OpenShot

A free, open-source screenshot and screen recording tool for macOS. A powerful alternative to CleanShot X and Shottr — built for the community.

Features

Capture Modes

• Area Capture — Rubber-band selection with crosshair, magnifier loupe, and dimension labels
• Window Capture — Click any window; automatic transparency, shadow, and custom backgrounds (8 gradient presets, solid colors)
• Fullscreen Capture — Captures the display under your cursor (multi-monitor support)
• Scrolling Capture — Experimental vertical stitching for long pages
• Self-Timer — 3/5/10 second countdown before any capture
• Freeze Screen — Freeze the display to capture tooltips, menus, and hover states
• Capture Previous Area — Re-capture the exact same region with one shortcut
• All-in-One Panel — Single shortcut opens a floating panel with every capture mode

Annotation Editor

17 tools in a scrollable toolbar:

Tool	Description
Arrow	4 styles including curved, with optional hand-drawn look
Rectangle	Outline or filled, optional hand-drawn style
Ellipse	Outline or filled, optional hand-drawn style
Line	Straight line with configurable dash pattern
Text	7 preset styles (pill, highlight, shadow, monospace, etc.)
Counter	Auto-incrementing numbered circles for step-by-step guides
Pencil	Freehand drawing with Catmull-Rom smoothing
Highlighter	Semi-transparent marker (multiply blend, 40% opacity)
Blur	CIGaussianBlur on selected region
Pixelate	CIPixellate with randomized offset (prevents de-pixelation)
Smart Blur	Vision-powered text-only blur — blurs text, preserves images
Spotlight	Dims everything except selected region
Black Out	Solid fill redaction
Crop	Crop to selection
Pixel Ruler	Measure distances in pixels with imprint support
Color Picker	Pick colors with HEX/RGB/OKLCH values + WCAG contrast checking
Magnifier	Circular zoom callout annotation

Plus: Rotate/Flip/Resize via Image menu, undo/redo, drag images in to combine screenshots, and hand-drawn style toggle.

Screen Recording

• MP4 Recording — H.264 via SCStream + AVAssetWriter, 30/60 FPS
• GIF Recording — Real-time capture with automatic downsampling to 640px
• Audio — System audio + microphone
• Webcam Overlay — Circular camera preview in floating panel
• Click Visualization — Expanding colored circles on mouse clicks
• Keystroke Visualization — Floating pill showing pressed keys
• Recording Controls — Pause, resume, restart, stop with elapsed timer
• Menu Bar Timer — Shows MM:SS elapsed time during recording
• Do Not Disturb — Auto-enabled during recording

Quick Access Overlay

Floating panel appears after every capture with:

• Copy — Image data + temp file URL to clipboard
• Save — To configured folder in PNG/JPEG/TIFF/WebP/HEIC
• Annotate — Opens full annotation editor
• Pin — Creates always-on-top floating screenshot
• Drag & Drop — Drag thumbnail directly into any app
• Auto-close — Configurable delay (3s/5s/10s/never), pauses on hover
• Restore Recently Closed — Bring back accidentally dismissed captures

OCR

• On-device text recognition via Vision framework
• .accurate recognition level with language correction
• Preserves line breaks from bounding box positions
• Result copied directly to clipboard

Floating Screenshots

• Always-on-top display
• Resizable with aspect ratio lock
• Adjustable opacity (20-100%)
• Lock mode (click-through)
• Arrow keys for pixel-precise positioning
• Double-click to open in annotation editor

Additional Features

• Desktop Icon Hiding — Toggle or auto-hide during capture
• Custom File Naming — Templates with {date}, {time}, {mode}, {counter} tokens
• Capture History — SwiftData-backed grid with type filters
• URL Scheme — openshot://capture-area, openshot://record-screen, etc.
• Launch at Login — Via SMAppService
• First-Run Onboarding — Permission request + shortcut overview
• WCAG Contrast Checker — AA/AAA pass/fail + APCA values

Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts are customizable in Settings.

