OpenShelf Release Notes

Markdown that converts properly, and Pandoc when you have it.

New

• Pandoc, when it's installed. With Pandoc (brew install pandoc), Markdown becomes Word, HTML, EPUB and RTF through it, and Word, ODT and HTML documents become Markdown and EPUB. PDFs go through Pandoc too when a typesetter such as MacTeX, Tectonic or Typst is installed. Settings → Extra Formats shows whether it was found. If Pandoc fails, the built-in conversion runs instead.

Fixed and improved

• Markdown converts properly. Markdown to PDF, Word, HTML, RTF and plain text used to come out as the Markdown source itself, asterisks and all (#5). Headings, emphasis, lists, quotes, code blocks, tables, links, pictures, footnotes and math are now the real thing in every format, and Word files use Word's own heading styles, numbered lists and footnotes. Pandoc's definition lists, simple and multi-line tables, line blocks, math and smart quotes are read too. Thanks to @wada3n for the report and the comparison files.
• Word documents to PDF keep their layout when LibreOffice is installed.

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Install

1. Download OpenShelf-1.6.0.dmg below, open it and drag OpenShelf onto Applications.
2. Open OpenShelf from Applications. It lives in the menu bar (the wheel icon).
3. OpenShelf isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks once on first launch:
   • macOS 15 and later: click Done, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.
   • macOS 14: right-click the app → Open → Open.
   • Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/OpenShelf.app

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. See the README for how to use it.

Read scanned documents, work directly from shelves, and choose wheel actions faster.

New

• Recognise text in images and PDFs. Drop screenshots, scanned documents, PDFs, or a mixture onto OCR in the Tools wheel. Save a text file or a searchable PDF beside each original. Recognition runs on your Mac in supported system languages, and PDF pages that already have text keep it.
• Open the wheel for shelf selections. Select files on a shelf and press ⌃⌥Space, or choose Open Wheel for Selection from the menu bar. A focused shelf takes priority; otherwise the shortcut uses the most recent shelf when OpenShelf is active, or Finder's selection.
• Numbered wheel shortcuts. Hold ⌘ in a keyboard-opened wheel to see each wedge's number, then press the number to run it. ⌘0 opens More or Back; ⌘⌥number opens conversion settings where available.

Fixed and improved

• Shelves follow files moved through the Actions wheel, keeping their order, selection, and selection anchor.
• Command-line tools' final output is captured reliably, including an output line without a closing newline. ffmpeg progress stops when its job ends.
• Video preview frames remain usable after their temporary files are removed.
• PDF image exports render and save one page at a time to reduce memory use.
• Excel output exceeding 1,048,576 rows is refused before conversion. The preflight supports quoted records, CR/CRLF line endings, and UTF-16 files.
• Resize and Remove Background reuse rendering contexts, and Add Background's colour swatches fit their window.
• Child processes receive a limited environment rather than inherited shell credentials.
• Concurrent OCR jobs are queued to avoid stalls on smaller machines.
• OCR cancellation leaves no partial PDF output, rotated pages retain their displayed dimensions, and recognition retries on CPU if acceleration fails.

Thanks to David NeSmith (@djnesmith) for the original features and fixes in his OpenShelf fork. The commit review and attribution records the source commits and adaptations.

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Install

1. Download OpenShelf-1.5.0.dmg below, open it and drag OpenShelf onto Applications.
2. Open OpenShelf from Applications. It lives in the menu bar (the wheel icon).
3. OpenShelf isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks once on first launch:
   • macOS 15 and later: click Done, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.
   • macOS 14: right-click the app → Open → Open.
   • Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/OpenShelf.app

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. See the README for how to use it.

Choose how conversions come out.

New

• Output settings. The new Output tab in Settings sets how converted files are made. Everything starts on Automatic, which converts exactly as before. Thanks to @wada3n for the idea in #4.
  • Video: codec (H.264 or HEVC), quality (Smaller, Balanced, Best or a bitrate of your choice) and largest size (4K, 1080p, 720p or 480p). MP4 and MOV don't need ffmpeg for any of these; MKV, WebM, AVI and WMV follow them through ffmpeg. HDR videos stay HEVC so their colours survive.
  • Audio: a fixed bitrate for MP3, M4A, OGG, Opus, WMA and the sound in videos.
  • Images: quality for JPEG, HEIC, AVIF and WebP, and whether to keep metadata such as the camera and location.
  • GIFs from videos: width and frame rate.
• Choose just once with ⌥. Hold ⌥ as you drop on a Convert wedge (or press ⌥Return in the keyboard wheel) to pick the settings for that one conversion. Videos show roughly how big the result will be before you convert, and Use as default keeps your choice for next time.

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Install

1. Download OpenShelf-1.4.0.dmg below, open it and drag OpenShelf onto Applications.
2. Open OpenShelf from Applications. It lives in the menu bar (the wheel icon).
3. OpenShelf isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks once on first launch:
   • macOS 15 and later: click Done, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.
   • macOS 14: right-click the app → Open → Open.
   • Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/OpenShelf.app

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. See the README for how to use it.