ScreenCap — Free macOS Screenshot & Screen Recording App

The open-source CleanShot X alternative for macOS.
Screenshots, screen recording, annotation, OCR, scrolling capture, GIF export & color picker — all free, all local.

No account. No subscription. No telemetry. Just screenshots.

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Why ScreenCap over CleanShot X, Snagit, or macOS Screenshots?

	Paid Tools (CleanShot X, Snagit)	macOS Built-in	ScreenCap
Price	$29–89/yr	Free	Free forever
Area capture with dimensions	Yes	No	Yes
Annotation editor	Yes	Markup only	Yes
Scrolling capture	Yes	No	Yes
Screen recording	Yes	Yes	Yes
OCR text extraction	Yes	No	Yes
Color picker	Yes	No	Yes
Pin to desktop	Yes	No	Yes
GIF export	Yes	No	Yes
Open source	No	No	Yes
Privacy (no network)	Varies	Yes	Yes

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Features

Capture

• Fullscreen -- Instant full-screen capture with flash & sound
• Area Select -- Crosshair overlay with live pixel dimensions, shift-to-square
• Window -- Hover to highlight, click to capture (with optional shadow)
• Scrolling -- Auto-scroll and stitch into a single tall image

Record

• Screen Recording -- Full screen or selected area to MP4 (H.264)
• GIF Export -- Convert any recording to GIF with configurable FPS and size
• Recording Toolbar -- Floating pause/stop/timer controls

Tools

• OCR -- Select a region, extract text to clipboard via Apple Vision
• Color Picker -- Magnifier loupe with hex/RGB, click to copy

Edit

• Annotation Editor -- Arrow, rectangle, ellipse, line, text, freehand, highlight, blur/pixelate, numbered steps, crop
• Undo/Redo -- Full undo stack for all annotation actions
• Export -- Save as PNG, JPEG, or TIFF

Extras

• Floating Thumbnail -- Post-capture preview with drag-and-drop to any app
• Pin to Desktop -- Always-on-top pinned screenshots with adjustable opacity
• Launch at Login -- Optional startup toggle from Preferences for installed app bundles
• Toast Notifications -- Non-intrusive confirmation messages

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+1	Open the all-in-one capture toolbar
Ctrl+Shift+3	Capture Fullscreen
Ctrl+Shift+4	Capture Area
Ctrl+Shift+5	Capture Window
Ctrl+Shift+6	Capture Scrolling
Ctrl+Shift+7	Record Screen
Ctrl+Shift+8	Record Area
Ctrl+Shift+9	OCR Screen Region
Ctrl+Shift+0	Color Picker

ScreenCap now defaults to a conflict-free shortcut profile on first launch so it does not fire alongside Apple's built-in screenshot shortcuts. You can switch to a Cmd+Shift compatibility profile in Preferences, but macOS screenshot shortcuts should be disabled first if you do.

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Installation

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/8tp/ScreenCap.git
cd screencap/ScreenCap
swift build -c release

Open in Xcode

cd screencap/ScreenCap
open Package.swift
# Set signing to "Sign to Run Locally"
# Build and run (Cmd+R)

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode 15+ (for building)
• Screen Recording permission (prompted on first use)

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Architecture

ScreenCap/Sources/
  App/           App lifecycle, menubar, permissions
  Capture/       Screenshot engine, area/window/scroll capture, recording, GIF
  Editor/        Annotation editor, canvas, 10 drawing tools, background presets
  Tools/         OCR (Vision), color picker, magnifier
  UI/            Floating thumbnail, pin window, preferences, onboarding, toasts
  Utilities/     Global hotkeys, image I/O, user defaults

Runtime Flow

1. MenuBarController receives menu and hotkey actions.
2. Capture actions route into ScreenCaptureEngine, ScreenRecorder, ScrollCapture, OCRTool, or ColorPickerTool.
3. Captures and recordings feed FloatingThumbnailController.
4. Thumbnails can open AnnotationEditorController or pin images to the desktop.
5. PreferencesView updates shared defaults and shortcut configuration.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
UI Framework	SwiftUI + AppKit
Screen Capture	ScreenCaptureKit / CGWindowListCreateImage
Recording	AVFoundation + AVAssetWriter
OCR	Vision (VNRecognizeTextRequest)
Image Filters	CoreImage (CIPixellate, CIGaussianBlur)
Global Hotkeys	soffes/HotKey
Persistence	UserDefaults

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Preferences

Tab	Settings
General	Save location, launch at login, image format (PNG/JPEG/TIFF), JPEG quality, clipboard/thumbnail/sound toggles
Capture	Capture delay, hide desktop icons, window shadow
Shortcuts	Switch between conflict-free Ctrl+Shift and macOS-style Cmd+Shift shortcut profiles
Advanced	Thumbnail position & duration, reset all

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Privacy

ScreenCap makes zero network calls. Everything runs locally on your Mac. No accounts, no analytics, no tracking. Your screenshots never leave your machine.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

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License

MIT -- free for personal and commercial use.

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_{ScreenCap — the free, open-source screenshot tool for macOS. Built with Swift, SwiftUI, and AppKit.}