OS X is the operating system that powers every Mac. Built on a rock-solid UNIX foundation, it’s engineered to take full advantage of what the hardware is capable of. It’s designed to be as easy to use as it is beautiful to look at. It comes with an amazing collection of apps you’ll use — and love — every day. And it enables your Mac and iOS devices to work wonderfully together.
On a Mac, it’s easy to find, share, and do just about everything. You can control your Mac with simple, intuitive gestures. The Dock lets you launch your favorite apps with a click. Launchpad gives you quick access to your full library of apps. The Finder lets you browse and organize your files on your Mac and in iCloud with ease. Spotlight search makes locating documents, launching apps, and looking up information effortless.1 You can even have your apps and the operating system software update automatically. In fact, a Mac does so many things automatically, sometimes you don’t have to do anything at all.
The Finder is a simple way to access practically everything on your Mac and in iCloud.
With Launchpad, you can see, organize, and open all your apps in one place.
Spotlight lets you quickly find information on your Mac and from Wikipedia, news, iTunes, Maps, and more.
Over the years, OS X has changed in many ways. But the principles that define it haven’t: power, simplicity, beauty. Across-the-board refinements have made OS X El Capitan even more powerful and easier to use, while maintaining the elements essential to Mac. As with every Apple product, each detail is obsessed over: from the distinctive icons in the Dock to the streamlined toolbars to the fluidity of navigating everything from photos to web pages. Because when it comes to a great experience, the difference is in the details.
The Mac experience feels clean and refined thanks to crisp buttons, checkboxes, and controls.
OS X El Capitan introduces San Francisco — a new system font designed for optimal readability on a Mac and especially on a Retina display.
Translucent toolbars let you know there’s more to see than what’s visible in the window as you scroll. And a translucent sidebar gives you a glimpse of what’s behind the active window.
We’ve put more features into less space so some of your favorite apps, like Safari, Maps, and Photos, let you see more of your web pages, maps, and images.
The Multi-Touch trackpad unique to the Mac makes gestures easy and smooth — so using your fingers to tap, scroll, pinch, and swipe feels perfectly natural. These Multi-Touch gestures are a fundamental part of your experience, which makes everything you do on your Mac simple, intuitive, and fun. And with the Force Touch trackpad on the new MacBook and MacBook Pro with Retina display, you can now unlock even more ways to interact with your Mac — right from your fingertips.
Two-finger swipe to navigate
Using two fingers, brush left and right along the trackpad to navigate forward and back in Safari.
Pinch to zoom
Zoom in and out of photos and web pages by moving your thumb and finger in a pinch gesture.
Three-finger swipe
Swipe three fingers to move between desktops and full-screen apps.
Three-finger swipe up for Mission Control
Swipe three fingers up on the trackpad to get a bird’s-eye view of everything running on your Mac.
Force click
Adding a little more pressure to a click enables new capabilities — Force click a word to learn the definition, an address to reveal a map, a link to preview a web page, and more.
Two-finger swipe to navigate
Using two fingers, brush left and right along the trackpad to navigate forward and back in Safari.
Pinch to zoom.
Zoom in and out of photos and web pages by moving your thumb and finger in a pinch gesture.
Three-finger swipe
Swipe three fingers to move between desktops and full-screen apps.
Three-finger swipe up for Mission Control.
Swipe three fingers up on the trackpad to get a bird’s-eye view of everything running on your Mac.
Force Click
Adding a little more pressure to a click enables new capabilities — Force click a word to learn the definition, an address to reveal a map, a link to preview a web page, and more.
OS X is built to bring out the best in your Mac, so you get a fully integrated system in which everything works together seamlessly. It works with the processor and graphics controller in your Mac to deliver the best possible performance. It works with the super-responsive trackpad in Mac notebooks so Multi-Touch gestures feel natural to use. OS X even keeps your Mac up to date while it sleeps.2 Advanced power-saving technologies help extend battery life. And in OS X El Capitan, new system fonts are designed to look crisp and vivid on high-resolution Retina displays.
With every new Mac, you get a collection of powerful productivity and creativity apps: Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Photos, iMovie, and GarageBand. And you get more great apps for the things you do every day: surf the web, make video calls, send messages, get driving directions, manage your contacts, access your email, and more. If you already use an iPhone or iPad, they’ll feel instantly familiar. Because they’re native apps — not web apps in a browser — they also take full advantage of the power of your Mac to deliver the fastest possible performance. And with the Mac App Store built in, it’s easy to find even more great apps.
Making powerful things simple requires some seriously advanced technologies. OS X is loaded with them. It’s built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability and industry-leading support for Internet standards. OS X takes full advantage of the multicore Intel processors and fast flash storage in your Mac to make quick work of any task. And the incredible graphics capabilities in OS X supply applications like Final Cut Pro with impressive power.
A Mac will work with your iPhone in ways no other computer can. You can make and receive iPhone calls on your Mac, even if your iPhone is in another room. Send and receive both iMessage and SMS text messages on your Mac. Start an email, document, or browsing session on one device and instantly pick it up on another. And turn on the Personal Hotspot on your iPhone right from your Mac so you can get online in an instant.3
With iCloud, your data is kept up to date on all your devices.4 So a contact or a calendar event you add on your iPhone also appears on your Mac. You can send driving directions from your Mac to your iPhone. Add a meeting to your calendar on your Mac and receive an alert on your iPad. Even start a Messages conversation on your iPhone and finish it on your Mac. If you’re an Apple Music member, your entire library lives in the cloud, so you can always access all your music without it taking up any space on your devices. And iCloud Drive lets you access all your documents on your Mac and iOS devices and even on a PC. So your files will go wherever you do.
OS X is engineered with advanced technologies that are constantly working together to keep your Mac and the information on it safe. Gatekeeper makes it safer to download and install apps from the web. FileVault safeguards data using powerful encryption. Sandboxing helps protect your system by isolating apps from each other, as well as from your system and your data. Customizable privacy settings keep your personal information under your control. Find My Mac helps you locate your Mac on a map, set a passcode remotely, and more.
The best way to keep your Mac secure is to keep your software up to date. The Mac App Store notifies you when an update is available. And because OS X El Capitan is a free upgrade, it’s easy to keep your Mac safe with the latest security features and enhancements.
The versatility and power of OS X help a Mac fit in just about anywhere — including Windows networks. Want to transfer your files, photos, and other data from a Windows PC? OS X lets you do that easily with Migration Assistant. If you want to run Windows on your Mac, you can do that with Boot Camp.5 OS X has built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, so you can use your Mac at home and at work and keep all your messages, meetings, and contacts in sync. And, of course, you can work with popular file types such as JPG, MP3, and PDF, as well as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
OS X comes standard with a wide range of assistive technologies that help people with disabilities experience what the Mac has to offer, including many features you won’t find in other operating systems — at any price. For example, the built-in VoiceOver screen reader, available in over 30 languages, makes it possible for those who are blind or have low vision to control their computers using key commands or gestures on a Multi‑Touch trackpad. Switch Control makes it easier to navigate menus and operate basic controls such as volume, brightness, eject, and media playback. OS X also offers out-of-the-box support for more than 50 braille displays (including Bluetooth displays) and many other accessibility features, such as dynamic full-screen magnification, playback of closed captions, and a scalable screen.
Vision
Hearing
Physical &
Motor Skills
Literacy &
Learning