tell your story. Each page's layout can be changed if you aren't satisfied with it, you can add text along the bottom, or increase the size of a photo space if needed.
Personally, I like to put my photos in my book in chronological order. This way, it tells the story I want it to tell. I go with Don't Autoflow and it may take a while to get everything in the place I want it to be, but the result is my own creation, and it's well worth the time and effort. Motif is pretty easy to work with, as far as dragging photos around, resizing, swapping, etc. It also saves your work every few moments, so your work is safe.
If I am looking for individual photo prints, I prefer using Shutterfly, as I've used them before for several projects. With Shutterfly, you're able to choose the size and finish, put a message on the back of all prints, and select how many you want. They start at $0.12 for 4x6 and go up to $12.74 for a 12x36 print. The prices are decent, and there are often promo codes and deals. Shutterfly is also great for putting your photos on other items, such as travel mugs, totes, cards, canvas, ornaments, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
For designing things like mugs and totes, I like to pick out photos that hold a special meaning to me, or would just look good on some merch. Shutterfly's drag-and-drop interface on the web is intuitive and easy to use.
Personalize and print
Printing Apps For Photos Mac Download
While Apple may not be doing the printing themselves anymore, they made it easy to work with third-party photo printing services directly in the Photos app on Mac. Some (like Motif) are integrated directly into Photos, and others (Shutterfly) will need you to go to the website to complete your order, but it's all a seamless process.
Printing Apps For Photos Mac Software
Are you using a Photo Extension to print out your photos from Mac? What service do you like using? Let us know in the comments.
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