GrandPerspective is a small utility application for macOS that graphically shows the disk usage within a file system.It can help you to manage your disk, as you can easily spot which files and folders take up the most space.It uses a so called tree map for visualisation. Each file is shown as a rectangle with an area proportional to the file's size.Files in the same folder appear together, but their placement is otherwise arbitrary.
Disk usage visualisation by way of tree maps
Configurable display of views: Choice of color mapping schemes. Color files by their: name,
extension,
file type,
parent folder,
top folder, level in the folder hierarchy,
creation time,
modification time, or
last access time
Choice of color palettes
Configurable mapping by file type
Optionally view package contents
Optionally view the entire volume
Convenient navigation of views: Traverse up and down the folder hierarchy
Select files and folders in the view
Use either the mouse or keyboard
Open files with Finder
Reveal files and folders in Finder
Preview files and folders using Quick Look
Delete files and folders from the view
Search files by name
Filter files and folders: Construct advanced filter tests based an item's name, path, size, file type, hard-link status, and package status
Use these filters to: Mask files in the view
Filter files from the view
Exclude files and folders when scanning a disk
Filters and filter tests are automatically stored in the user preferences
Multiple view support: Refresh or re-scan a view to compare results before and after clean-up
Twin or duplicate a view for different displays of the same data
Support for special files and folders: Hard-links: Analyse Time Machine back-ups
Remote iCloud files: Analyse your cloud storage
Save results of disk scanning operations: Reload and view again at any time
Export scan results: As Image
As Text
Configurable user preferences
Snappy and responsive GUI: Optimized drawing of views
Drawing and scanning are carried out in background threads
Changes in view content are animated
Small memory and disk footprint
Fully internationalized: Up-to-date localizations available in English, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese and Dutch
Outdated localizations available in Japanese and Spanish
Extensive help documentation
Disk Map 2.5
GrandPerspective has been released as Open Source under the GNU General Public License.The official release files are available from the GrandPerspective download area at SourceForge.The latest release (Version 3.0.1) consists of two files:GrandPerspective-3_0_1.dmgThis is the main release file.It contains all you need to run the application.To install it, open the disk image and drag the application icon onto your Applicationsfolder, or wherever you want to put it onto your file system.Next run the application by clicking on the icon.
GrandPerspective is certainly not the first of its kind. Tree maps have been around for a while, and their application to file systems is not novel either. A few other disk usage visualisation tools that employ tree maps are:Sequoiaview, which is the one I bumped into first, because as it happens it was developed in Eindhoven, which is where I currently live.
KDirStat and WinDirStat I need to mention, if only because they are also hosted on SourceForge. I haven't tried them though.
Disk Inventory X is noteworthy because it also runs on macOS.
So, why GrandPerspective?Well, as you may have guessed it's a fun little coding project and I needed to pick something to code on my new Mac Mini.Having said that, it does have a few things going for it.Firstly, GrandPerspective is developed specifically for macOS, which narrows the immediate competition down to Disk Inventory X, as far as I'm aware.Secondly, GrandPerspective has its own way of visualising directory trees.The layout algorithm that is used is simple and effective, but novel to the best of my knowledge.Also, the file rectangles are drawn to be as clear and unobtrusive as possible. Whether you like it or not is a matter of taste, but you've got a choice.Thirdly, GrandPerspective will intentionally be kept as basic as possible.It should do one thing only, and do it well. That means it is a lean and mean application.GrandPerspective's memory requirements and the size it occupies on disk are pretty minimal.For those concerned about disk space, the latter must count for something, right?Finally, it has a cute logo that will enhance anyone's Dock. ;-)
inputmag.com:"The name of this one will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect. [...]It's one of the most responsive disk mapping apps I've tried"
eli4d.com:"GrandPerspective is a wonderful tiny disk utility. [...] The program is amazingly quick at scanning a folder of any size."(an extensive review with walkthrough on how to use the application. It is very positive about the application and its author... blush)
knowtechie.com:"The simple visual interface makes manually managing your Mac's storage as easy as it should be."
iLounge.com: "Our favorite Mac applications for managing hard disks are GrandPerspective and Onyx" (excellent tutorial on the use of filters)
9to5mac.com: "As its name suggests, GrandPerspective instead gives you a sense of the big picture folders that are taking up space." (short tutorial)
MacDevCenter.com: "My new favorite little bit of freeware for OS X."
mac and I: "It's free and open source, so give it a try. You won't be disappointed."
lifehacker.com: "Download of the day"
FreeMacWare.com: "This is a great Mac app on principle alone - it's both functional and really cool!"
Geek Like Me: "There aren't very many Mac utility programs I find useful on a regular basis, but GrandPerspective is one of them."
MacWorld.com: "With a quick glance at GrandPerspective, I was able to find nearly 9GB of virtual litter on my boot drive."
PCWorld.com and MacWorld.com: "My favorite tools for finding [space-hogging files and folders you're not aware of] are Eriban's free GrandPerspective and ID-Design's $13 WhatSize."
cnet.com: "Having a tool like GrandPerspective (another similar tool is Daisy Disk) that will show you the relative size of the files on your disk is a great option to have, and can greatly help you pinpoint whether disk usage is from a problematic log file, duplicate files, or simply having too many files on your disk."
mac.elated.com: "It's a fantastically quick and intuitive way to find those giant files that are sucking up your disk space."
CultOfMac.com: "This excellent free application scans your hard disk [...] and measures exactly what's what and how big it is."
