OpenShots

Turn raw screenshots into polished, shareable visuals in seconds. Free, open-source, and completely offline.

OpenShots is a cross-platform desktop app built with Tauri (Rust + React). Capture screenshots, add beautiful backgrounds, annotate with shapes and text, blur sensitive areas, and export polished results without leaving the app or sending data anywhere.

Built by the TraceKit team — the makers of TraceKit APM.

Features

Capture

• Full screen, region selection, or specific window capture
• Global hotkeys (configurable)
• System tray quick access
• Self-timer, Retina downscale, and crosshair-assisted capture
• macOS Screen Recording permission handling

Beautify

• Gradient, solid color, or custom image backgrounds
• macOS system wallpapers built-in
• Adjustable padding, rounded corners, drop shadows
• Auto-matched inset borders
• Multiple images with fan layout
• Window chrome and device mockup frames

Annotate

• Arrows, rectangles, ellipses, text labels, emoji
• Speech bubbles, spotlight overlays, and numbered callouts
• Blur and pixelate regions for privacy
• Drag, resize, rotate any element
• Full undo/redo history

Export

• PNG, JPEG, WebP with quality control
• 1x, 2x, 3x scale export
• One-click clipboard copy
• OS share sheet integration
• Save/apply reusable presets
• Import/export presets as JSON
• Auto-save projects and reopen recent work

Automation

• Full CLI for batch processing, annotation, privacy, and export
• All commands support an optional --preset flag for beautification
• Manage presets: create, copy, edit, inspect
• See CLI Reference below

Install

Download the latest release for your platform:

The macOS builds are code-signed and notarized with an Apple Developer ID certificate.

Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Rust 1.77.2+
• Node.js 18+
• npm

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/Tracekit-Dev/openshots.git
cd openshots

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development
npx tauri dev

# Build for production
npx tauri build

Platform-specific notes

macOS: Requires Screen Recording permission for capture. The app will prompt on first use.

Linux (Wayland): Global hotkeys are unavailable on Wayland. Use the system tray to trigger captures.

Windows: No special requirements.

Tech Stack

• Tauri 2.x — Rust backend, tiny binaries (<20MB)
• React 19 + TypeScript — UI components
• Konva.js — Canvas rendering engine
• Zustand — State management with undo/redo
• Tailwind CSS v4 — Styling
• xcap — Cross-platform screen capture

Keyboard Shortcuts

CLI Reference

OpenShots includes a CLI (openshots-cli) for batch processing and automation.

Install CLI

macOS (Apple Silicon):

curl -L https://github.com/Tracekit-Dev/openshots/releases/latest/download/openshots-cli-darwin-arm64 -o /usr/local/bin/openshots-cli && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/openshots-cli

macOS (Intel):

curl -L https://github.com/Tracekit-Dev/openshots/releases/latest/download/openshots-cli-darwin-x64 -o /usr/local/bin/openshots-cli && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/openshots-cli

Linux:

curl -L https://github.com/Tracekit-Dev/openshots/releases/latest/download/openshots-cli-linux-x64 -o /usr/local/bin/openshots-cli && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/openshots-cli

Windows (PowerShell):

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/Tracekit-Dev/openshots/releases/latest/download/openshots-cli-windows-x64.exe -OutFile "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\openshots-cli.exe"

These URLs always point to the latest release. To pin a specific version, replace latest with the tag:

https://github.com/Tracekit-Dev/openshots/releases/download/v2.0.4/openshots-cli-darwin-arm64

Verify the installation:

openshots-cli --version

Presets

Presets define the beautification style: background, padding, corner radius, shadow, and inset border. 7 built-in presets ship with OpenShots. User presets are stored in ~/.openshots/presets.json.

# List all available presets
openshots-cli list-presets

# Show full config of a preset
openshots-cli show-preset ocean

# Copy a built-in preset for customization
openshots-cli copy-preset ocean --new-name my-ocean

# Create a new preset from scratch
openshots-cli create-preset my-brand

# Open presets file in your $EDITOR
openshots-cli edit-presets

Beautify

Apply a preset to one or more screenshots. Adds background, padding, corner radius, shadow, and inset border.

# Single image
openshots-cli beautify --preset ocean --input screenshot.png --output ./out --format png

# Batch process with glob
openshots-cli beautify --preset clean-dark --input "screenshots/*.png" --output ./out --format png

# Export as WebP
openshots-cli beautify --preset vibrant-sunset --input shot.png --output ./out --format webp --quality 85

Annotate

Add text annotations to images. Use --preset to also apply beautification.

# Text on raw image
openshots-cli annotate --input shot.png --output annotated.png \
  --text "Draft" --text-x 50 --text-y 50 --font-size 48 --color "#ff0000"

# Text + preset beautification
openshots-cli annotate --input shot.png --output styled.png \
  --text "v2.0" --text-x 20 --text-y 20 --font-size 32 --color "#ffffff" \
  --preset ocean

Privacy

Pixelate regions to hide sensitive content. Coordinates are x,y,width,height. Use ; to separate multiple regions.

# Pixelate a region
openshots-cli privacy --input shot.png --output redacted.png \
  --regions "100,100,300,200" --intensity 20

# Multiple regions + preset
openshots-cli privacy --input shot.png --output styled.png \
  --regions "100,100,300,200;500,50,150,100" --intensity 25 \
  --preset clean-dark

Export

Convert format, adjust quality, or scale. Use --preset to beautify during export.

# Convert PNG to WebP
openshots-cli export --input shot.png --output shot.webp --format webp --quality 80

# Export at 2x scale
openshots-cli export --input shot.png --output shot@2x.png --format png --scale 2

# Convert + beautify
openshots-cli export --input shot.png --output styled.webp --format webp --quality 85 --preset ocean

Render

Render an .openshots project file to an image.

openshots-cli render --input project.openshots --output final.png --format png --quality 90

Community

Join the TraceKit Discord for questions, feedback, and discussion.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

MIT

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Built by TraceKit