fayazara/Screendrop

Screendrop

A beautiful screenshot + screen recording + Loom alternative - all native, self hostable and free.

[!IMPORTANT]

Screendrop is under active development. Expect rough edges and occasional breaking changes

Latest release · All releases

Features

• Capture a display, window, or selected area as a screenshot or recording.
• Configure global hotkeys, timers, file formats, save behavior, and complete after-capture workflows.
• Copy, compress, save, pin, preview, annotate, edit, upload, or delete directly from a customizable floating preview stack.
• Grab text off the screen with on-device OCR - no screenshot saved, just the text on your clipboard.
• Open images from Finder with Screendrop and edit imported copies without touching the originals.
• Annotate non-destructively with drawing tools, crop, smart redaction, backgrounds, wallpaper packs, perspective effects, progressive blur, borders, and watermarks.
• Record camera, microphone, and system audio as separately editable sources.
• Use a notch-native teleprompter that follows your narration with on-device speech recognition.
• Edit recordings with smooth zooms, reconstructed cursors and clicks, keystroke captions, camera layouts, clip cuts, speed changes, social aspect ratios, and reusable style presets.
• Transcribe narration on-device, burn in karaoke-style captions, or edit the video by cutting its transcript.
• Share through your own Cloudflare account with a video player, scrub previews, searchable transcripts, comments, and rich link previews.
• Automate screenshots and recordings with Apple Shortcuts, Siri, and App Intents.

Install

Download

1. Download the latest Screendrop.dmg using the button above or from the releases page. 2. Open the DMG and drag Screendrop into your Applications folder. 3. Launch Screendrop. It lives in the menu bar at the top-right of the screen.

The download button always points to the newest release.

Requirements: macOS 26.4 or newer.

Homebrew

Install from the Homebrew tap:

brew install --cask fayazara/tap/screendrop

Update later with:

brew upgrade --cask screendrop

Screendrop can also update itself through Sparkle.

Quick Start

Screendrop can be controlled from its menu bar item or with global hotkeys.

| Default shortcut | Action | | --- | --- | | Option + 1 | Capture full screen | | Option + 2 | Capture a window | | Option + 3 | Capture an area | | Option + 4 | Open the screen-recording picker | | Option + 5 | Capture text (OCR) to the clipboard |

All five shortcuts are customizable under Settings → Screenshots and Settings → Screen Recordings. If a replacement shortcut cannot be registered, Settings explains the failure and keeps your previous working shortcut.

You can also:

• Run capture and recording actions from Apple Shortcuts, Siri, or Spotlight.
• Right-click one or more images in Finder and choose Open With → Screendrop.
• Browse screenshots and recordings together in the native Library, or reopen recent captures from the menu bar.

Screenshots

Capture

Capture an entire display, a window, or a freely selected area. Screenshots are taken at native display resolution and imported into the local Library before any optional automation runs.

Screenshot preferences include:

• A self-timer of 3, 5, or 10 seconds.
• Optional window shadows.
• Automatic trimming of the empty black menu-bar strip on notched Macs.
• PNG or JPEG export with configurable JPEG quality.
• A configurable export folder and a Save action that can bypass the save panel.
• A lower-resolution editor preview to reduce memory use while preserving full-resolution exports.
• An option to include Screendrop's own windows in screenshots and recordings; they are excluded by default.

Capture Text

Capture Text (Option + 5, or the menu bar) drags out an area like a normal area capture, recognizes the text inside it with on-device Vision OCR, and puts that text on the clipboard. No image is saved, nothing is added to Library, and no preview card appears - a brief toast confirms what was copied.

Recognized lines are returned in reading order, so multi-column screenshots paste in the order you read them rather than the order Vision happened to find them.

After-Capture Automation

Choose exactly what happens after every screenshot:

• Show the preview overlay.
• Copy the image to the clipboard.
• Save it to the export folder.
• Upload it and copy the share link.
• Open the annotation editor.
• Pin it above other windows.

Recording automation has its own independent settings for previewing, copying, saving, uploading, and opening Studio. Automatic uploading requires Cloud setup; the action links directly to Settings → Cloud when configuration is missing.

Floating Preview Stack

New captures appear as floating cards on the active display. From a card you can:

• Copy the capture or drag it into another app.
• Save it to disk.
• Create a smaller JPEG.
• Pin a screenshot as an always-on-top reference.
• Open Quick Look.
• Annotate a screenshot or edit a recording.
• Upload to your cloud and copy the link.
• Delete the file or dismiss only the preview.
• Copy recognized text from a screenshot using on-device OCR.

The overlay can appear on the left or right, close automatically after a chosen delay, and dismiss after a drag. Its actions are completely rearrangeable: drag actions between four corner slots, the center buttons, and a hidden-actions tray in Settings → Overlay.

