Use Quartz image filters in macOS's Preview app to apply special effects to images. Core Graphics provides default image filters for quick special effects. Here's how to save image files in Preview for macOS with effects. Apple's Core Graphics (Quartz) 2D imaging subsystem provides a high-performance, consistent API for creating, saving, and manipulating graphics. It's also responsible for drawing most text on Apple platforms (Core Text).
Text can be drawn by Quartz using subpixel precision, and anti-aliasing (smoothing) even if a particular display can't show the text at full computed resolution. Quartz is vast and covers almost every aspect of 2D imaging on Apple operating systems including iOS and macOS. Quartz is one of Apple's oldest frameworks and debuted with Mac OS X itself.
The imaging model is based on compositing, in which several graphics layers can be combined with transparency (alpha), manipulated, transformed, saved, printed, or copied to a display. The Quartz Compositor is responsible for image assembly and manipulation, combining images, and rotating, applying transforms, or shaping images. Once a final image is assembled, the display engine moves (or 'blits') the image to a display or printer.
In the case of macOS, the Window Server further handles culling and obscuring images to ensure display images destined for specific windows stay only in those windows. The macOS Window Server itself uses the Quartz Compositor when assembling the content of windows.
