Take a screenshot

The quick keys

• ⌥⇧S: a screenshot of an area.
• ⌥⇧W: a screenshot of a window.
• ⌥⇧A: Capture anything. Every capture mode at once: area, window, screen, scrolling or a recording.

Use the capture bar

1. Open the capture bar and choose Screenshot at its left. A plain screenshot is the default. Turn on Scrolling or Text only when you want a whole page or the text; click it again to go back to a plain screenshot.
2. Pick Display, Window or Area. Your pick takes the screenshot; there is no separate button to press.
   • Area: drag to draw it. The screenshot is taken when you let go. A small pill shows its size while you drag, and Esc during the drag cancels it. Settings › Screenshots can turn on a round magnifier for a pixel-exact edge.
   • Window: click the highlighted window.
   • Display: click the display. With only one display, it is taken straight away.

Hold a key as you pick to skip the card. A line on the screen says what the held key will do:

• ⌃: copy the screenshot to the clipboard.
• ⌥: save it straight to your screenshots folder.
• ⇧: save it, as before. Hold ⇧ with ⌃ or ⌥ to leave the background off for that one screenshot.

Press ↩ while the bar is open to re-shoot the previous target, including the area you used last. Capture previous area, in the ⚙▾ menu at the bar’s right, does the same for the area.

Screenshot timer, in the ⚙▾ menu, waits 3, 5 or 10 seconds after your pick before it takes the picture, so you can open a menu first. The count shows over your pick, with Cancel (or press Esc; Return takes it at once). While a timer is set, the ⚙ button shows it (for example 5s). Slyve remembers your choice.

After you take it

A card appears in the corner of your screen. Under the picture is one row of icon buttons. Rest the pointer on one to see its name and key. From left to right you can:

• Copy the picture, then paste it anywhere (⌘C).
• Save it to your screenshots folder (⌘S). ⌥-click Save to optimise it for the web: a screenshot with 256 colours or fewer becomes an exact palette PNG (no pixel changes), anything else becomes a WebP at quality 85. The message says how much smaller it got, for example “Saved · 412 KB → 96 KB”. Everything happens on your Mac.
• Annotate it (E). See Annotate a screenshot.
• Copy text from it (⇧⌘C). See Copy text.
• Share it.
• Pin it (⌘P). The picture floats over every app until you close it. Right-click a pin for Lock position and size (clicks pass through to the app below, and a small lock shows while the pointer is over it; ⌘L or the menu bar’s Unlock pins undoes it) and Close on middle click. Pins come back where you left them after Slyve restarts.

You can also drag the picture straight into another app, or close the card with the × on the picture.

While something is working, such as reading the text or saving, the icon shows a spinner or a ring that fills up. If the card is too narrow for every button, the rest are in the ⋯ menu at the end of the row.

After a recording, the card works the same way, with Edit, Copy, Save…, Quick export, Share and, when it is available, Share link.

Your screenshots are kept in the Library under Screenshots.

Use the macOS keys

The first run can let Slyve answer the macOS screenshot keys: ⇧⌘3 for the screen, ⇧⌘4 for an area and ⇧⌘5 for Capture anything. It shows you how to turn off the macOS shortcuts first. ⌥⇧S keeps working either way.

Settings › Screenshots sets what happens after a capture, where screenshots are saved, the shutter sound and whether the pointer is included. It also offers WebP and HEIC, a Retina @2x file-name suffix, borders and file-name tokens such as {app} and {n}. Always optimise saves every PNG small for the web.