Video tools

Picmal’s Media section has two video tools: Combine Videos joins clips end-to-end, and Slideshow turns a batch of still images into a video. Like everything else in Picmal, both run entirely on your Mac.

Combine Videos

1. Select Combine Videos in the sidebar
2. Drop two or more videos into the window
3. Drag rows to set the order — the list order is the play order
4. Click Combine

The combined file is saved next to the first one as <name> (combined).<ext>. If that name is taken, Picmal counts up instead of overwriting — <name> (combined) 2.mp4, and so on.

• Drag rows to reorder; the number on each row is its position in the finished video.
• Select rows and press Delete to remove them, or right-click for Remove / Show in Finder.
• A file Picmal can’t read as video shows an orange warning and blocks the combine. Remove it and try again.

Lossless when it can be

When every clip in the list already shares the same codec, resolution, and frame rate, Picmal joins the streams without re-encoding — it’s fast and there’s no quality loss. Mix formats or sizes (say a 720p MP4 and a 1080p WebM) and it scales each clip onto the first one’s frame and re-encodes to match. Either way you get one continuous video.

Output format

Open Video Options to choose the output format. Leave it on Same as first file to keep the first clip’s format — the setting that keeps a matched combine lossless — or pick MP4, MOV, MKV, or WebM to convert everything as it combines. WebM is re-encoded to VP9; the rest use H.264. Your choice is remembered between sessions.

Output name

In the same popover, type a name for the combined file, or leave it blank for the automatic <name> (combined) name. The extension follows the output format you picked. The file is always saved next to the first input.

Slideshow

1. Select Slideshow in the sidebar
2. Drop your images in — mixed formats and sizes are fine
3. Drag rows to set the order — the list order is the play order
4. Pick a resolution in the bottom bar, and set the seconds per image in the options popover
5. Click Create Slideshow

The video is saved next to the first image as <name> (slideshow).mp4. If that name is taken, Picmal counts up instead of overwriting. The status line shows the image count and the finished runtime as you build the list, so you know how long the video will be before you make it.

• Drag rows to reorder; the number on each row is its position in the video.
• Select rows and press Delete to remove them, or right-click for Remove / Show in Finder.
• An image Picmal can’t read shows a warning and blocks the create. Remove it and try again.

Resolution

The picker in the bottom bar sets the frame size of the video.

Option	Frame size
Match Largest Image	Sized to your biggest photo, capped at 4096 px on the long edge
4K	2160p
1080p	Full HD. Default.
720p	HD

The preset frames are 16:9, rotated to match the orientation of most of your images. Every image is then scaled to fit the frame and centered, with black filling the rest — nothing is ever cropped, whatever mix of sizes you drop in.

Seconds per image and output name

Open the options popover to set how long each image is held (0.5 to 30 seconds, default 3) and to name the file. Every image gets the same time on screen. Leave the name blank for the automatic <name> (slideshow) name; the video is always saved next to the first image.

The output is H.264 MP4 at 30 fps, encoded on the Mac’s hardware media engine. HEICs, sideways iPhone photos, CMYK images and transparent PNGs are all prepared for you — orientation is applied and transparency is flattened before encoding.

Use them from Shortcuts and the terminal

These tools are available beyond the app window:

• In Shortcuts, the Combine Videos action takes videos in and returns the finished file. See Integrations.
• From the terminal, use picmal-cli combine-videos to join clips and picmal-cli slideshow to build a slideshow. See Command line.

Slideshow is app and command line only for now — there’s no Finder or Shortcuts equivalent yet.

Like Convert and Compress, both tools require an active license.