WinterShot v0.11.0

Full Changelog: v0.10.0...v0.11.0

WinterShot v0.10.0

What's new

• Recordings are in your library — the captures sidebar and the notch panel now list screen recordings alongside screenshots, newest first, each with a poster frame and its length. Until now a recording only ever appeared right after you stopped it; reopening one meant finding the file in Finder.
• Your edit is saved — every change in the studio editor (backdrop, padding, corners, zoom, cursor, crop, masks, music, output shape and resolution) is written to a .wsedit.json sidecar next to the raw recording as you work, and comes back when you reopen the take. Close the window whenever you like; the raw video and its event log are never touched.
• Open a recording from anywhere — click a recording in the notch panel to open the studio editor; in the main window a click shows the take with an Open in Studio Editor button, and a double-click or the card's clapperboard opens it directly. A recording that is already open just comes to the front.
• Move to Trash — deleting a recording from the library or the editor moves the video and its sidecars to the Trash instead of removing them.
• The library refreshes on its own after a capture, a finished recording or a delete.
• A video dropped into the Captures folder by hand is listed too, and opens in the editor without cursor or auto-zoom.
• For scripts and testing: --export-recording without --export-options now renders the recording's saved edit; WS_CAPTURES_DIR points the library at another folder; --show <name> and --snapshot-windows <dir> are new launch flags (see docs/DEVELOPMENT.md).

Note for updaters

This build is signed with the same development certificate as v0.9.0–v0.9.2, so updating from any of those keeps your Screen Recording permission. Coming from v0.8.0 or earlier, macOS will ask you to re-grant it once.

Full Changelog: v0.9.2...v0.10.0

WinterShot v0.9.2

What's new

• Export works again — in v0.9.1 the editor's Export button, the Presets menu and the hide-panels toggle did nothing when clicked. The top bar had become the title bar, and SwiftUI quietly stretched the sidebar's scroll view up under it, so an invisible view was catching those clicks. The bar now sizes itself to the title-bar region and the controls respond as before. Undo/Redo were never affected.
• Export failures are now written to the system log (WinterShot: export failed: …) as well as shown in the editor.

Note for updaters

This build is signed with the same development certificate as v0.9.0 and v0.9.1, so updating from either keeps your Screen Recording permission. Coming from v0.8.0 or earlier, macOS will ask you to re-grant it once.

Full Changelog: v0.9.1...v0.9.2

WinterShot v0.9.1

What's new

• Smoother recording preview — the editor now blends camera and cursor motion between display ticks instead of sampling the clock per frame, so the auto-zoom camera no longer freezes or double-steps on up to a quarter of the frames. Exports are unchanged (verified pixel-identical).
• Softer auto-zoom — camera glides settle over about 0.6 s at roughly three quarters of the previous speed, and motion blur streaks now span the whole pan instead of capping early.
• Picking a pointer turns off Follow — choosing a cursor in the Cursor panel now also switches off "Follow the app's cursor" in one undoable step, so the pick visibly takes effect.
• The editor top bar is the title bar — double-click anywhere on the bar to zoom the window, the traffic lights sit inline, and the empty strip above the bar is gone.
• Segmented pickers no longer truncate — "Wallpaper" in the Background picker no longer squeezes to "Wallpa…".
• New landing page — https://winterzxzz.github.io/winter_shot/ now has a screenshot tour and the demo GIF from the README.

Note for updaters

This build is signed with the same development certificate as v0.9.0, so updating from v0.9.0 keeps your Screen Recording permission. Coming from v0.8.0 or earlier, macOS will ask you to re-grant it once.

Full Changelog: v0.9.0...v0.9.1

WinterShot v0.9.0

What's new

• Crop fix — applying a crop now actually crops the canvas. Previously, with no background beautify enabled, the editor kept showing the full uncropped capture after Apply (exports were unaffected).
• Crop's Apply button now disables after a bare click on the canvas instead of silently doing nothing.
• Preview cards at the bottom-left now dismiss themselves when you drag their image into another app; the capture stays in your library.
• Export at native resolution with a resolution picker, and a menu-bar Settings item (macOS 14 fix), carried over from v0.6.0–v0.8.0.

Note for updaters

This build is signed with a different development certificate than v0.6.0–v0.8.0, so macOS will ask you to re-grant Screen Recording permission once after updating.

Full Changelog: v0.8.0...v0.9.0

WinterShot v0.8.0

Full Changelog: v0.7.0...v0.8.0

WinterShot v0.7.0

Full Changelog: v0.6.0...v0.7.0

WinterShot v0.6.0

Full Changelog: v0.5.0...v0.6.0

WinterShot v0.5.0

What's new

Open at login

WinterShot has no Dock icon, so after a restart the menu-bar icon — and your capture shortcut — were gone until you launched the app by hand. There's now a Startup section in Settings with an Open at login toggle.

• Registration goes through SMAppService, so the entry appears in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions and can be switched off from either place.
• The toggle reads its state back from the system instead of keeping its own copy, so it always matches what macOS actually does — no drift if you turn it off in System Settings.
• If macOS parks the registration behind an approval, Settings says so and offers a button straight to the Login Items pane.

Install

1. Download WinterShot-v0.5.0.dmg and drag WinterShot into Applications.
2. The build isn't notarized, so on first launch right-click the app → Open → Open, or run xattr -cr /Applications/WinterShot.app.
3. Grant Screen Recording when asked — it's the only permission WinterShot needs.
4. Open Settings → Startup and turn on Open at login if you want it there after every restart.

Updating from an earlier build keeps your Screen Recording grant: this build is signed with the same identity.

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later on Apple Silicon.

Full Changelog: v0.4.0...v0.5.0

WinterShot v0.4.0

What's new

Recording editor

• Video and image backdrops — put a looping video or your own image behind a recording, alongside the existing wallpaper, gradient and solid-colour backdrops.
• Screen Studio-style timeline seeking — scrub the timeline and the preview follows, with the clip and zoom ranges laid out under the playhead.
• Background music — mix a track under the export with volume control; it loops when shorter than the recording and is trimmed to length.

Docs

• The README is now a proper product page — screenshots and a demo GIF of the real app — and the new docs/DEVELOPMENT.md covers building, signing, the launch flags and the architecture.

Install

1. Download WinterShot-v0.4.0.dmg and drag WinterShot into Applications.
2. The build isn't notarized, so on first launch right-click the app → Open → Open, or run xattr -cr /Applications/WinterShot.app.
3. Grant Screen Recording when asked — it's the only permission WinterShot needs.

Updating from 0.3.0 keeps your Screen Recording grant: this build is signed with the same identity.

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later on Apple Silicon.

Full Changelog: v0.3.0...v0.4.0