Tangerine is a Mac app for converting files simply with Shift-drag. Hold Option for advanced tools. Convert and compress images, videos, audio, PDFs, and archives, remove metadata, redact documents, and annotate photos. All locally, without uploading your files.
What's great
Shift-drag to convert and Option for the advanced menu is a genuinely fast interaction once it clicks - way less friction than opening a separate converter app for a one-off image or PDF. Doing everything locally without uploading files is the right default for redaction and metadata stripping specifically, since those are exactly the files people don't want touching a server. The Option-held advanced menu is dense on first use and could use a quick onboarding pass so you don't have to hunt for a specific tool the first few times.
What needs improvement
A built-in library of common presets (e.g. "web-optimized image", "compressed archive for email") would save time versus manually picking settings each time in the advanced menu.
vs Alternatives
ComprestoCompresto only handles compression, Tangerine covers the whole format-conversion, metadata, and redaction surface with the same shift-drag gesture, so it's one tool instead of switching between several single-purpose ones.
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Hey there! 👋
Most apps want to become your workspace. Tangerine is designed to get out of your way.
I built it for those “5-second” file tasks that somehow steal ten minutes and completely break your flow. Shrinking a video before sending it, converting a stubborn file, cleaning metadata, compressing a PDF, or marking up an image.
The idea is simple: Just hold shift and drag the file for conversion. Hold shift-opt for advanced tools.
Everything happens locally, so your files never need to leave your computer.
If Tangerine does its job well, you shouldn’t remember using it, you should just be back to what you were doing.
I’d love to hear which tools you find most useful and what you’d like Tangerine to support next. Thanks for checking it out! 🍊
A really easy way to solve the converting task. Thanks for this piece!
the shift-opt hold for advanced tools is a smart way to keep the surface area hidden until you need it. for "what's next" - batch renaming with a pattern (date, sequence number, find/replace) would fit the same shift-drag mental model and covers a task I still reach for a separate app to do.