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 are set in Settings > Shortcuts, the timing in Settings > General.

Does MShot collect telemetry?

No usage analytics or tracking. Screenshots and settings stay on your Mac unless you turn on iCloud Drive sync, and OCR runs fully on device using Apple Vision. MShot only goes online to check for updates when you choose Check for Updates… or turn on automatic checks (off by default). Crash reporting via Sentry is also off by default: it runs only if you enable it and add a DSN in ~/Library/Application Support/MShot/appsettings.json, and then sends crash reports only, without breadcrumbs or traces and with user, request and server name removed.

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?

Screen Recording, which macOS itself requires to capture pixels from windows and displays. MShot points you to System Settings on first launch if it is missing. Accessibility is requested only if you use Auto-scroll during a scrolling capture.

Does MShot run on Intel Macs?

Yes. MShot is a universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 Sonoma or later. It is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

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 · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon & Intel · Signed & notarized · 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, undo and redo.

Stays Out of the Way

Lives in the menu bar — no Dock icon, no background bloat. Captures are encoded and saved off the main thread, so the UI stays responsive.

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 the main display in one keystroke.
Window. ⌃⇧2 — hover over any window to highlight it with its app name and title, then click to capture just that window.
Region. ⌃⇧3 — draw a rectangle with a magnifier loupe, crosshair, live coordinates and a size readout.
Scrolling Capture. ⌃⇧4 — drag over the area that scrolls. A small panel shows the captured height as you go: scroll down yourself, or press Auto-scroll and let MShot do it (needs the Accessibility permission). Press Done (or Return) and MShot stitches everything into one tall image, with fixed headers and footers only once; Cancel or Esc discards it. Up to 30,000 px.
Timed. ⌃⇧5 — a configurable 1–30 second countdown (5 s by default) before a full-screen capture.
Esc Cancels. Changed your mind? Esc backs out of a region selection, the window picker, a timed countdown or a scrolling capture.
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. Pick each shortcut's “Twice” target in Settings → Shortcuts and the 150–900 ms timing window in Settings → General. Works with bare function keys too (F1–F20): assign F12 to Region and choose Window as its “Twice” target.
Save To Submenu. Choose what happens after a capture (file and clipboard, file only, clipboard only) and switch between several saved folders from the menu bar in one click.
iCloud Drive Sync. Optional, off by default. Every newly saved capture is copied into iCloud Drive/MShot so you have it on every device; the local file stays where it is.
Auto-Copy & Floating Preview. Captures go to file and clipboard by default, and a small preview (2–60 s, can be turned off) lets you open the editor, copy or save.
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: select, arrow, line, rectangle, ellipse, freehand, text, highlight, pixelate blur, auto-numbered step badges and crop. Colour picker plus 8 swatches, stroke width 1–12, text size 10–72.

Annotation Presets

Save your favourite tool + colour + width + text size combos and apply them with one click. Ships with Red Arrow, Yellow Highlight and Numbered Step.

Layer Panel

Every tool type in use is a togglable layer. Hide every arrow, every blur or every number without deleting them — hidden layers are left out of exports too.

Undo & Redo

⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z step back and forth through your annotations, as far as you like. Crop and Beautify change the image itself and can't be undone.

Beautify

One click adds a shadow with rounded corners, a gradient background, or a Mac window frame with traffic lights around your capture.

OCR

Extract Text reads the text in any image using Apple Vision — entirely on-device. The result goes straight to your clipboard.

Screenshot Diff

Drop two images onto the diff viewer and see pixel-level differences highlighted in red. Adjustable 1–50% threshold; great for visual regression checks.

Open Any Image

Use Open With → MShot in Finder or drop an image onto MShot.app to annotate it in the editor. Prefer another editor? Settings → General → Editor can send Edit to an app of your choice.

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 your last 50 captures in a history stored on your Mac, so it survives relaunches. Re-open, re-copy, reveal in Finder, or export a whole batch with one click.

Quick Capture Window. Five capture cards showing their current shortcuts, plus your six most recent captures one right-click away from Open in Editor, Copy, Save As…, Show in Finder or Delete.
Rolling History. The last 50 screenshots with thumbnail, capture mode and time.
Batch Export. Multi-select captures, or export all of them, to any folder in your chosen output format.
Reveal in Finder. Jump straight from a history card to the saved file on disk.
Multiple Formats. PNG by default; JPEG, TIFF or HEIC, with a quality slider when you need smaller files.
Max File Size. Cap saved screenshots at a chosen KB limit — MShot steps quality down and, if needed, downscales to fit.
Custom Hotkeys. Record or type any of the five capture shortcuts in Settings → Shortcuts; changes take effect instantly, and conflicts are reported.
Clipboard. Auto-copy on capture, or hit Copy from any history card.
Save As… ⇧⌘S in the editor saves a copy under a new name or in another folder.
Settings Backup. Export and import all settings as JSON from Settings → General.

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. MShot is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS opens it without an “unidentified developer” warning.
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. Universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

Under the Hood

Built for macOS. No compromises.

Privacy First

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

Crash Reports: Off by Default

Crash reporting (Sentry) runs only if you enable it and add a DSN in ~/Library/Application Support/MShot/appsettings.json. Then it sends crash reports only — no breadcrumbs, no traces; user, request and server name are stripped.

Update Checks: Your Call

Automatic update checks are off by default — turn them on in Settings → General → Updates. Check for Updates… in the menu works any time.

On-Device OCR

Apple Vision recognizes text locally. Nothing is uploaded.

Non-Blocking Saves

Encoding and writing run off the main thread, so the UI stays responsive even with 4K captures.

Minimal Permissions

Screen Recording — the permission macOS requires for any capture tool. Accessibility only if you use Auto-scroll in a scrolling capture.

Built-in Bug Report

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

Signed & Notarized

Developer ID-signed and notarized by Apple. One universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

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?

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