An open-source alternative to CleanShot X. Native Swift app for macOS — fast, lightweight, local-first. No subscriptions, no cloud, no telemetry.

Region, fullscreen, and window capture all use the native macOS screencapture CLI for maximum reliability. OCR extracts text from any region of the screen. Color picker samples any on-screen pixel and copies the hex value. All shortcuts are customizable in Settings > Capture.

• Record full screen — Capture your entire display as MP4 video with ScreenCaptureKit
• Floating status bar — Timer, pause/resume, stop, restart, and discard controls (hidden from the recording itself)
• Video editor — Trim, crop, add padding, corner radius, shadow, and background (solid, gradient, wallpaper, custom image). Export as MP4 with effects baked in
• Configurable — FPS (24/30/60), show cursor, capture audio in Settings > Recording

• Backgrounds — 12 solid color presets, 16 gradient presets, bundled macOS wallpapers, or your own image
• Effects — Padding, corner radius, shadow strength — all rendered live
• Crop — Crop screenshots and recordings with draggable handles, dark mask, and rule-of-thirds grid
• Layout — Aspect ratio (Auto, 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 9:16), 9-point alignment grid with smart corner radius
• Defaults — Configure your preferred effects and background in Settings with a live preview
• Export — PNG or JPEG for screenshots, MP4 for recordings

Rectangles, filled rectangles, ellipses, lines, curved arrows, freehand, text, numbered badges, blur, and spotlight. Each has a single-key shortcut in the editor (R, F, O, L, A, D, T, N, B, G). Text annotations support font selection, size, bold, italic, underline, and alignment.

• Click-to-edit — Click the floating preview to open the editor (image or video)
• Drag-to-app — Drag from the preview panel directly into Figma, Slack, or any app
• Pin screenshots — Pin any capture as an always-on-top floating window, unpin all from the menu bar
• Auto-apply — Automatically apply your default background, padding, corner radius, and shadow on every capture and recording
• Self-timer — Countdown overlay before capture (3s, 5s, 10s)
• Capture history — Separate tabs for screenshots and recordings in Settings
• Recent menu — Quick access to recent screenshots and recordings from the menu bar
• Toast notifications — Confirmation toasts for OCR, color picker, and gallery saves
• In-app updates — Check, download, and install updates without leaving the app
• Configurable overlay — Choose preview position and auto-dismiss timing

brew install --cask bettershot

1. Go to Releases
2. Download the latest .dmg for your architecture (Apple Silicon or Intel)
3. Open the DMG, drag BetterShot to Applications
4. Launch and grant permissions when prompted

git clone https://github.com/KartikLabhshetwar/better-shot.git
cd better-shot
make run

This builds a debug version and launches it. See all make commands below.

BetterShot needs two macOS permissions on first launch:

1. Screen Recording — System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording
2. Accessibility — System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility

Screen Recording lets the app capture your screen. Accessibility lets it override the default macOS screenshot shortcuts with its own.

1. Launch BetterShot — it appears in your menu bar (top right of screen)
2. Use a keyboard shortcut or click a capture action from the menu
3. The floating preview appears — click it to open the editor
4. Adjust background, effects, and add annotations
5. ⌘S to save, ⇧⌘C to copy to clipboard

Open from the menu bar > Settings (or ⌘,).

• General — Save location, clipboard behavior, appearance, default effects with live preview (padding, radius, shadow, background including macOS wallpapers and custom images), export format
• Capture — Self-timer delay, keyboard shortcuts (click any shortcut to re-record it, including record screen), overlay position and dismiss timing
• Recording — FPS (24/30/60), show cursor, capture audio, open editor after recording
• History — Browse and delete past screenshots
• Videos — Browse and delete past recordings, open in video editor
• About — Version info, in-app update checker, project links (GitHub, X)

Native Swift 6 / SwiftUI. No Electron, no web views, no external dependencies.

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, project structure, and coding guidelines.

BSD 3-Clause. See LICENSE.