How to annotate and redact a screenshot

Step by step

1. 01

   Open a screenshot

   Press ⇧⌘A for an area, ⇧⌘E for a window or ⇧⌘D for the whole screen, and the shot opens in Snap’s editor. The buttons at the left of the toolbar do the same: Screenshot, Window, Scrolling Capture and Desktop take a new one, and Open File brings in a picture you already have.

2. 02

   Crop to what matters

   Click Crop and drag out the part you want to keep. Lock it to a ratio if you like (Free, Original, 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 or 9:16), then click Apply, or Reset to start over.

3. 03

   Pick a colour

   Click Annotation color in the toolbar and choose one of eight colours. New marks take it, and so does the mark you have selected.

4. 04

   Point things out

   With Rectangle, Ellipse or Arrow, drag to draw one; Brush draws freehand. With Text, click where the words go and type; double-click the text later to change it.

5. 05

   Number the steps

   Choose Step and click where the first step happens: a 1 lands there. Choose it again for 2, 3 and so on. Delete a badge, and the ones after it renumber themselves.

6. 06

   Hide what’s private

   With Redaction, drag over anything you want hidden, then pick Pixelate, Blur or Solid in the Redaction section of the inspector.

   Turn on Auto redact sensitive data, and Snap covers email addresses, links, phone numbers, ID and card numbers, keys and tokens, and whatever follows a label such as “Password:” or “Account:”. Look the image over before you share it: detection can miss text that is blurry, very short or unusual.

7. 07

   Draw the eye

   Spotlight dims everything but the areas you draw, while your arrows and text stay bright. Magnifier enlarges whatever is inside its area, and never uncovers what you’ve redacted.

8. 08

   Save or share it

   Press ⌘S to save, ⌘C to copy, or drag the finished image from Drag Me into any app.

   When a video would say it better, Record with ScreenFlowy at the right end of the toolbar switches to our screen recorder.

Change a mark later

Each tool draws one mark and then steps aside, so your next click selects. Drag a selected mark to move it, or a corner to resize it: an arrow by either end, and text grows and shrinks with its box. Delete (⌫) removes it, Undo (⌘Z) and Redo (⇧⌘Z) step through your changes, and Zoom Out, Zoom to Fit and Zoom In change only your view, never the picture.

Pixelate, blur or solid?

Pixelate and Blur keep a screenshot looking natural, and suit names, faces and anything that’s merely private. For passwords, keys and card numbers, Solid is the safe choice: it leaves nothing of the original behind.

It stays on your Mac

Snap reads the text with the Mac’s own on-device recognition, and doesn’t use the network at all. The details you’re hiding never leave your computer.