Opening Save keeps a screenshot preview available if you cancel or saving fails. If a screenshot cannot be written to the configured export folder, choose another location or retry from the error dialog.

A recording card is a quick handoff: it closes once Studio has loaded successfully or a manual Save or Upload from the card succeeds. Failed or cancelled actions keep the card available for retry. Exporting or sharing from Studio or Library also clears that recording's card; the recording remains in Library. Studio shows Saved with a Finder reveal action, or Link Copied with actions to copy or open the share link, without creating another overlay.

When the stack is collapsed, it becomes a small peek tab instead of disappearing. This keeps captures close without covering the workspace.

Library

Library brings screenshots, videos, and complete recording projects into one native macOS window, replacing the History page and separate Recording Projects browser. The sidebar filters All Captures, Screenshots, and Recordings. Switch between thumbnail grid and list views, search by name, or sort by capture date, name, and last modification. The layout, sort order, and inspector visibility are remembered.

The browser uses reusable AppKit collection cells, background package discovery, and a bounded thumbnail cache with cancellable loading. The inspector shows dimensions, capture dates, duration, disk usage, editable-project state, file location, and cloud sharing actions. Recording packages and their History entries appear as one capture; existing files and edits stay where they are.

• Double-click a capture or press Space for a large Quick Look preview. Use Edit to annotate a screenshot or reopen a recording in Studio.
• Reopening an edited screenshot restores its preserved base image and saved annotations and background settings, including screenshots with only background or crop edits.
• Use Command-click, Shift-click, or Command-A to select multiple captures, then copy, export, reveal in Finder, or move them to Trash. Command-C copies the selection and Command-Delete offers Move to Trash.
• Press Return to rename a selected capture. Screenshot titles are stored separately from filenames, preserving annotation sidecars.
• Recording previews, copies, and exports resolve the edited deliverable, including the cursor and camera. Preparing an uncached recording can take time; Library shows the operation in its status bar.
• Move to Trash includes the capture's edits and recording tracks. Close a capture's editor first. Exported copies and cloud links are unaffected; deleting a cloud copy is a separate inspector action.

Normal launches open Library, with a Dock icon while regular windows are open. Launch at login stays quietly in the menu bar. Open Library again from the menu bar, Finder, Spotlight, or Command-Shift-L. Closing it leaves capture shortcuts and the menu bar available. Command-Option-I toggles the inspector.

Open Images from Finder

Screendrop registers as an image editor in Finder. Opening an image with Screendrop:

1. Validates the image. 2. Imports a copy into the Screendrop Library. 3. Opens the copy in the annotation editor.

The original file is never modified. Multiple selected images can be opened at once, each in its own editor window.

Annotation Studio

The annotation editor is non-destructive. Screendrop preserves the untouched base image and writes editable state to a neighboring .screendrop sidecar, so saved annotations can be reopened and changed later. Display previews are lightweight, while final renders use the source image's full pixel resolution.

Save, Done, and Upload coordinate screenshot commits so conflicting saves cannot overlap. Failed commits keep the editor open with its changes unsaved; file replacements retain recovery copies until the image and editable files are written successfully. Upload also works on screenshots without annotations. Recording Studio likewise stays open when Save and Close cannot save the project.

Drawing and Redaction

Available tools include:

• Rectangle and filled rectangle
• Circle
• Straight line and arrow
• Freehand drawing
• Numbered markers
• Text with font, weight, alignment, and size controls
• Highlight regions that dim everything outside the selection
• Pixelate and blur
• Select, move, resize, multi-select, delete, undo, and redo

Smart Redaction scans the screenshot for sensitive text and can add blur or pixelation automatically. Redaction strength remains editable after detection.

Crop

Crop at full resolution with freeform, original, 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, and 3:2 presets. Crops remap existing annotations into the new image coordinates and participate in undo and redo.

Backgrounds and Mockups

Turn a plain screenshot into a finished visual without leaving Screendrop:

• Apply solid colors, gradients, custom images, or downloadable wallpaper packs.
• Save, import, export, and share background presets as versioned .screendroppreset JSON files.
• Adjust padding, corner radius, shadow, aspect ratio, and nine-point alignment.
• Add a configurable solid border around the screenshot.
• Add a text watermark with placement and typography controls.
• Use camera-style perspective, rotation, zoom, and pan controls for dimensional mockups.
• Add radial or directional progressive blur, either clipped to the screenshot or bleeding into the surrounding scene.

The editor keeps these effects live and re-editable instead of flattening them into the source.

The canvas zoom menu offers Fit Canvas (⌘1), actual size (⌘0), and zoom in/out (⌘+/⌘−), up to 1000%. Fit leaves breathing room around the composition; zoomed content uses the full editor workspace. Pinch or hold ⌘/Option while scrolling to zoom around the pointer, and scroll to pan. Pinch zoom keeps its starting image point fixed until a canvas edge constrains the view. Menu and keyboard zoom use the center of your current view. Panning stops at the composition edges; axes that fit inside the viewport stay centered. Fit recenters the whole composition. These controls change only the editing view, not the exported image.

