Help / Capture & annotate

Take screenshots on Mac and Windows

Cropped is a full screenshot tool. Grab an area, a window or the whole screen, and the result lands in the Drop Zone: already optimized, copied to your clipboard, and ready to drag into any app or to annotate.

Quick answer: press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 8 on a Mac or Ctrl + Shift + 8 on Windows, drag over the part of the screen you want, and press Return. For the whole screen, press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 9 (Windows: Ctrl + Shift + 9). On Linux, use the same keys with Ctrl; see Cropped on Linux.

#Ways to take a screenshot

You can give any of these its own key, or use the Mac's own ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 3, ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 4 and ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 5. See Use Cropped as your screenshot tool.

On Mac, the Capture menu in the menu bar has every option too: Capture Area, Capture Window, Capture Full Screen, Repeat Last Area, Record Screen Area, Stop Recording, Show Capture Bar, Open Captures Folder and Capture Settings.

#Capture an area

1. Press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 8 (Windows: Ctrl + Shift + 8) or click Area in the Drop Zone. The screen freezes so menus and tooltips stay put.
2. Drag over what you want. The size in pixels follows your pointer, and a magnifier helps you line up the edges. The edges snap to windows and panels as you get close.
3. Fine-tune the area: drag inside it to move it, or drag an edge or corner to resize it.
4. Press Return, double-click inside the area, or click the camera button on the toolbar under the area.

Press Esc at any point to cancel, or click Cancel in the Drop Zone. The mouse pointer is never included in screenshots.

While choosing an area:

• Space switches to picking a window. Press it again to go back to dragging an area.
• Return before you drag captures the full screen (Mac).
• Arrow keys nudge the area by 1 pixel, and Shift with an arrow by 10 pixels (Mac).
• Option with an arrow resizes the area (Mac).
• A single click without dragging snaps the area to the window under the pointer (Windows).

The toolbar under the area can also start a recording of that same area. See Screen recording.

#Capture an exact size (Mac)

The width × height beside the area is a box you can type in. Click the width or the height and type a number: the area resizes as you type, keeping its top-left corner. Tab or x moves to the height, and Return or Esc stops typing.

Click the small arrow at the end of the box for a list of sizes: the last three sizes you used, then 1280 × 720, 1920 × 1080, Square (1080 × 1080), Portrait 4:5 (1080 × 1350), Story (1080 × 1920) and X post (1600 × 900). Pick one and the area takes that size, keeping its top-left corner. The size you're on is highlighted.

Need the same size every time? Set a width and height under Preferences › Capture › Area size, or pick one of the same common sizes from the arrow beside the numbers. Area capture then opens with an area that size under the pointer, ready to move, and a click places it centered where you click. Dragging still draws any size. Clear both numbers to turn it off.

#Open screenshots straight in Annotate

Turn on Open in Annotate in Drop Zone › Settings, App Preferences › Drop Zone, or App Preferences › Capture › Screenshots. These controls share one saved setting and stay in sync. Your next area, window or full-screen screenshot opens directly in the annotation editor. Repeating the last area works too. This setting starts off, so existing capture workflows stay familiar.

Add arrows, text, numbered steps, highlights, a blur or a crop, then click Save. Cropped keeps the original in history and saves your edited screenshot as a new capture. If Optimize automatically is on, optimization runs on the edited screenshot after saving. Closing without saving leaves the original available in the Drop Zone.

If you take another screenshot while annotating, it waits until you save or close the current one. Your current edits stay intact. Recordings continue to open in the Drop Zone for trimming and muting.

#Snap to edges

Smart Crop Snapping helps you frame an area neatly as you drag. Move close to a visible edge and the selection settles onto it; leave a little room around the content and Cropped can help match the padding. You still choose the area and can drag past a snap at any time.

#Try it in an area capture

1. Put a card, panel or window you want to share on screen. Click Area in the Drop Zone, or use your area shortcut. The defaults are ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 8 on Mac and Ctrl + Shift + 8 on Windows; your saved shortcut may be different.
2. Drag near an edge. Start near one corner, then drag toward the opposite corner. As the moving edge gets close to a detected boundary, a thin pink guide confirms the snap. It works with window borders, screen edges and clear edges inside the frozen screen, such as cards and sidebars.
3. Leave matching space. Start a little outside the content, then bring the opposite edges close to the same gap. Matching pink numbers show the padding in pixels. You do not type in a padding value: Cropped offers a gap that matches the sides already in place. Hold ⌥ Option (Windows: Alt) while you drag a side to resize from the center: the side that reaches an edge or a matching gap first snaps, and the side across moves with it.
4. Release the mouse and inspect your selection. With Adjust the area first on, drag an edge or corner to refine it, or drag inside to move the whole area. Press Return or click the camera button when it looks right.

#Read the guides

On Retina and other scaled displays, the padding number can be larger than the distance you see on screen because it counts image pixels. Not every object is a snap target: clear, straight, contrasting edges are easier to detect than soft shadows, gradients or detailed photographs.