Action	Default Shortcut
Capture Area	Shift+Cmd+4
Capture Window	Shift+Cmd+5
Capture Fullscreen	Shift+Cmd+3
Scrolling Capture	Shift+Cmd+6
Capture Previous Area	Shift+Cmd+7
Self-Timer Capture	Shift+Cmd+8
All-in-One	Shift+Cmd+A
Record Screen	Shift+Cmd+R
Record GIF	Shift+Cmd+G
OCR — Capture Text	Shift+Cmd+T
Restore Recently Closed	Shift+Cmd+Z
Toggle Desktop Icons	Shift+Cmd+D

Requirements

• macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma)
• Xcode 15+ (to build from source)
• No external dependencies — pure Apple frameworks

Building

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/umutkeltek/OpenShot.git
cd OpenShot

# Option 1: Xcode
open OpenShot.xcodeproj
# Press Cmd+R to build and run

# Option 2: Command line
xcodebuild -project OpenShot.xcodeproj -scheme OpenShot -configuration Debug build
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/OpenShot-*/Build/Products/Debug/OpenShot.app

On first launch, grant Screen Recording permission when prompted (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording).

The app lives in your menu bar — look for the camera icon. There is no dock icon.

Architecture

OpenShot/
├── App/              # App lifecycle, menu bar, permissions, URL scheme, onboarding
├── Capture/          # ScreenCaptureKit engine, area/window/fullscreen selectors,
│                       self-timer, All-in-One panel, window backgrounds
├── Annotation/       # NSView canvas, 17 tool types, hand-drawn styles,
│                       smart blur, pixel ruler, toolbar, editor window
├── Overlay/          # Quick Access Overlay, floating screenshots, drag source
├── Recording/        # SCStream recorder, GIF exporter, video editor,
│                       click/keystroke visualizers, webcam overlay
├── OCR/              # Vision framework text recognition
├── History/          # SwiftData capture log with grid view
├── Settings/         # Preferences, hotkey manager, 6-tab Settings UI
├── Utilities/        # NSImage extensions, screen info, sound effects,
│                       desktop manager, color inspector, file namer, DND
└── Resources/        # Info.plist, entitlements, asset catalogs

48 Swift files, ~11,000 lines of code. Zero external dependencies.

Framework	Usage
ScreenCaptureKit	Screen capture and recording
AVFoundation	Video encoding, webcam, audio
Vision	OCR text recognition, smart text blur
CoreImage	Blur, pixelate, image filters
CoreGraphics	Annotation drawing, image composition
AppKit	Windows, panels, overlays, menus
SwiftUI	Settings, toolbar, overlay, history
SwiftData	Capture history persistence
ServiceManagement	Launch at login

URL Scheme

Automate OpenShot from Alfred, Raycast, Shortcuts, or scripts:

openshot://capture-area
openshot://capture-window
openshot://capture-fullscreen
openshot://scrolling-capture
openshot://record-screen
openshot://record-gif
openshot://capture-text
openshot://open-history
openshot://toggle-desktop-icons
openshot://restore-recently-closed

Export Formats

Format	Extension
PNG	.png (default)
JPEG	.jpeg (quality configurable)
TIFF	.tiff
WebP	.webp
HEIC	.heic
MP4	.mp4 (recordings)
GIF	.gif (GIF recordings)

Documentation

Document	Description
Architecture	Module breakdown, data flow, design decisions
Development Guide	Setup, building, testing, debugging
Contributing	How to report bugs, suggest features, submit PRs
Code of Conduct	Community standards
Security Policy	Reporting vulnerabilities
Changelog	Release history

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

# Quick start
git clone https://github.com/umutkeltek/OpenShot.git
cd OpenShot
make build    # Build
make test     # Run tests
make run      # Build and launch

License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.

Built with Swift and Apple frameworks. No subscriptions, no cloud, no tracking.