MShot is a native macOS screenshot tool. It captures full screens, windows, regions, scrolling pages and timed shots, and lets you annotate, beautify, OCR and diff your screenshots without leaving the app.

Which keyboard shortcuts does MShot use?

Control+Shift+1 captures the full screen, Control+Shift+2 a window, Control+Shift+3 a region, Control+Shift+4 a scrolling region and Control+Shift+5 a timed shot with a configurable countdown. Every shortcut is customisable in Settings, can be set to a bare function key (including Print Screen / F13), and can optionally be promoted to a different capture mode by pressing it twice quickly.

Can a single hotkey trigger two different captures?

Yes. Every capture shortcut has an optional 'twice' target. Press the hotkey once for its primary mode; press it again within a short configurable window (150 to 900 milliseconds) and MShot runs the promoted mode instead. Default: Full Screen pressed twice promotes to Window capture. Per-shortcut targets and timing are configured in Settings > Shortcuts.

Does MShot collect telemetry?

No. MShot stores all screenshots and settings locally on your Mac. No usage analytics, performance traces or network calls are made. Even OCR runs fully on device using Apple Vision.

How does iCloud Drive sync work?

When enabled, each saved screenshot is copied into iCloud Drive at ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/MShot/. macOS syncs from there, so you can disable it at any time without losing local copies.

What permissions does MShot need?

Only Screen Recording, which macOS itself requires to capture pixels from windows and displays. MShot requests it on first launch and guides you to System Settings if denied.

Yes. MShot is provided free of charge, as is, without warranty. Use at your own risk.

MShot

A fast, native screenshot tool for macOS — capture, annotate, beautify, share.

Install with Homebrew:

brew tap amzu-ch/tap https://dev.azure.com/amzu-ch/Homebrew/_git/homebrew-tap

brew install --cask mshot

Download for macOS Explore features

Native macOS app · Apple silicon (M1 or newer) · Free · Use at your own risk

Why MShot

Every screenshot, done right.

Five Capture Modes

Full screen, window, region, scrolling and timed capture — each one a single ⌃⇧ chord away.

Full Annotation Suite

Arrows, shapes, freehand, text, highlighter, numbered steps and pixelate. Layer panel, presets and unlimited undo.

Stays Out of the Way

Lives in the menu bar — no Dock icon, no background bloat, saves happen on a background task so the UI never freezes.

Capture

Grab anything on your screen.

Built on Apple's modern ScreenCaptureKit for crisp, retina-perfect images. Global hotkeys work from any app; a status-bar menu is always one click away.

Full Screen. ⌃⇧1 — capture every pixel of the active display at native resolution.
Window. ⌃⇧2 — a thumbnail picker shows every on-screen window; pick one and it's captured in isolation.
Region. ⌃⇧3 — draw a rectangle with a magnifier loupe and live pixel coordinates.
Scrolling Capture. ⌃⇧4 — select a region and MShot scrolls it for you, auto-stitching overlaps into one tall image.
Timed. ⌃⇧5 — a configurable 1–30 second countdown before the shutter fires.
Double-Press to Promote. Hit the same hotkey twice quickly to run a different mode — out of the box, ⌃⇧1 ⌃⇧1 promotes Full Screen to Window capture. Per-shortcut target picker and 150–900 ms timing window in Settings → Shortcuts. Works with bare function keys too: assign F12 to Region and F12 F12 promotes to Window.
Save To… Submenu. Store several default folders and switch between them from the menu bar in one click.
iCloud Drive Sync. Optional. Every new capture is mirrored into iCloud Drive/MShot so you have it on every device.
Auto-Copy & Floating Preview. Clipboard on capture plus a tiny HUD that fades out or lets you jump straight into the editor.
Optional Mouse Cursor. Toggle whether the pointer appears in the capture — off by default, handy for tutorials when you need it.

MShot Shortcuts settings: per-capture-mode hotkey recorders with a Twice → promote-to-mode picker

Edit & Beautify

Polish before you share.

