Help / Capture & annotate

Record your screen

Record any part of your screen as a video, with or without sound. When you stop, the recording waits in the Drop Zone so you can trim the start and end before Cropped saves a small, shareable copy.

Quick answer: press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 0 on a Mac or Ctrl + Shift + 0 on Windows, drag the area, choose the sound on the toolbar, and click Record this area. Press the same keys again to stop. On a Mac or Windows PC you can record computer sound, your microphone or both (on a Mac the microphone needs macOS 15 or later). The Linux Beta records an area, a whole screen or one window with computer sound and your microphone.

#Start and stop a recording

For an assistant to perform and record a task, see Agent recordings in the Mac Alpha. It records a single approved window and keeps timed steps for review.

1. Press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 0 (Windows: Ctrl + Shift + 0), or click Record in the Drop Zone.
2. Drag over the area to record. Move or resize it if needed. Its edges snap to windows, panels and even padding.
3. Check the toolbar under the area, then click Record this area (or press Return).
4. To stop, press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 0 again, click Stop in the recording bar, or click Stop in the Drop Zone.

To record one window instead (Mac), press Space after starting, then click the window. It records just that window, even if you move it, and starts right away with the sound settings from your last recording. With Webpage only on, a browser window records just the webpage.

You can also start a recording from an area screenshot: drag the area with ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 8, then pick the record button instead of the camera.

#The toolbar before you record

Your sound, pointer, frame rate and timer choices are remembered for next time. The camera starts off every time.

#Record your camera with the screen

On Mac, click Camera on the toolbar to add a camera bubble to the recording. The Mac asks for camera access the first time.

• Move it: drag the bubble anywhere inside the area. It stays inside the area, so it's always in the video.
• Resize it: drag its edge, or hover it and pick S, M or L.
• Change its shape: hover it and pick round, beveled (rounded corners) or square.
• Turn it off: click Camera again, or hover the bubble and click ×.

The bubble starts round and medium-sized in the bottom left corner of the area, and shows your camera mirrored, the way a mirror does. If the toolbar says Camera: not allowed, click it to open the Mac's camera settings. See Camera or microphone not working.

The bubble is recorded exactly as you see it. Its hover controls are never recorded. Cropped remembers the shape, size and spot, but the camera itself is always off until you turn it on.

#Count down before recording

Start with ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 0 or Record, choose the area, then click the timer button (for example 3s) next to Record this area. A countdown shows beside the area, which stays outlined, and recording starts when it reaches zero. Click the countdown to cancel. To change the wait, hover the timer button and pick 3s, 5s or 10s.

#While recording

A small recording bar shows the time and four buttons:

• Pause and Resume. The paused part is left out of the video.
• Restart throws away what you've recorded and starts again on the same area with the same options.
• Discard stops and deletes the recording.
• Stop saves it.

The Drop Zone also shows "Recording 0:42" with Pause and Stop. Cropped's own windows and the recording bar are left out of the video.

#Zoom in on clicks

Cropped notes where you click while you record. Open the recording in the Studio and it zooms in smoothly on each click; move, change or remove the zooms on the Zoom lane. See Zoom in on clicks.

To explain a task step by step, use How-to instead of Record: every click becomes a numbered step, your words become captions, and you can export it as a guide or a video. See Record a how-to.

#Trim and optimize

When you stop, the recording appears on a card in the Drop Zone with a trim bar.

1. Press play to watch it. Playback stays inside the part you keep.
2. Hover the frames on the trim bar to scrub: the preview shows the frame under your pointer and goes back when you move away. Click or drag on the frames to move the playhead there.
3. Drag the start and end handles to cut off the beginning and end. With a handle selected, the arrow keys move it by one frame and Shift-arrow by one second.
4. Turn on Mute audio if the video should be silent. This removes the audio track from the optimized copy, including accidentally recorded microphone or computer sound.
5. Click Trim & optimize (or Optimize when keeping the whole recording). Cropped saves only the part you kept, using your recording preset.

How to trim above the trim bar walks you through it in two steps.

The full original recording is always kept in your capture history. To pick several separate parts of a recording, open it in the Studio and use the clip picker.

If you'd rather skip this step, turn off Trim before optimizing in Preferences › Capture. New recordings are then optimized as soon as they stop.

#Mute a recording before optimizing

After stopping, turn on Mute audio under the recording preview in the Drop Zone. The preview becomes silent too. Trim if needed, then click Optimize or Trim & optimize to create the silent file. Changing this checkbox after an export requires optimizing again.

The original recording keeps its sound in capture history. Mute applies to this recording only and does not change your recording microphone or computer-sound settings. Keep Trim before optimizing on in Preferences › Capture to review each new recording before its first export.

For imported videos, open the video in the Studio and enable Mute audio in its output settings before exporting. It also works with Keep original quality. The speaker button under the Studio preview controls the same setting: it mutes both playback and the exported video. Optimize again after changing audio on an already exported video.

#Recording settings

Find these in Preferences › Capture › Recordings.

#120 fps recording

120 fps works only on a 120 Hz screen. The option appears when a connected screen refreshes at 110 Hz or faster, such as a MacBook Pro with ProMotion or a 120 Hz monitor. On a 60 Hz screen, a recording set to 120 fps is made at 60 fps, and the setting shows "(60 on this screen)".

Optimized copies are capped at 60 fps to keep files small, unless the preset sets its own frame rate. Choose the Original recording preset to keep every frame. Large areas at 120 fps are saved with HEVC.

#Sound

• Computer sound records what your computer plays: app sounds, a video, a call.
• Microphone records your voice. On Mac this needs macOS 15 or later. The Mac asks for microphone access the first time.
• Sound + mic mixes both into one audio track.

#File format and size

Recordings are named for when they started, like Cropped Recording 2026-10-06 at 09.41.12.mov, and are made as .mov files with H.264 video (HEVC for large areas above 60 fps), up to 3840 × 2160 on Mac. The optimized copy uses your chosen preset, which is H.264 MP4 up to 1080p by default. See Video formats and presets for every option.

Still stuck? Click the ? button at the bottom left of the Cropped Studio to ask, send us a message, or request a feature.