#Drag freely or turn snapping off

For one adjustment, hold ⌘ Command on Mac or Ctrl on Windows while dragging. Release the key to let snapping help again. You can also keep dragging past an edge to pull away from it.

For free selection by default, open Preferences › Capture › Screenshots and switch off Smart Crop Snapping. The switch under Smart crop in the Inspector controls the same saved preference, so either location changes both area capture and Studio crops.

#Change how the padding numbers look

Open Preferences › Capture (on Mac, Settings › Capture) and find Padding numbers, under Screenshots. It shows while Smart Crop Snapping is on.

• Show: Always keeps the numbers on every side the whole time you choose an area or crop. Only when snapping shows just the matching numbers, as a side snaps.
• Color: pick a color for the numbers and the snap lines, or click the color wheel for any other color. Filled numbers switch between black and white text so they stay readable.
• Size: Small, Medium, Large or Extra large.

The preview below the choices updates as you change them. Reset puts back pink, Small and Always. The same look is used for area captures on Mac and Windows and for crops in the Studio.

Adjust the area first is a separate setting. Keep it on to review and refine before taking the screenshot; turn it off to capture as soon as you release the mouse. You can use snapping with either choice.

The Crop editor uses the same edge and padding guides when you crop an imported image. Smart Crop Snapping helps position edges; Smart crop is the separate tool that suggests a composition around a subject.

#Capture a window

Click Window in the Drop Zone (or press Space while choosing an area), then click the window you want. On Mac, window captures keep their soft shadow and leave out anything covering the window. See Capture a window for the details.

#Capture the whole screen

Press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 9 (Windows: Ctrl + Shift + 9) or click Screen. On Mac, click the screen you want (or press Return). On Windows with one display the capture happens right away; with more, click the screen you want.

#Use the timer

On Mac, the toolbar under your area has a timer button next to Take screenshot. It shows how long it waits, for example 3s.

1. Drag the area, then click the timer button.
2. A countdown shows beside the area, which stays outlined. Use the wait to open a menu, hover a tooltip or start an animation: everything on screen, inside the area or outside it, keeps working.
3. When it reaches zero, Cropped takes the screenshot of the live screen. Click the countdown to cancel.

To change the wait, hover the timer button and pick 3s, 5s or 10s. Cropped remembers your choice.

#Repeat the last area

Repeat captures exactly the same area as your last screenshot, without dragging again. It's handy for before-and-after shots of the same spot. The button appears after your first area capture.

#What happens after a capture

Out of the box, every screenshot:

1. Is optimized with your Drop Zone image preset. The default, Agent / LLM, saves a WebP at 80% quality, at most 1280 pixels wide and then scaled to 50%, which is ideal for chats and AI tools. Pick another preset to keep more detail. The full-quality PNG original is always kept.
2. Is copied to the clipboard, so you can paste it straight into a chat or document. When optimizing is on, the optimized file is what gets copied. Copied to clipboard! flashes over the preview in the Drop Zone each time, so you know it's ready to paste.
3. Shows in the Drop Zone as a card with Copy, Annotate, Optimize and Finder (or Explorer) buttons. The ✕ closes the card; the capture stays in your history. The trash button deletes the capture and moves its file to the Trash (Windows: Recycle Bin).

You can change each of these in Preferences › Capture › Screenshots:

#Use a screenshot

From the capture card in the Drop Zone:

• Drag the preview into any app, folder or onto the desktop. You get the optimized file. Point at it and the pointer turns into a grab hand right away, even while another app is in front; there's no need to click into the Drop Zone first. On Mac, the app you were in keeps the keyboard, so you can type straight after dropping.
• Copy puts it on the clipboard again.
• Annotate (or a click on the preview) opens the Annotate window.
• Optimize runs it through the optimizer again, for example after you change the preset.
• Finder (Windows: Explorer) shows the saved file.
• Click the pencil next to the name to rename it before you share it. See Rename in place.
• Original kept links let you copy or show the full-quality PNG.

Below the card, Captures shows your last ten captures. Click one to bring its card back, or drag it out. To delete captures, select them and click the trash button in the selection bar, or press ⌫ Delete (Windows: Delete or Backspace); click Undo or press ⌘ Command + Z (Windows: Ctrl + Z) within a few seconds to bring them back. After that, or when you quit Cropped sooner, the files go to the Trash, where you can still put them back. All captures opens the capture history folder.

#Where captures are saved

Screenshots are named like Cropped Screenshot 2026-10-06 at 09.41.12.png, and the optimized copy adds your naming style, for example -cropped.webp. The history keeps your 100 most recent captures. Older captures move to the Trash (Windows: Recycle Bin), so the history folder doesn't keep growing and you can still put one back. A capture that is open in Annotate or was just used waits until it is free. Your optimized copies are never touched.

#Screen Recording permission on Mac

macOS asks you to allow Cropped under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording the first time you capture. If Cropped shows "Cropped needs Screen Recording permission", click Open System Settings, turn Cropped on, then quit and reopen Cropped.

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