DICOM Viewer on macOS
Weasis on macOS
Weasis runs natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, with nothing else to install. Everything on this page is specific to macOS; the installers themselves are on Download Weasis.
Ways to install
| Method | When it fits |
|---|---|
| PKG installer | a single machine — separate builds for Intel and Apple Silicon |
Homebrew — brew install --cask weasis |
machines you already manage with Homebrew; one cask covers both architectures |
Either way the weasis:// scheme is registered, which is what lets a portal or an EHR open a study
in one click — see the Weasis Web Protocol.
Requirements
macOS 11 or later on Intel, macOS 12 or later on Apple Silicon. The 3D viewer needs OpenGL 3.3 or later, which every supported Mac provides.
What differs on macOS
- Shortcuts use Cmd where the documentation says Ctrl. Holding Cmd while drawing a line opens the calibration dialog, and the same substitution applies throughout the shortcut list.
- The 3D viewer always uses the fragment-shader backend. macOS caps OpenGL at 4.1, so volume rendering runs on the FBO path (OpenGL 3.3 – 4.2) rather than the compute-shader one. In practice that means slightly different performance behavior: while you drag the camera the volume is ray-cast at the logical window resolution and upscaled since v4.7.3, which on a Retina display is a quarter of the pixels, and the full-resolution frame is drawn as soon as you release. See the 3D viewer requirements.
- The Dicomizer is started from the terminal. Run the
Dicomizercommand as described in the Dicomizer tutorial; if you use it often, wrap that command in aDicomizer.appwith Automator’s Run Shell Script action. - Extension-less DICOM files are associated with Weasis, unlike on Windows — media written by a modality usually opens by double-click.
- Embedding the viewer in a DICOM CD is not available. The CD/DVD export writes a DICOM CD from macOS, but only Windows x86-64 can add the viewer to the ISO.