FreeMacAppADay.com: "GrandPerspective is an awesome utility"
ars technica: "As this screenshot shows, some files are enormous. See that big red blob? That's my laptop's hibernation file."
AppYourMac.com: "GrandPerspective is an essential application that will keep your hard drive free of unnecessary files"
kubadownload.com: "Using free software like GrandPerspective it's easy to manage your disk and spot the largest files on your Mac"
ILoveMacApps.com: "This is a very good application. It does its job perfectly."
MAC.BLORGE.com: "Another good utility to prep your files and applications for running on a MacBook Air is GrandPerspective."
it-support.com.au: "GrandPerspective is really a great little application, and one I use on a regular basis when helping my clients tidy up their Apple computers."
kayray.org: "one of my favorite utilities for OS X"
DoseMagazine.com: "Great little app for Mac users who have huge hard drives that are... full all of a sudden"
MacResearch.org: "a very effective way to immediately see what is eating up your file system"
MacApper.com: "GrandPerspective is great for people who would rather have a visual representation of their hard drives"
MacTricksAndTips.com: "A great tool for [identifying big files and folders to delete] and I suggest you use it."
macpassword.com: "It's a fantastically quick and intuitive way to find those giant files that are sucking up your disk space"
nswits.com.au: "It is really a wonderful, little tiny disk utility."
forwheelers.net: Recommends GrandPerspective as a great Mac application.
APLawrence.com: "A simple and very direct application."
Jemima's Chevron blog: "I downloaded GrandPerspective on a whim, and ended up finding and deleting about 3 GB of cruft from my hard drive."
Should've Asked Me: "Very handy for spotting the space-wasters when you're doing spring cleaning."
I Heart To Blog: "I was astonished to find files I didn't even know existed on my machine!"
BestBizWare.com: "I really enjoy using this program to see the big picture"
DavidLowry.co.uk: "Really good way to find big files that you should be rid of"
gentry i/o: "Ah, finally a visual way to keep the ol' mac hard drive clean..."
Aspirations of a [Phronemophiliac]: "Good for rooting out space hogs."
AaronFreedman.com: "GrandPerspective works very well and is a great aid to cleaning up your hard drive."
TheAppleBlog.com: "It's a great little utility, a must have for your laptop."
Rhonabwy.com: "This critter is going to be a fairly constant companion..."
ericholsinger.com: "When I saw the first screenshot on the website, I was ready to look for another option. But, I had second thoughts and tried it out. I'm glad I did. It does exactly what I want."
macenstein.com: "while true Apple geeks can use terminal to search for space hogs, and the very patient can choose "Calculate Folder Sizes" in Finder [...] this is a much faster, and more fun way to reclaim drive space."
notebooks.co "GrandPerspective makes it easy to check the what's taking up the space."
tutsplus.com: "GrandPerspective is an extremely powerful tool, but it may overwhelm some beginner users."
smumacness.co: "what sets GrandPerspective apart is that it is simple, fluid and most importantly, free."
MacBook.pro and TidBITS.com: "With GrandPerspective it's trivial to see when a couple of very large files are responsible for the disk filling up."
TidBITS.com: Recommends GrandPerspective for identifying large files as "I'm partial to GrandPerspective's graphical view"
www.tuaw.com: "Daily Mac App - July 26 2011"
isource.com: "Picks of the Week - 2011 Week 34"
EasyOSX.wordpress.com: "App of the Week"
MacWorld.com: "One easy way to locate other large files that you can delete, move, or skip when migrating to your MacBook Air is to use a program like the free GrandPerspective."
techtyrantnews.com: "It's probably one of the most useful applications I have."
MakeTechEasier.com: "GrandPerspective has a nice live highlighting feature that is actually very helpful with navigation."
Rocket Matter:"In one hour, I freed up over 60 GB of space on my hard drive. Thanks so much, Grand Perspective."
TechnoTell.com: "GrandPerspective is free, entertaining, a quick 733 [KB] download, and may even be useful. What's not to like?"
MacsInLife.com: "You might also have space-hogging files and folders you're not aware of. My favorite tool for finding them [is] Eriban's free GrandPerspective."
Silver Clipboard: "lets you quickly find what's been hogging the most room and causing those scary 'you are about to run out of space' warning messages."
patchpanel.blogspot.com: "Excellent little program, no doubt! [...] It is also an interesting background generator"
forgeniuses.com: "Using GrandPerspective I was able to reclaim several gigabytes of space used up by caches, out of control log files and forgotten downloads and back ups that I no longer needed."
uk.businessinsider.com: "Luckily, there are apps out there that are a godsend for helping you map your hard drive so you can figure out what's taking up so much space. My favourite for Macs is called GrandPerspective"
Roumazeilles.net: "Recommended"
HughMcGuire.net: "The colours are god-awful, but if you want to clean stuff out, it's a great way to find out what [is taken up all the space on your harddrive]."
MarkusZeller.com: "Scanning is really fast, so that you even could scan the root of any mass storage device."
MichaelVanPutten.com: "[one] of my favorite free OS X applications."
Karenism.com: "If you don't have it, you should download it now."
hochit.com: "What a great tool!"
www.tuaw.com: "Auntie is a huge fan of Grand Perspective."
MacWork.com: "It's native and really fast."
leanmac.com: "An easy way to find those huge files and get rid of them fast."
maccast.com: "if offers a beautiful visual representation of your data"
NosillaCast: "I don't think any Mac user should be without this program". Listen to the PodCast
MacTipper blog (Warning: page may crash Safari): "Really nice"
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