Annotate & beautify
Annotate screenshots on your Mac with arrows, steps, text and blur, then give them a background and a frame worth sharing.
To annotate screenshots on your Mac, open a capture in ScreenCameo’s screenshot editor. Pick a tool, draw on the image, then add a background with Beautify. Copy it and paste it anywhere.
Open the screenshot editor #
- Take a screenshot, for example with OptionShift4. See screenshots & copy text.
- Point at the thumbnail in the corner of the screen and click Annotate.
- For an older capture, open Home → Screenshots, right-click it and choose Annotate.
The tools are at the top. The bar under them holds the colour and the current tool’s options. Beautify is in the panel on the right.
Annotate screenshots with arrows, boxes and text #
Click a tool, or press its key while the image is in front. Point at a tool to see its keys.
| Tool | Key | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Select | V | Pick, move and change what you drew. |
| Arrow | 1 or A | Point at something. Drag the middle dot to bend it. |
| Rect | 2 or R | Frame an area with a rectangle. |
| Filled rectangle | 3 | Cover an area with a solid colour. |
| Ellipse | 4 or O | Circle something. |
| Filled ellipse | No key | Pick Ellipse and tick Filled. |
| Line | 5 or L | A straight line. |
| Blur | 6 or B | Blur a private detail. |
| Pixelate | 7 or X | Hide a detail behind blocks. |
| Highlighter | 8 or H | Mark text like a highlighter pen. |
| Text | 9 or T | Add a label. |
| Counter | 0 | Numbered steps: 1, 2, 3… |
| Path | G | Click to add points. Double-click or press Return to finish; click the first point to close it. |
| Emoji | J | Stamp an emoji, such as 👉, ✅ or 🔥. |
| Callout | C | A speech bubble with a tail. |
| Eraser | E | Click or drag over annotations to remove them. |
| Magnifier | M | A round lens that enlarges a detail. |
| Pencil | P | Draw freehand. |
| Spotlight | S | Keep one area bright and dim the rest. |
| Crop | K | Keep only part of the image. |
Change a tool’s colour and style #
The bar under the tools changes with the tool you pick. Changes apply to new items and to what’s selected.
| Tool | Options |
|---|---|
| Arrow | Arrow, Double arrow, Open arrow or Open double arrow, and a size from 2 to 40. |
| Rect | Corners Sharp, Curved or Round, and Filled. |
| Text | Size from 8 to 160 pt, a style (Standard, Rounded, Monospaced, Outlined or Boxed) and Bold. New text starts Boxed. |
| Magnifier | Zoom: 1.5×, 2×, 3×, 4× or 5×. New lenses start at 2×. |
| Blur, Pixelate, Highlighter | How strong it is. For Pixelate, the block size. |
| Spotlight | Darkness: how much the rest is dimmed. |
- Click a swatch for a colour, use the colour well for any colour, or type a HEX code.
- Press Tab to pick a colour from anywhere on screen. Its HEX code is copied too.
- Colours you use are remembered at the end of the swatches.
Select, move and change annotations #
- Choose Select (V) and click an annotation. Shift-click adds more, dragging on empty space selects several, and CmdA selects all.
- Drag to move it. A single item snaps to the image’s centre lines.
- Nudge with the arrow keys: 1 pixel, or 10 with Shift. CmdD duplicates and Delete removes. Esc deselects.
- Drag the round handles. A corner resizes, an arrow’s middle dot bends it, and a callout’s tail handle points it somewhere else.
- Double-click text or a callout to edit it. Option-click picks the item underneath when several overlap.
- Counters renumber themselves after you delete one.
Zoom the view with Cmd= and Cmd-, or pinch. Cmd0 fits the image again. Hold Space and drag to move around.
Crop and cut out a strip #
- Choose Crop (K) and drag over the part to keep.
- Hold Shift while you drag with Crop to remove a horizontal strip instead. What’s below moves up to close the gap.
- Press CmdZ to bring back anything you cropped or cut.
Hide private details #
Click Redact in the toolbar. ScreenCameo finds emails, keys and tokens in the image and pixelates each one. Each block is an annotation, so you can move, resize or delete it.
Add a background, padding and a device frame #
Beautify puts your screenshot on a background, with space around it and a frame. It’s on when you first open a capture. Switch off Beautify in the panel on the right for the plain image.
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| Shape | Auto, a ratio, or a platform size such as Open Graph 1200 × 630. A platform size exports at exactly those pixels. |
| Background | Wallpaper, Gradient, Colour, or None for a transparent background. Effect adds Blur or Noise to the background only. |
| Padding | The space around the screenshot. |
| Inset | A band around the screenshot. Auto colour matches its edges, or pick a colour. |
| Corners | Sharp, Curved or Round, or drag Radius from 0 to 60. |
| Shadow | None, Spread or Hug, with Opacity. |
| Device | A MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Studio Display, iPad Pro, iPhone, Safari or a window, in any of its colours. |
Save a look as a preset #
- Set up a look you like in the Beautify panel.
- Click Presets at the top of the panel and choose Save Current as Preset…. Give it a name.
- Next time, pick it from the same menu to apply the whole look in one click.
- Choose Update to save changes to the last preset you used, or Delete to remove it.
A preset keeps the background, layout and device. It never keeps your annotations.
Copy, save and share the image #
| Action | What you get |
|---|---|
| Copy CmdC | The finished image on the clipboard, ready to paste. |
| Save CmdS | A file with your format and name from Settings → Screenshots. |
| Save As… ShiftCmdS | Pick the place and the format: PNG, JPEG, HEIC or TIFF, plus WebP and AVIF on Macs that support them. |
| Copy Text | Every word in the screenshot, as text. |
| Pin | The finished image, floating above your windows. |
Shortcuts on this page#
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| V | Select |
| 1 | Arrow (also A) |
| 0 | Counter |
| 6 | Blur (also B) |
| K | Crop |
| Hold Shift | Straight lines and perfect shapes; with Crop, cut a strip |
| Tab | Pick a colour from the screen |
| Hold Space | Drag to move around |
| CmdD | Duplicate the selection |
| CmdZ | Undo |
| ShiftCmdZ | Redo |
| CmdC | Copy the finished image |
| CmdS | Save |
| ShiftCmdS | Save As… |
If something’s off#
- Redact missed something
- Draw a Blur (6) or Pixelate (7) box over it yourself. Redact looks for emails, keys and tokens only.
- The transparent background turned white
- JPEG has no transparency. Save as PNG, HEIC or TIFF instead with Save As….
- I can’t find the Corners setting
- It hides while a device frame is picked. Click None under Device to see Corners and Shadow again.
Checked against ScreenCameo 0.9.0 · October 20, 2026
Still stuck? Email support@screencameo.com. Replies come usually within 2 business days.