Shared presets include portable colors, gradients, layout, camera, blur, border, and watermark settings. Local wallpaper images and their file paths are never exported or imported; a wallpaper-based preset uses no background when opened on another Mac.

Screen Recording

Before Recording

The recording picker provides one place to prepare a session:

• Choose a display, app window, or selected area.
• Choose a camera, including external and Continuity Camera devices.
• Choose a microphone.
• Toggle system audio.
• Set a 1, 3, or 5 second start timer.
• Write and enable a teleprompter script.

During the start countdown, click Cancel, press Escape, or close the recorder to cancel the pending recording. Source selection is disabled until the countdown finishes or is cancelled. The display control shows source-loading progress; if loading fails, it offers Retry and, when needed, a link to screen recording permissions.

Turning on the camera starts a live preview before recording begins, giving the camera time to settle exposure and white balance. Camera permission failures or disconnected optional devices do not throw away the screen recording; Screendrop warns and continues without that input.

For area recordings, the selected boundary remains visibly highlighted while the rest of the display is dimmed. The guide is click-through and excluded from the recording.

While Recording

A floating control bar shows elapsed time and lets you:

• Pause or resume.
• Restart the same source.
• Stop and keep the recording.
• Delete the current recording.

The screen, camera, cursor activity, clicks, keystrokes, microphone, and system audio are captured as coordinated inputs. Screendrop keeps the raw screen and camera masters separate so later edits do not permanently burn effects into the footage.

Teleprompter

Paste or type a script from the pre-record bar, choose how many lines to show, and enable the teleprompter for the next recording.

On a Mac with a notch, the script grows out of the hardware notch in a Dynamic Island-style panel. On other displays it appears as a floating pill below the menu bar. With a microphone enabled, Apple's on-device Speech Analyzer follows the spoken words, highlights progress, and advances the script automatically. Without a microphone, the script remains available as a static prompt.

The teleprompter and its speech tracking are best-effort and never interrupt the recording if recognition is unavailable.

Recording Studio

Every new recording is stored as a non-destructive session package. The package preserves the screen master, optional camera master, input timeline, metadata, and a small editable project document. The original media stays untouched, and the project can be reopened from Library.

Timeline Editing

• Scrub with generated frame thumbnails.
• Split clips at the playhead.
• Trim or delete clips.
• Change speed per clip.
• Select zoom and clip blocks directly on the timeline.
• Undo and redo project edits.

Background, Layout, and Social Formats

• Use colors, gradients, or wallpapers behind the recording.
• Adjust padding, corner radius, and shadow.
• Export in the original aspect ratio, 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, or 4:5.
• Choose Fill for a pointer-following reframed crop or Fit to keep the full recording visible on the background.
• Crop only the screen-video card with freeform, original, 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3, or 3:2 handles; the background canvas and source recording remain unchanged.
• Save the current background, layout, cursor, and camera design as a named preset.
• Choose a preset as the default for future recordings.

Zooms, Cursor, Clicks, and Keystrokes

Screendrop records interaction data separately from the screen pixels, so presentation effects remain editable:

• Auto Zoom turns recorded clicks into smooth camera moves.
• Add, remove, enable, resize, and retime zooms manually.
• Let a zoom follow the pointer or give it a fixed focal point with a visual focus pad.
• Adjust the reconstructed cursor size after recording.
• Toggle click highlights.
• Toggle keystroke captions and place them across six top or bottom positions.

Because the operating-system cursor is not baked into the source video, Studio can reconstruct a smoother cursor using the artwork and pointer timeline captured during the session.

Camera

The camera remains a separate video track:

• Show or hide it at any time.
• Drag it directly on the canvas.
• Adjust its size and roundness.
• Preserve camera edits as part of a reusable Studio preset.

Transcription, Captions, and Text-Based Editing

Narrated recordings can be transcribed entirely on-device with Apple's Speech Analyzer.

The result powers two workflows:

• Captions: edit text line by line, click timestamps to seek, adjust position and size, and optionally highlight each spoken word for a karaoke-style effect.
• Edit Video: click a word to seek, Shift-click to select a passage, and cut the selection to remove the matching footage. Screendrop can also remove filler words and trim narration silences automatically.

Transcript cuts update the video timeline and captions together and remain undoable.

Export and Share

Studio exports the complete composition-screen, camera, backgrounds, zooms, cursor, click effects, keystrokes, captions, edits, speed changes, and selected audio-in one render.

