SimpleShot

A tiny macOS app that wraps your screenshots in beautiful gradient backgrounds and lets you annotate them. Take a window screenshot, open SimpleShot, pick a gradient, add arrows and labels, copy or save.

Why?

macOS screenshots look raw. Tools like CleanShot add nice backgrounds but come with features you'll never use. SimpleShot does two things — gradient backgrounds and quick annotations — and does them fast.

Taking Screenshots on macOS

The fastest way to get a window screenshot into SimpleShot:

1. Press ⌘⇧4 to enter selection mode
2. Press Space — cursor turns into a camera, hover over the window you want
3. Hold ⌃ (Control) and click — this saves the screenshot to clipboard instead of a file
4. Open SimpleShot — it auto-loads from clipboard

Tip: Without holding Control, the screenshot saves to Desktop as a file. With Control held, it goes straight to clipboard — perfect for SimpleShot's auto-paste.

You can also drag & drop image files, open via ⌘O, or paste files copied in Finder. Supports PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, HEIC, WebP, PDF, SVG and more.

How It Works

1. Take a screenshot (see above) or open/drop any image file
2. Open SimpleShot — it auto-loads the clipboard image
3. Pick a gradient preset, adjust padding and corner radius
4. Add annotations — arrows, circles, numbered markers, text
5. Select and move annotations with the pointer tool, recolor or edit text
6. Copy to Clipboard or Save as PNG

Features

• Auto-paste — opens with clipboard image ready
• File import — drag & drop, open dialog (⌘O), paste files from Finder
• Broad format support — PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, HEIC, WebP, PDF, SVG
• 10 gradient presets — Twilight, Sunset, Forest, Slate, Amber, Ocean, Lavender, Noir, Candy, Emerald
• Adjustable padding — slider + quick presets (0, 16, 32, 64, 96px)
• Aspect ratio presets — Free, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, 1:1, 9:16
• Corner radius control
• Content fill — background for transparent images (white, black, custom color)
• Drop shadow toggle
• Annotations — arrows, circles, rectangles, numbered markers, text labels
• Editable annotations — select, move, recolor, change stroke, edit text
• 7 annotation colors and adjustable stroke width
• Undo (⌘Z), Delete selected, and Clear All for annotations
• Copy to clipboard (⌘⇧C) or Save as PNG (⌘S)
• Native macOS — SwiftUI, zero dependencies

Install

Homebrew

brew install --cask alexrett/tap/simpleshot

Download

Grab the latest SimpleShot.dmg from Releases.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/alexrett/simpleshot.git
cd simpleshot
swift build -c release --arch arm64 --arch x86_64

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
• Works on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs

License

MIT