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better-shot

An open-source alternative to CleanShot X for macOS. Capture, edit, and enhance your screenshots with professional quality.

Detected 3d ago·viaMicrolaunch

Built byKartik

#desktop-application #macos-app #macos-application #tauri #vitejs

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Overview

Grounded in available product and source data

BetterShot

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

What it does

Capture

Action	Shortcut
Region screenshot	`⌘⇧4`
Fullscreen screenshot	`⌘⇧3`
Window screenshot	`⌘⇧5`
Record screen	`⌘⇧2`
OCR text scan	`⌘⇧O`
Color picker (hex)	`⌘⇧C`

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.

Screen Recording

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

Beautify

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

Annotate

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.

Workflow

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

Install

Homebrew

brew install --cask bettershot

Download

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

Build from source

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.

Permissions

BetterShot needs two macOS permissions on first launch:

Screen Recording — System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording
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.

Usage

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

Editor shortcuts

Action	Key
Select tool	`V`
Rectangle	`R`
Filled rectangle	`F`
Ellipse	`O`
Line	`L`
Arrow	`A`
Freehand	`D`
Text	`T`
Numbered circle	`N`
Blur	`B`
Spotlight	`G`
Save / Export	`⌘S`
Copy to clipboard	`⇧⌘C`
Undo / Redo	`⌘Z` / `⇧⌘Z`
Delete annotation	`Delete`
Select all	`⌘A`
Close editor	`Esc`

Settings

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)

Make commands

Command	What it does
`make build`	Debug build
`make release`	Release build (unsigned)
`make run`	Build and launch
`make dmg`	Create DMG for local testing
`make clean`	Remove build artifacts
`make lint`	Check for compiler warnings
`make test-build`	Full clean + release build
`make version`	Print current version

Architecture

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

Framework	Used for
CoreGraphics	Image compositing, annotation rendering, beautifier pipeline
CoreImage	Gaussian blur for redaction
Vision	OCR text extraction
ScreenCaptureKit	Screen and window recording
AVFoundation	Video editing, trimming, effect compositing via AVMutableVideoComposition
AppKit	Color sampling, floating panels, pinned windows, capture via CLI
Carbon	Global keyboard shortcuts via CGEvent tap