Annotate a screenshot
Add arrows, shapes, text, counters and highlights, hide private details, and change the background.
Open a screenshot with Annotate on its card, or from the Library. The tools stand in a column on the left of the picture. Each tool has a one-letter key.
Tools
| Tool | Key | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Select | V | Click something to change it. Drag to move it. |
| Arrow | A | Drag from the start to what it points at. Hold ⌥ to flip it. |
| Line | L | Hold ⇧ for a straight angle. |
| Rectangle | R | Hold ⇧ for a square. |
| Ellipse | E | Hold ⇧ for a circle. |
| Pencil | F | Draw freehand. |
| Text | T | Click where the text goes, then type. |
| Highlighter | H | Drag over text. It snaps to the line and to the words you cover. Hold ⌥ to draw freely. |
| Counter | C | Click to place the next number. |
| Spotlight | S | Drag over what matters. The rest dims. |
| Pixelate | P | Hide something private. |
| Blur | B | Hide something private. |
| Black out | D | Cover something private. |
| Crop | X | Drag the corners or pick a shape. Return applies. |
Press [ and ] for a thinner or thicker stroke, or 1 to 7 for a set width. The eyedropper takes a colour from the picture.
Hide sensitive info
Press ⇧H. Slyve finds e-mail addresses, phone and card numbers, IBANs and keys in the picture, on your Mac. Tick the ones you want blurred.
To hide one word or phrase everywhere it appears, choose Copy text › Select an area to copy…, drag over it, then press ⌥⇧⌘H (or choose Copy text › Hide every occurrence). Each match gets a fill in the colour around it, ⌘Z removes them all in one step, and the note under the picture says how many were hidden.
Background
Open the Background panel to add a background, padding and rounded corners around the picture.
Stitch two screenshots
Click + Stitch in the bar and choose Paste (the picture on the clipboard) or a screenshot from your Library (or Picture file…). Pick Above, Below, Left or Right; the small preview shows where it lands and how big the result is. Set a gap of 0 to 64 px and turn on a divider line if you want one, then click Place (or press the arrow keys to choose a side and Return to place). The canvas grows to fit both pictures; a narrower one is centred, never scaled. The new screenshot is its own layer you can select and nudge with the arrow keys. Copy and Save give one flat picture, and ⌘Z removes the stitch in one step.
More
- ⌘L and ⌘R rotate the picture. ⇧⌘H and ⇧⌘V flip it.
- File › Add image… places another picture on it.
- File › Print… prints it.
- ⌘C copies it, ⌘S saves it and ⇧⌘S is Save as….
- ⌘D duplicates the selected annotation. ⌫ deletes it.
Every annotation can be reached from the keyboard: ⌥⇥ moves to the next one, and the arrow keys move it.