Photon 0.2.2

Photon 0.2.2 brings the update window to the front, on the Mac and on Windows.

What's new

• Update window: after Check for Updates…, the update window opens in front of other apps' windows. Before, it could open behind them, and the check looked broken.

Updating

Choose Check for Updates… in the menu (the tray menu on Windows), or wait for the daily check. In 0.2.1 the update window may open behind your other windows.

New install

• Mac: Photon-macOS-arm64.zip, for Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later. Unzip it and drag Photon into Applications.
• Windows: Photon-windows-x64.zip, for Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or 11, 64-bit. Unzip it anywhere and run Photon.exe.

Photon 0.2.1

Photon 0.2.1 can update itself, on the Mac and on Windows.

What's new

• Updates from the menu. Choose Check for Updates… in the menu (the tray menu on Windows), or let Photon check GitHub once a day (you can turn this off in Settings › General). When a new version is out, Photon shows a notification. On the Mac, Install and Relaunch downloads it, checks its checksum and Apple's notarization, replaces Photon and reopens it. On Windows, Install and Restart checks the download's checksum, swaps in the new Photon.exe and restarts it.
• Photon waits until you finish capturing, recording or exporting before it installs.

New install

• Mac: Photon-macOS-arm64.zip, for Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later. Unzip it and drag Photon into Applications.
• Windows: Photon-windows-x64.zip, for Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or 11, 64-bit. Unzip it anywhere and run Photon.exe.

Install this version by hand once; later versions install from the menu.

Photon 0.2.0

Photon 0.2.0 is translated into Simplified Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Korean.

Downloads

File	For
Photon-macOS-arm64.zip	Apple silicon Macs (M1 or later), macOS 15 or later
Photon-windows-x64.zip	Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) and Windows 11, 64-bit

Mac: unzip and drag Photon.app to Applications, then open it. It's signed and notarized by Apple.

Windows: unzip and run Photon.exe. If SmartScreen warns you, click More info › Run anyway.

Changes since 0.1.1

• Photon follows your system language. On a Mac, System Settings › General › Language & Region › Applications can give Photon a different language from the rest of the Mac.
• Default file names are in your language too, for example Bildschirmfoto 2026-10-27 um 09.41.12.png in German. A template you've changed stays as you wrote it.
• The codec menu, the shortcut buttons, the Record button and the "Recording saved" panel widen when a translation needs the room. In English, "H.264 (most compatible)" is no longer cut off.
• On Windows, Chinese, Japanese and Korean text is drawn with the character shapes for that language.
• Photon.exe is now 1.1 MB, because the translations are built in. The Mac app keeps them in its bundle, and its program file is 824 KB.

Photon is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.

Photon 0.1.1

A screenshot, markup and screen recording app for Apple silicon Macs and Windows PCs.

Downloads

File	For
Photon-macOS-arm64.zip	Apple silicon Macs (M1 or later), macOS 15 or later
Photon-windows-x64.zip	Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) and Windows 11, 64-bit

Mac: unzip and drag Photon.app to Applications, then open it. It's signed and notarized by Apple. Press ⇧⌘9 to take a screenshot and ⇧⌘0 to record.

Windows: unzip and run Photon.exe. If SmartScreen warns you, click More info › Run anyway. Press Ctrl+Shift+9 to take a screenshot and Ctrl+Shift+0 to record. On Windows 10, the system draws a yellow border around the area being recorded. The border isn't in the video.

Changes since 0.1.0

• Stopping a recording while it is starting no longer leaves the timer running.
• When building from source, scripts/bundle.sh --install waits for the running copy to quit before opening the new build.
• Release builds no longer contain the build machine's folder paths.
• The Mac download is notarized by Apple, and macOS no longer asks you to approve it in Privacy & Security.

Features

• Freeze-frame screenshots with window snapping, drag handles and arrow-key nudging.
• Markup: pen, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, highlighter, text, pixelate and numbered steps.
• Copy, save, print or pin a screenshot above other windows.
• Record a region, a display or a window at 60 fps, with system audio, your microphone, a webcam bubble and click highlights.
• Trim recordings without re-encoding, and export GIFs.
• Save to local folders or to your OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box or iCloud Drive folder. Photon makes no network connections.
• File name templates with date, time, app and counter tokens.

Photon is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.