Export Options includes quality, codec, resolution, format, 30 / 60 fps, Motion blur, and audio. The defaults remain 60 fps with motion blur enabled. Choose 30 fps and turn motion blur off to reduce rendering work, or keep either feature independently. Confirmed options are remembered for new recordings and saved with the project; Share uses the same project settings. Existing projects retain their original 60 fps and blur behavior until you change them.

Export and Share show progress, can be cancelled, and report completion. Renders are cached against the project state, including frame rate and motion blur, so exporting or sharing the same edit again can reuse finished work.

Studio uses Metal to accelerate eligible motion-blur frames. Blur-on uses a one-frame shutter at the selected frame rate; blur-off draws the screen once at each frame's camera position. Core Graphics remains available for unsupported frames and devices. See export performance for the rendering policy, benchmarks, and comparison workflow.

Screendrop also includes a lightweight trim-and-compress editor for regular video files. FFmpeg enables its conversion and compression options:

brew install ffmpeg

Cloud Sharing

Cloud sharing is optional, self-hosted, and Cloudflare-first:

• A Cloudflare Worker receives authenticated uploads and returns share links.
• Cloudflare R2 stores screenshots and recordings without egress-bandwidth charges.
• Cloudflare D1 stores lightweight upload and share-page metadata.
• Screendrop only needs the Worker URL and an upload token; it never needs R2 or S3 access keys.

Shared recordings get a Loom-style page:

• A video player with captions, playback speed, theater mode, and thumbnail previews while scrubbing.
• A synced, searchable transcript that follows playback and seeks when clicked.
• Comments that can be attached to moments in the video.
• View counts, a poster image, and rich previews when the link is pasted into chat.

Shared screenshots use a clean viewer with copy and download actions.

The companion Worker lives at:

github.com/fayazara/screendrop-worker

Cloud Setup

The fastest setup is built into Screendrop:

1. Open Settings → Cloud. 2. Copy the generated upload token. 3. Click Deploy to Cloudflare. 4. Paste the token when Cloudflare asks for the UPLOAD_TOKEN secret. 5. After deployment, copy the Worker URL back into Screendrop. 6. Click Verify Connection.

The deploy flow provisions the R2 and D1 bindings used by the Worker. For a manual deployment, configure the Worker with those bindings and store the token as a Worker secret:

npx wrangler secret put UPLOAD_TOKEN

Screendrop verifies the Worker URL and token before enabling uploads.

How Uploads Work

1. Screendrop sends the file to the Worker with PUT /api/upload. 2. The Worker validates the bearer token, streams the file to R2, and writes its metadata to D1. 3. The Worker returns a share URL. Screendrop copies it and stores it in the local Library. 4. For edited recordings, Screendrop uploads the rendered final cut-not the raw screen master. 5. Screendrop then adds best-effort video sidecars: a title, poster, transcript remapped to the edited timeline, and a storyboard sprite used for scrub previews.

The share link works as soon as the main upload finishes and becomes richer as the sidecars arrive.

Privacy and Permissions

Screendrop is local-first:

• Captures, project files, editable annotation sidecars, and transcripts are stored on your Mac.
• Speech transcription runs on-device. Apple may download the required language model when you first enable transcription or the speech-following teleprompter.
• The cloud upload token is stored in Keychain.
• Cloud uploads only happen when an upload action or configured after-capture action requests one.
• Screendrop has no central account or hosted Screendrop server.
• Network access is otherwise limited to explicit features such as update checks, cloud setup, and wallpaper downloads.

macOS may request:

• Screen & System Audio Recording for screenshots and screen recordings.
• Camera for the separate camera track and preview.
• Microphone for narration and speech-following teleprompter progress.
• Input Monitoring for editable keystroke captions.

Screendrop windows are excluded from captures by default. Enable Settings → General → Include Screendrop windows in captures when you intentionally want preview cards, recording controls, Settings, or other Screendrop UI in the result.

While this setting is enabled, a reminder below the pre-record bar warns that Screendrop windows will be captured. Turn off its switch to disable capture visibility immediately; the reminder disappears when the setting is off or recording begins.

Building Locally

Requirements:

• macOS 26.4 or newer
• Xcode 26.4 beta toolchain

Xcode resolves the Sparkle and DockProgress package dependencies automatically.

Build from the command line:

DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer xcodebuild build \
  -project Screendrop.xcodeproj \
  -scheme Screendrop \
  -configuration Debug \
  -destination "platform=macOS"

There is no test target. A successful Xcode build is the automated verification gate.

The standalone motion-blur benchmark also compares the Metal renderer with Core Graphics and checks encoder interoperability and settled screen reuse without launching Screendrop. Editor performance documents image budgets, close/cancellation behavior, and standalone resource checks.

Releasing

Screendrop includes a Go release helper. To run the complete archive, notarize, package, and publish flow:

```bash go run ./cmd/screendrop-r