A full annotation canvas with a Layer panel, reusable presets and one-click beautify frames. Great for tutorials, bug reports and design reviews.

Annotation Tools

11 tools: arrow, line, rectangle, ellipse, freehand, text, highlight, pixelate blur, auto-numbered step badges, crop and select. Any colour, any stroke width.

Annotation Presets

Save your favourite tool + colour + size combos and apply them with one click. Perfect for consistent doc visuals.

Layer Panel

Every tool type is a togglable layer. Hide every arrow, every blur or every number without touching the annotation itself.

Beautify Frames

Add a shadow, a gradient backdrop or a Mac window chrome around your capture. One-click frames that make any screenshot look like a finished design asset.

OCR

Extract text from any image using Apple Vision — entirely on-device. Result copied straight to your clipboard.

Screenshot Diff

Drop two images onto the diff viewer and see pixel-level differences highlighted in red. Adjustable threshold; great for visual regression checks.

MShot editor showing the annotation toolbar (arrow, line, shapes, text, highlight, blur, numbered steps), color palette, and Copy / Save / Beautify / Extract Text actions

MShot Screenshot Diff window: side-by-side Image A / Image B drop zones plus a Diff overlay with adjustable pixel threshold

MShot Help window with a sidebar of feature topics (Getting Started, Capture modes, Annotation Tools, Beautifier, Keyboard Shortcuts, Tips & Tricks)

History & Export

Everything, always within reach.

MShot keeps the last 50 captures in an in-memory history you can revisit at any time. Re-open, re-copy, reveal in Finder, or export a whole batch with one click.

Rolling History. The last 50 screenshots with timestamps, capture mode and thumbnail previews.
Batch Export. Multi-select captures and export them to any folder in PNG, JPEG, TIFF or HEIC.
Reveal in Finder. Jump straight from a history card to the saved file on disk.
Multiple Formats. PNG by default; JPEG and HEIC with quality slider when you need smaller files.
Max File Size. Cap every saved screenshot at a chosen KB limit — MShot steps quality down and, if needed, downscales to fit.
Custom Hotkeys. Re-record any of the five capture shortcuts in Settings → Shortcuts; changes take effect instantly.
Clipboard. Auto-copy on capture, or hit Copy from any history card.
Save As… The editor's save-as dialog lets you override format and location per image.

MShot General settings: launch-at-login, copy-to-clipboard, sound effect, visual flash, floating preview toggle and duration, mouse cursor, timed-capture countdown, double-press timing

Install

Up and running in under a minute.

Download MShot.zip and unzip it.
Drag MShot.app into your /Applications folder.
Open it. If macOS asks about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open.
Grant Screen Recording in System Settings → Privacy & Security when MShot asks.
Press ⌃⇧1…⌃⇧5 to capture — or click the MShot icon in your menu bar.

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple silicon (arm64). Intel Macs are not supported.

Under the Hood

Built for macOS. No compromises.

Privacy First

Screenshots never leave your Mac unless you turn on iCloud Drive sync. No telemetry, no analytics, no usage tracking.

On-Device OCR

Apple Vision recognizes text locally using the Neural Engine. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is logged.

Non-Blocking Saves

Encoding, writing and iCloud sync all run on a background task, so the UI stays responsive even with 4K captures.

Minimal Permissions

Only Screen Recording — nothing else. The same permission macOS itself requires for any capture tool.

Built-in Bug Report

Menu bar → "Report a Bug…" opens your mail client with version, build, macOS version, hardware and locale prefilled.

Made with SwiftUI

Native SwiftUI and ScreenCaptureKit. Small binary, instant launch, faithful to the macOS look and feel.

No warranty — use at your own risk

MShot is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

In no event shall the authors or amzu solutions GmbH be liable for any claim, damages, data loss or other liability arising from the use of this software. You are responsible for evaluating whether MShot is suitable for your environment before running it.

Enjoying MShot?

If this app saves you time, consider supporting its development.

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Found a bug? Use Menu Bar → Report a Bug… in MShot, or email .