- Choose the folders containing your images.
- Let Seenlio recognize their words and visual content locally.
- Search a phrase you remember, or describe the picture.
Start with your folders
Open Seenlio and complete the model setup. The first download needs an internet connection; image recognition and search then run on your Mac. Wait for the model download to finish before starting your first search.
Choose Add folder and select a folder such as Screenshots or a reference-image folder. Seenlio includes its subfolders and supports PNG, JPEG and WebP images. It leaves the originals where they are.
Indexing happens in the background. You can search images that are already indexed while the rest of your library is being processed. Newly saved images in watched folders join the index automatically.
Remember a word? Start there.
Choose Text and enter a word or phrase from the image itself. Try an invoice number, a line from a saved quote or a project name in a screenshot. You don’t have to remember the filename.
Invoice 4021Open a result to see the image and its matching text regions. Recognition supports English, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Clear, larger text works best; tiny text, unusual fonts and blurry images can affect the result.
No words in the photo? Describe it.
Choose Visual and describe the subject, setting or colours in English. Try “a quiet place by the sea,” “red mountains” or “a person in the desert.” Visual search looks at what an image shows.
Use a specific description if your first query is too broad. Visual results are ranked by similarity, so they may include related scenes. Choose All when you want to search both words and visual content together.
A small search bar, wherever you’re working.
While Seenlio is running, press ⌘ ⇧ Space to open quick search over your current app. Type your query and open a result to preview it. Press Esc or click outside the quick-search window to hide it.
Closing the main window keeps Seenlio running in the background. Use Quit when you want it to stop. If the default shortcut conflicts with another app, change it in Settings.
Keep the good ones close.
Mark an image as a favourite to return to it quickly. Use tags and collections to group references by project or idea. Collections point to the original files; they don’t move or duplicate them.
Pinch or scroll over an image to zoom in the preview, drag to pan while zoomed, and double-click to toggle zoom or reset it. Use ⌘ Delete outside a text field to move the selected image to Trash. Restore it from Finder’s Trash if needed; Seenlio does not permanently delete it or empty Trash.
From a preview, you can copy the image, open the original in another app or reveal it in Finder. Keep the files in an accessible watched folder so Seenlio can continue to find them.
A few keys worth remembering.
These shortcuts work in the desktop app. Image actions use the selected result or open preview; keep focus outside a text field when using preview actions.
- Open quick search
- ⌘ ⇧ Space
- Focus search
- ⌘ F
- All / Text / Visual
- ⌘ 1 / 2 / 3
- Preview a selected image
- Space
- Open original
- ⌘ Return
- Copy image
- ⌘ C
- Copy recognized text
- ⌘ T
- Reveal in Finder
- ⌘ R
- Open Settings
- ⌘ ,
- Move selected image to Trash
- ⌘ Delete
- Hide quick search / close preview
- Esc
Make it feel at home.
Seenlio follows your system appearance by default. Choose Light or Dark in Settings if you prefer. Settings also holds your watched folders, model status, indexing controls and global shortcut.
Pause indexing when you need the resources for something else. Launch at login is optional. Your images, extracted text and image embeddings stay on your computer; read the privacy policy for details about local processing and online services.
Can’t find something yet?
- Check that its folder is watched and accessible.
- Check model setup and indexing progress. A new image needs to be processed before it can match.
- Clear date or folder filters and try again.
- For text, try a distinctive word with clear lettering.
- For photos, use Visual mode with a specific English description.
- For files stored in cloud folders, make sure the originals are downloaded to your Mac.
Seenlio v1 searches supported images. PDFs, screenshot capture and cloud sync are outside this version’s scope.
Less digging. More finding.
Start with one folder and one image you remember. Your next search will feel familiar.
See Seenlio in action ↗