CleanShot X 5.0.1 on Mac

You're mid-way through a video call and someone shares a crucial settings panel. You need it saved, marked up, and sent before the call moves on.

Capture the moment

Hit the shortcut, drag over the area, and it's captured. Prefer the full screen, a single window, or a scrolling window? All there. Set a background colour or image for the shot if you want it to look tidy.

Annotate without fuss

The built-in editor handles highlighting, hiding sensitive bits, and adding comments. No need to open another app. Pin the result above other windows if you want it visible while you keep working.

Record when still images aren't enough

These are the details that make CleanShot X feel like it was built by someone who actually takes screenshots for a living. The headline features get the attention, but the small stuff is what keeps you from switching back to the built-in tools.

Hide desktop icons before a capture

CleanShot X can hide your desktop icons before a capture. No more cropping out the messy Downloads folder or that file you saved to the desktop last week. It's a single toggle, and it saves you the embarrassment of sending a screenshot with your private folder names visible.

The timer is another quiet helper. Set a 3 or 5 second delay, frame the shot, and step away. Useful for capturing dropdown menus that close the moment you press a shortcut, or for grabbing a tooltip that needs a second to appear.

Retina vs standard resolution switching is there too. Sometimes you want the crisp 2x capture for a design review. Other times you need a standard-res file to keep the email attachment size down. CleanShot X lets you choose per capture, not just as a global setting.

When you pin a screenshot, it stays above all other windows. Drag it to the corner of your screen and reference it while you work in another app. No alt-tabbing back and forth.

Walk a colleague through an export

Monday morning. You're preparing a short guide for a colleague who keeps asking how to export a project file from your design tool.

First, you open CleanShot X and set the capture type to "window". You click the export dialog to bring it forward, then trigger the capture. The window outline highlights, you click once, and the shot lands in the editor.

In the editor, you draw a red rectangle around the export button. You add a small text label that says "Click here". You blur out the project name because it's still under review. The whole markup takes maybe twenty seconds.

You pin the result to the top-right of your screen. Now you open the email draft and type the instructions while glancing at the pinned image. When the email is ready, you drag the pinned image from the screen straight into the message body. Done.

Next task: you need to record a 30-second walkthrough of a new feature. You switch to video capture, select the area around the browser window, and hit record. CleanShot X silences notifications automatically, so no Slack pop-ups ruin the take. You narrate as you click through the feature. When you stop, the video is ready to share as an MP4 or a GIF, depending on where you're posting it.

Always one click or shortcut away

CleanShot X lives in the menu bar. It's always there, a single click or shortcut away, no matter what you're doing. It doesn't fight with other apps.

Dragging a pinned screenshot into an email, a chat window, or a document works the same way as dragging any file. No export step, no format confusion. The image just goes where you put it.

The saved screenshots go to a folder you choose. I point mine at a "Screenshots" folder inside iCloud Drive. That way every capture syncs to my other Mac automatically. If you use Dropbox or Google Drive for work, point the output folder there and your team gets access without you sending files manually.

For anyone using a multi-monitor setup, CleanShot X handles it properly. Capture one screen, the other, or both. The scrolling capture works across displays too, useful for grabbing a long webpage that spans two monitors.

Set shortcut keys before your first shot

Before you take your first shot, open the preferences and set your preferred shortcut keys. The defaults work, but you'll use this app dozens of times a day, so pick keys that feel natural to your fingers.

Turn on "hide desktop icons" if you often capture the full screen. It's in the capture settings. One checkbox, and your desktop stays clean in every screenshot.

Set your output format early. PNG for quality, JPEG for smaller files, or GIF if you're capturing quick animations. The app remembers your choice per capture type.

If you record video often, configure the notification silencing in the recording settings. You can also set a countdown before recording starts, giving you a moment to get the cursor into position.

Finally, choose where screenshots land. The default folder works, but pointing it to a cloud-synced folder means every capture is backed up and accessible from your phone or another Mac without extra steps.

Switch to video or GIF capture for quick walkthroughs. Desktop notifications won't spoil the take — CleanShot can silence them during recording.

• Minor bug fixes and improvements.

• macOS 11 or later
• Works on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs
• Interface language: English

Kit check at a glance