Frame is a native macOS capture utility for a faster local screenshot and recording loop: press a shortcut, select an area, then copy, save, preview, or recover the result locally.
It is intentionally small. Frame is not a cloud library or a heavyweight media suite. Its first job is to make the everyday screenshot path feel short, reliable, and quiet.
Screenshots are often a tiny step inside a larger workflow: explaining an idea, reporting a bug, saving a visual state, or sending context to someone else. Frame keeps that step out of the way:
- Lives in the menu bar without a main window.
- Starts region capture with
Command+Shift+Aand recording setup withCommand+Shift+Rby default; both are configurable in Settings. - Works across multiple displays.
- Shows a small Quick Access preview after screenshots and recordings, with a larger hover preview after a short pause.
- Lets you copy, save, edit, download, or close from contextual actions.
- Keeps a local Capture History so recent screenshots and recordings can be recovered.
- Region capture: drag to select part of the screen, then press Enter to capture.
- Window capture: double-click an eligible app window to capture either a styled window screenshot or the original window image, configurable in Settings.
- PNG output: saved files use the
Frame yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss.pngfilename format. - Clipboard copy: copy the captured image for pasting into chat, docs, or other apps.
- Save location: save PNG files to the configured screenshot folder, defaulting to Desktop.
- Screenshot editing: open the Image Workspace from Quick Access to add text, shapes, brush strokes, highlight, and mosaic annotations. The toolbar opens in pointer mode, lays shape tools out directly, keeps only mosaic behind a tool dropdown, and uses shared color plus contextual Thickness or Font Size menus. Menus mark the current choice and remember the last color, thickness, font size, mosaic mode, and shape type while reopening in pointer mode. Shift constrains rectangles/ovals to squares/circles and lines/arrows to horizontal, vertical, or 45-degree angles. Edited screenshots can update the current workspace image and its active Quick Access preview, or create another Quick Access preview without closing the editor; closing with unsaved edits can replace, save new, close without saving, or be cancelled to keep editing.
- Selection recording: use the recording shortcut or switch the selection HUD into recording mode, choose MP4 or GIF, show or hide mouse cursor and click highlights together, customize mouse hint color in Settings, record held-key hints, and stop, restart, or delete from the recording HUD or red menu bar recording item.
- Recording output: copy the recorded file, download it to the configured save folder, or open the video preview. MP4 recordings can be trimmed to custom start/end times and exported at preset speeds up to 8x from the same preview window. GIF recordings remain preview/copy/download only.
- Local capture history: recover recent captures from the menu bar, including recording thumbnails when a first frame can be decoded. History is enabled by default, keeps captures for 7 days, and uses a 2 GB local cache limit.
- Multi-display selection: show capture overlays across connected displays and account for Retina scale and screen coordinates.
- Window screenshot styles: choose Soft Backdrop, Canvas Glow, Transparent Shadow, or Original for window captures.
- Permission guidance: explain missing Screen Recording permission and open the relevant system settings.
Frame uses macOS screen capture APIs, so it needs Screen Recording permission.
The capture flow runs locally. Frame does not upload screenshots or recordings, require an account, or sync captures to a cloud service. Capture History stores recent captures only in Frame's local Application Support cache and can be disabled or cleared from Settings. Save or Download writes a separate file only when you choose to save. Copy writes either image content or a recording file URL to the system clipboard.
If macOS says Frame can directly access screen content, that is the standard system wording for screenshot utilities. See macOS Permissions for details.
Frame currently does not include:
- audio recording
- cloud sync or share links
- scrolling capture
These can be considered after the core local capture experience is stable.
Frame is in MVP development. Current work prioritizes menu bar lifecycle, global shortcuts, Screen Recording permission handling, single-display selection recording, PNG/MP4/GIF output, and Quick Access interactions.
This README is a product overview. Development, architecture, and verification details live in: