Snapture

The all-in-one screenshot utility for Windows.
Region · Window · Fullscreen · Pinned overlays · Local-first · No telemetry · No cloud required.

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Why another screenshot tool?

The existing landscape on Windows in 2026:

Tool	Strength	The catch
Greenshot	Mature plugin ecosystem	WinForms-era UI, GDI-only, weak on HDR/per-monitor DPI
ShareX	Maximum knobs	1990s submenu maze, no theming, intimidating
Flameshot	Nice annotation	Windows port is second-class, DPI bugs
Snipping Tool	Built in	No scrolling, weak annotation, MS-opinionated UI
Snagit	Polished editor (paid)	$63/yr, pushes you toward TechSmith cloud
CleanShot X	Pinned overlay UX (paid)	Cloud-first, $29/yr

Snapture's pitch: the polish of Snagit, the no-cloud philosophy of Greenshot, modern WinRT-class capture, and a Catppuccin-themed editor that doesn't look like it was designed in 2008.

What ships in v0.6.0

• Sticky-header / sticky-footer detection in the image stitcher — UI chrome that doesn't scroll appears once at the top + bottom of the stitched output instead of repeating per frame.
• Animated GIF recording — Tray → Tools → Record GIF (foreground window or all monitors). 10 fps default, frames held in memory until you stop, saved through a standard file dialog.
• Per-rule auto-redact toggles — Settings → Auto-redact lists every detector rule as a checkbox. Disabled set is persisted; new rules ship enabled.
• Plugin contract resize support — capture processors may now resize, not just replace pixels. Plugin output lands in the saved file and the history index (the order is now capture → plugins → save).
• docs/HOTKEYS.md + docs/CAPTURE-MATRIX.md + manifests/ for winget submission.

What shipped in v0.5.0

• Image-stitch fallback for scrolling capture — pure-managed subsampled-SAD seam alignment. Browser pages that fell through to "no UIA scroll" in v0.3 now stack cleanly.
• Code-window chrome — Carbon-style export wrapper with macOS traffic-light dots, dark titlebar, rounded corners. Pairs with the existing drop-shadow / gradient frame wrappers.

What ships in v0.4.0

The differentiator wave

• Auto-redact secrets — Editor button runs OCR + a Gitleaks-derived rule pack (AWS, GCP, GitHub, Stripe, Slack, JWT, npm) plus PII (Luhn-validated cards, SSN, IBAN, IPs, MACs, emails) and drops solid-fill redactions on every match. Each redaction is its own undo-stack entry so false positives are easy to back out.
• LAN-only share server — Local Kestrel server, binds to a single user-chosen adapter (never 0.0.0.0), serves single-fetch token URLs that expire after the TTL. Settings tab to toggle / configure / inspect; editor button to share the current document.
• Smart Element Capture — Non-activating overlay highlights individual UIA controls in real time. PgUp climbs the parent chain, click captures the exact element rectangle. The capability no consumer screenshot tool currently ships during capture.
• Plugin SDK — Snapture.Plugin.Abstractions ships as a separate multi-target library. Plugins drop into %APPDATA%\Snapture\Plugins\, load in collectible AssemblyLoadContexts, declare capabilities via [SnapturePlugin]. Plugins window in the tray lists what's installed and reloads on demand.
• Step Capture mode — Records every click, snapshots the foreground window, presents a review window with per-step caption fields, exports a steps.md + images/ Markdown bundle. The Snagit single-vendor feature with no OSS equivalent.

What ships in v0.3.0

Capture parity pass — OCR, full-text searchable history, scrolling capture (alpha)

• Built-in OCR — Windows.Media.Ocr, zero install. Tray → Tools → "OCR region…" picks a region, recognised text lands in the clipboard, result window opens. The History window's "OCR all" button bulk-indexes everything past captures into FTS5.
• Capture history with SQLite + FTS5 at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Snapture\history\index.db. Every capture auto-tagged with foreground process + window title. The History window lets you search across OCR text, process name, and window title with FTS5 syntax. Right-click → Open in editor / Pin / Run OCR / Reveal / Delete.
• Scrolling capture (alpha) via UIA IScrollProvider. Native scroll panes (Office side-panes, Explorer, WPF/WinForms apps) work; browsers fall through to a clear "this window doesn't expose UIA scroll" message. Image-stitching for browsers ships in v0.4.

What ships in v0.2.0

Capture (v0.2.1)

• WinRT capture engine — Windows.Graphics.Capture with free-threaded frame pool, BGRA8 staging-texture readback, no flicker, no Win2D / Vortice / SharpDX dependency. Auto-falls-back to GDI on Win10 < 1809 or capture failure.
• Engine selector — auto / winrt / gdi in settings + the tray menu, hot-swappable at runtime.
• AppUserModelID set on app start so the borderless-capture consent persists across reinstalls.
• First-run consent for GraphicsCaptureAccess.RequestAccessAsync(Borderless) on Win11 22H2+.
• WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE-aware — flags windows the OS marks excluded (1Password / Bitwarden / banking) instead of saving black PNGs.
• Window-pick overlay with hover highlight + PgUp/PgDn ancestor walk.
• PrintScreen-on-Win11-24H2 detection — tray surfaces a one-click "Reclaim PrintScreen" entry when the OS hijacks the key.
• Last-region recapture (Shift+PrintScreen) and self-timer (1/3/5/10s region capture) in the tray.

Annotation editor (v0.2.2)

• SkiaSharp-backed canvas with a vector annotation document model — every shape stays editable forever, flattened only on raster export.
• Tools: Rectangle (filled / outlined / rounded), Ellipse, Line (straight / dashed), Arrow (straight / bidirectional / dashed), Freehand pen with mouse-wheel thickness, Text, Highlight, Blur, Pixelate, solid-fill Redact, Step counter (auto-increment).
• Hotkeys: V/R/E/L/A/F/T/H/B/X/N/C plus Ctrl+Z/Y undo/redo, Ctrl+S save .snapture, Ctrl+E export PNG, Ctrl+O open.
• Beautify wrappers: drop shadow, rounded corners, gradient backdrop — preview and export render identically.
• Adjustments: brightness, contrast, grayscale, invert.
• Export: PNG, JPG, BMP, WebP.
• .snapture project file — zip = document.json + background.png + manifest.json. Round-trips losslessly.
• Open existing image into the editor (PNG / JPG / BMP / .snapture).

Settings dialog (v0.2.3)

• Tabbed dialog (General / Capture / Hotkeys / Output / Advanced) reachable from the tray.
• Live hotkey recorder — click a field, press combo, bound. Region / window / fullscreen / last-region all rebindable, applied without restart.
• Engine selector with capability detection.
• Output filename template with placeholder reference.
• Borderless-consent retry + Reclaim-PrintScreen buttons on the Capture tab.
• Settings JSON import/export + reveal in Explorer + runtime diagnostics.

Capture polish (v0.2.4)

• Color picker tool — HEX / RGB / HSL / APCA-Lc readout (vs white + vs black). Live cursor sample, click anywhere to lock + copy HEX.
• Pixel ruler tool — drag to measure Δx / Δy / pixel length / angle across the entire virtual screen.
• Magnifier loupe in the region overlay — 6× zoom, crosshair, pixel coordinate + HEX readout, auto-flips at screen edges.
• Pin window polish — opacity submenu (25/50/75/100% plus Ctrl-scroll), border / shadow toggles, Alt+click click-through, O solo mode, H hide/show all pins.

What's coming (selected)

See ROADMAP.md for the full picture.

• v0.7 — MP4 / HEVC / AV1 record (Media Foundation SinkWriter + hardware encoder discovery), HDR tonemap (ACES) + AVIF / JPEG XR, RapidOCR bundle, DOCX / PPTX from Step Capture, MSIX + Chocolatey + Scoop, code-signing via SignPath OSS, auto-update via Velopack

Install

From source

git clone https://github.com/SysAdminDoc/Snapture.git
cd Snapture
dotnet build -c Release Snapture.sln
dotnet run --project src/Snapture.App -c Release

Requirements: Windows 10 1903+ or Windows 11, .NET 10 SDK.

Release builds

Download from Releases once the first tag is cut.

Usage

After launching, Snapture lives in the system tray.

Hotkey	Action
PrintScreen	Capture region
Alt+PrintScreen	Capture foreground window
Ctrl+PrintScreen	Capture fullscreen (all monitors)
Shift+PrintScreen	Recapture last region
Tray left-click	Capture region
Tray right-click	Full menu (per-monitor, settings, tools, engine, output folder)

All four hotkeys are rebindable from Settings → Hotkeys.

Captures are saved to %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Snapture\ by default and copied to the clipboard. The editor window opens after every capture (configurable in settings.json).

Configuration

%APPDATA%\Snapture\settings.json:

{
  "outputFolder": "C:\\Users\\you\\Pictures\\Snapture",
  "filenamePattern": "Snapture_{yyyy-MM-dd}_{HH-mm-ss}",
  "outputFormat": "PNG",
  "copyToClipboard": true,
  "openEditorAfterCapture": true,
  "showToastOnSave": true,
  "launchAtStartup": false
}

filenamePattern accepts any .NET DateTime format token inside {...}.

Architecture

Snapture.sln
├─ src/
│  ├─ Snapture.Capture/                ← Capture engine library
│  │  ├─ ICaptureEngine                ← Async capture contract
│  │  ├─ GdiCaptureEngine              ← GDI / PrintWindow fallback
│  │  ├─ WinRtCaptureEngine            ← Windows.Graphics.Capture (v0.2)
│  │  ├─ CaptureItemFactory            ← IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop picker bypass
│  │  ├─ D3D11Interop                  ← D3D11 + IDirect3DDevice bridge (3 P/Invokes)
│  │  ├─ ImageStitcher                 ← Subsampled-SAD seam alignment + sticky-strip detection
│  │  ├─ MonitorEnumerator             ← Per-monitor DPI awareness
│  │  └─ WindowEnumerator              ← Top-level window listing + hit-test
│  ├─ Snapture.Plugin.Abstractions/    ← Public plugin surface (multi-target)
│  │  ├─ PluginAttribute               ← [SnapturePlugin] + capability flags
│  │  └─ Contracts                     ← IDestination / ICaptureProcessor / IEditorEffect / IPluginHost
│  └─ Snapture.App/                    ← WPF shell
│     ├─ App.xaml(.cs)                 ← Entry, AUMID, crash logging
│     ├─ Services/
│     │  ├─ AppHost                    ← Lifetime, hotkey wiring, engine swap
│     │  ├─ CaptureOrchestrator        ← Capture → save → clipboard → editor
│     │  ├─ CaptureEngineFactory       ← auto/winrt/gdi resolver
│     │  ├─ HotkeyService              ← RegisterHotKey on a message-only window
│     │  ├─ SettingsService            ← JSON load/save
│     │  ├─ TrayIconHost               ← NotifyIcon + context menu
│     │  ├─ AppIdentity                ← Sets AUMID for borderless-consent persistence
│     │  ├─ BorderlessConsent          ← Win11 22H2+ first-run prompt
│     │  ├─ PrintScreenHijackDetector  ← 24H2 registry probe + reclaim
│     │  ├─ OcrService                 ← Windows.Media.Ocr wrapper
│     │  ├─ CaptureHistoryService      ← SQLite + FTS5 history index
│     │  ├─ ScrollingCaptureService    ← UIA IScrollProvider driver (alpha)
│     │  ├─ LanShareServer             ← Kestrel + token registry
│     │  ├─ PluginLoader               ← AssemblyLoadContext-based plugin host
│     │  ├─ PluginHostBridge           ← IPluginHost implementation
│     │  ├─ StepCaptureSession         ← Click-recorder + Markdown exporter
│     │  └─ GifRecorder                ← Continuous capture loop + animated-GIF encode
│     ├─ Editor/
│     │  ├─ AnnotationDocument         ← Background bitmap + ordered shape list
│     │  ├─ Shapes                     ← Rect / Ellipse / Line / Arrow / Pen / Text / Highlight / Blur / Redact / Step (polymorphic JSON)
│     │  ├─ CommandStack               ← Add / Remove undo/redo
│     │  └─ SnapFileFormat             ← .snapture zip = document.json + background.png + manifest.json
│     └─ Views/
│        ├─ RegionOverlayWindow        ← Frozen-screen drag-to-select with magnifier loupe
│        ├─ WindowPickerWindow         ← Hover-highlight + PgUp/PgDn ancestor walk
│        ├─ EditorWindow               ← Skia canvas + tool palette + adjustments + frame wrappers
│        ├─ PinWindow                  ← Always-on-top + opacity / shadow / click-through / solo / hide-all
│        ├─ SettingsWindow             ← Tabbed dialog (General/Capture/Hotkeys/Output/Advanced)
│        ├─ ColorPickerWindow          ← HEX / RGB / HSL / APCA-Lc + global click capture
│        ├─ PixelRulerWindow           ← Δx / Δy / length / angle across the virtual screen
│        ├─ SmartCaptureWindow         ← UIA element-level live highlight + click capture
│        ├─ HistoryWindow              ← Thumbnail wall + FTS5 search
│        ├─ OcrResultWindow            ← Recognised-text reviewer
│        ├─ PluginsWindow              ← Plugin inventory + reload
│        ├─ StepCaptureWindow          ← Step Capture review + Markdown export
│        └─ GifRecordingWindow         ← REC indicator + Stop & save
└─ Resources/Themes/
   ├─ CatppuccinMocha.xaml
   ├─ CatppuccinLatte.xaml
   └─ ThemeStyles.xaml

Privacy

No telemetry, no analytics, no phone-home, no cloud account. Every network feature is opt-in and explicitly user-triggered. See docs/PRIVACY.md for the audit-grade list of every place Snapture could talk to the network, with verification steps.

License

MIT