How to Convert ARW to JPG on Mac (4 Free Methods)

Your Mac already converts ARW to JPG, for free, with nothing to install. Open the file in Preview, choose File > Export, and set Format to JPEG. That is the whole job for one photo.

The rest of this guide is for the cases where that is not enough: a full card of files, an exact quality setting, or output that looks the way you expected instead of oddly flat.

One thing worth understanding first, because it explains most of the surprises. An ARW is not a picture. It is the raw sensor readout from your Sony camera, and it has to be interpreted before anyone can look at it. Your camera does that interpretation one way. macOS does it another way. That is why the exported JPG rarely matches the image you saw on the back of the camera.

Quick answer: Preview > File > Export > Format JPEG. For a folder, sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 90 photo.ARW --out photo.jpg in Terminal. Both ship with macOS and neither uploads anything.

Pick the method that matches the job

Method 1: Preview (free, built in)

Preview reads ARW natively and is the fastest route for a handful of files.

Steps:

1. Right-click the ARW, choose Open With > Preview
2. File > Export
3. Set Format to JPEG
4. Drag the Quality slider. Around three quarters is usually indistinguishable from maximum at roughly half the size
5. Save

To batch it, select every ARW in Finder and drag them all onto the Preview icon. In Preview press Cmd+A in the thumbnail sidebar, then File > Export Selected Images. One quality setting gets applied to everything, and you pick a destination folder.

The catch:

You get a quality slider and nothing else. No resizing on the way out, no file-size cap, and no say in how the RAW is interpreted.

Method 2: Finder Quick Action (free, built in)

Since macOS Monterey, Finder converts images without opening anything, and it reads ARW.

Steps:

1. Select the ARW files in Finder
2. Right-click > Quick Actions > Convert Image
3. Set Format to JPEG, pick an image size, and choose whether to keep metadata
4. Click Convert to JPEG. The copies land next to the originals

If Convert Image is not in the menu, enable it under System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Extensions > Finder. Automator can build a custom Quick Action with your own settings baked in, but for ARW to JPG the built-in one already does the job.

The catch:

The quality setting is fixed and the size choices are coarse: Small, Medium, Large, Actual Size. You take what Finder gives you.

Method 3: Terminal with sips (free, built in, scriptable)

sips ships with macOS and reads Sony RAW. Check for yourself:

sips --formats | grep -i sony

You should see com.sony.arw-raw-image. Convert a single ARW file:

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 90 DSC01234.ARW --out DSC01234.jpg

formatOptions takes 0 to 100, or the words low, normal, high and best. For a whole folder:

for f in *.ARW; do
  sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 90 "$f" --out "${f%.ARW}.jpg"
done

That is two lines and it costs nothing. If your files are lowercase .arw, change the pattern to match, or use *.[aA][rR][wW] to catch both.

Resizing at the same time takes a second flag:

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 85 -Z 2048 DSC01234.ARW --out DSC01234.jpg

-Z fits the longest edge to that many pixels and keeps the aspect ratio.

The catch:

No progress bar, no undo, and one typo in the --out path overwrites files without asking. Test on a copy of a couple of frames before you point it at a card.

Method 4: Photos (free, if the shoot is already imported)

If the ARWs are already in your Photos library, you never needed to touch Finder.

Steps:

1. Select the photos
2. File > Export > Export Photos
3. Set Photo Kind to JPEG, pick a quality, and choose whether to export the edited version or the unmodified original

The useful part here is that any adjustments you made in Photos get baked into the JPG. The other three methods ignore your edits and export the untouched RAW.

The catch:

Only works for photos already imported. Importing a card into Photos just to convert it is slower than any other method on this page.

Method 5: Picmal (batch, any format, one click)

All four methods above work and all four are free. Be honest about which situation you are in before paying for anything.

The gap is not conversion, it is control. sips gives you a quality number. Preview gives you a slider. Neither lets you resize and cap the file size and convert in one pass without the command growing a tail of flags.

Picmal is the Mac app I build. Drag in the card, pick JPG, convert.

Steps:

1. Download Picmal from picmal.app
2. Drag in your ARW files, or the whole card
3. Set the output format to JPG
4. Set quality and dimensions, or a target file size
5. Click Convert

Why people reach for it:

• Decodes ARW along with CR2, CR3, NEF, RAF, RW2, ORF and PEF, so a mixed-body shoot goes through in one batch
• Quality, dimensions and a file-size budget in the same pass, not three commands
• A folder of hundreds at once, each saved as its own file
• Runs entirely on your Mac, nothing is uploaded, no account, no file size cap
• Sits in the Finder right-click menu and in Shortcuts too

$29 once, updates included, no subscription.

Best for:

Every shoot, when the JPGs also need resizing or a size limit. If you convert a couple of shoots a year, the sips loop is genuinely the better answer and I would rather you used it.

Side-by-side comparison

What about ARW to PNG or TIFF?

Every method above does these too. In Preview, pick PNG or TIFF in the export sheet instead of JPEG. With sips, swap the format:

sips -s format png DSC01234.ARW --out DSC01234.png
sips -s format tiff DSC01234.ARW --out DSC01234.tiff

Whether that is a good idea depends on why you are converting.

TIFF makes sense as an intermediate. It is lossless, it holds 16 bits per channel, and it is what you hand to an editor or a printer who cannot take your RAW. The files are large.

PNG rarely makes sense for a photograph. It is lossless, so the file is big, but unlike TIFF it is 8 bits per channel, so you carry the size penalty without keeping the editing headroom. Use it for screenshots and graphics, not for a photo off a sensor.

JPG is the right answer for anything going to a client, a website, or a phone. That is why the rest of this guide assumes it.

A note on color

If your exported JPGs look flatter or cooler than expected, nothing is broken. Sony cameras apply a Creative Style, white balance, and their own tone curve when they generate the JPG preview. macOS ignores all of that and applies Apple’s own RAW rendering.

You have three options. Accept Apple’s rendering, which is neutral and perfectly usable. Adjust in Photos before exporting, which is free and gets you most of the way. Or use a dedicated RAW developer like Capture One or Lightroom if matching the in-camera look precisely is part of the job. Converting is not the same as developing, and no converter will make that distinction go away.

Common problems

The ARW file will not open at all. Usually a brand new camera body. macOS ships RAW support per model, so a body released after your macOS version can take a system update before its files are recognised. Run sips --formats | grep -i sony to confirm ARW is supported, then check for a macOS update. Sony’s own Imaging Edge will open the file in the meantime.

The JPG looks flat compared to the camera screen. Expected, and covered above. You are seeing Apple’s rendering instead of Sony’s.

The Quick Action gives no quality option. It does not have one. Finder picks the quality for you. If you need a specific number, use sips or Preview.

The output JPGs are enormous. You exported at full sensor resolution with a high quality number. A 61 MP a7R file at quality 100 is a large JPG by design. Drop to formatOptions 85 and add -Z 2048 if the files are going to a website.

The card has files from two different cameras. sips handles mixed RAW formats fine, but the *.ARW glob only catches the Sony files. Either run the loop once per extension, or use a tool that takes the whole folder at once.

The converted files overwrote my originals. Only possible with sips and a wrong --out path. There is no undo. Always convert into a separate output folder.

The short version

• One ARW, right now: Preview, File > Export, Format JPEG
• A few files, no app: Finder right-click > Quick Actions > Convert Image
• A folder, one exact quality: the sips loop above
• Already edited in Photos: File > Export > Export Photos, Photo Kind JPEG
• Every shoot, resized or size-capped: Picmal

Related guides

• Shooting more than Sony? How to convert RAW to JPG on Mac covers every brand’s format in one guide, and the RAW converter for Mac page has the per-brand details.
• Canon body in the bag too? CR3 to JPG and CR2 to JPG handle Canon’s formats, NEF to JPG covers Nikon.
• Converting a whole library, not just RAW? The batch image converters for Mac, compared weighs the apps that handle hundreds of mixed files.
• The JPGs are still too big? How to compress an image on Mac shrinks them without a visible quality drop.