ShotZenShotZen is a quiet screenshot and screen-recording tool for Mac. Press a shortcut, frame what you need, mark it up, and get back to work.
Download on the Mac App Store ↗
Press ⇧⌘A and drag a region, or click a window to take just that window. Drag any edge to adjust; at the corners a pixel magnifier shows exactly where the edge falls. ⇧⌘F takes the whole screen, and Capture After 3 Seconds lets you photograph an open menu.
Arrows, rectangles, ellipses, freehand, text, numbered steps and mosaic, on a toolbar right beside the selection. Marks stay movable until you finish — then copy, save, or pin the result. Click once to type text, then drag it anywhere; the toolbar's colors and text sizes apply to the selected text. Copy text from capture reads the words in your selection, entirely on your Mac (2.0 and later).
Turn a long page or conversation into a single image. Scroll by hand, in either direction; ShotZen stitches as you go and tells you plainly if you outrun it.
⇧⌘R records a selected area with the sound your Mac is playing, for as long as you need (ShotZen 1.3.2 and later). Save the full video, export a high-quality GIF, or copy a lightweight GIF ready to paste into a chat. GIFs keep up to 30 seconds.
⇧⌘P captures straight into a floating pin that stays above your work. Zoom it, fade it into a reference layer you can trace against, or let clicks pass through it.
macOS requires screen-capture permission for screenshots and region recording. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording (called Screen & System Audio Recording on newer versions) and enable ShotZen. Return to the app and try again; if macOS asks you to quit and reopen, follow that prompt. ShotZen captures only when you start a capture or recording.
ShotZen lives in the menu bar, without a Dock icon. Click its icon for capture commands, Settings, and the Guide. Defaults: ⇧⌘A for a region or smart window capture, ⇧⌘P to capture directly to a pin, ⇧⌘R for region recording, and ⇧⌘F for the full screen. For a window, hover over it during region selection and click the highlighted window. A 3-second delayed capture is available in the menu. Reassign the four shortcuts in Settings → Shortcuts.
Press ⇧⌘R, draw the region, and choose Start Recording. Stop whenever you’re done; since ShotZen 1.3.2 there’s no time limit. System sound is included, with no microphone access. Choose Copy GIF for a lightweight, silent animation, or Save File for the full MP4 with system sound or a higher-quality silent GIF. GIFs keep up to the first 30 seconds.
GIF has no audio; save an MP4 to keep system sound. Copy GIF puts a GIF file on the clipboard and uses a smaller, chat-friendly profile. Wait for the completion sound before pasting. Some apps display only the first frame; try pasting where file attachments are accepted, or save the GIF and attach it manually.
Start a region capture with ⇧⌘A, select the content, and choose Scrolling Capture in the annotation toolbar. Scroll naturally up or down while ShotZen stitches new sections. If the page reaches the end with the final section still outside the frame, drag the frame’s bottom edge downward and release to append it. Choose Finish. Slower scrolling helps if stitching cannot keep up.
Some apps ask macOS to keep their windows out of screenshots and recordings. macOS honours that for every tool, its own screenshot feature included, so the window is missing from the capture and whatever lies behind it shows instead. ShotZen labels such windows on the capture screen so you can see why. It is the app's own choice; no setting in ShotZen or in your permissions can override it.
Scrolling capture takes several captures a second while you scroll, and recent versions of WeChat for Mac can respond to that by locking their window against every screenshot tool for hours. So that this does not happen to you, ShotZen does not run scrolling capture over WeChat; for long chats, use WeChat's own scrolling screenshot. WeChat applies the same lock when it detects automation, such as AI agents that operate the computer; it lifts on its own, usually within a day.
Use arrows, rectangles, ellipses, freehand drawing, text, numbered steps, or mosaic in the capture toolbar. Choose among six colors and three stroke weights; move annotations or undo and redo. The live pixel preview helps align the initial selection and edge adjustments. Drag a selection edge or corner to adjust the crop. For text, click an empty spot and type; Return, Escape, or a click elsewhere finishes it. Drag finished text to move it, double-click to edit it, and while it is selected the toolbar's colors and Text size apply to it (2.0 and later).
After framing a selection, click Copy text from capture in the toolbar; the recognized text is copied to the clipboard as plain text. Pins work too: right-click and choose Copy Text for all of it, or choose Select Text, drag across the words you want, and press ⌘C; Escape leaves selection. Recognition uses the text recognition built into macOS and runs entirely on your Mac, without a network connection. It reads English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, most European languages, and more. Mosaic hides text from recognition too. The first recognition after a restart can take a few seconds. Available from 2.0.
Choose Pin to Screen, or use ⇧⌘P to capture directly to a floating reference. Drag to move, scroll to resize, and hold Option while scrolling to adjust opacity. Right-click for copy, save, and click-through options. If a pin no longer accepts clicks, use Make Pins Clickable Again in the menu bar. Double-click or press Escape on an active pin to close it. Right-click also offers Copy Text and Select Text to take the words from a pin (2.0 and later).
Screenshots copy to the clipboard by default. Enable automatic saving and choose a folder in Settings → Saving; copying and saving can both be enabled. Original quality uses lossless PNG. Compressed quality uses JPEG to reduce file size without reducing pixel dimensions. The quality setting also applies when copying or saving a pin. Recording files are saved through a separate export dialog.
Settings → General offers a system-language option and nine languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Restart ShotZen after changing the app language. Light, Dark, and Auto appearance take effect immediately; Auto follows your Mac. This website’s language selector changes only the website.
Check whether ShotZen is running and whether your menu bar has room. On macOS versions with menu bar controls, check System Settings → Menu Bar. Try a capture command from the ShotZen menu; if that works, check for shortcut conflicts and assign a different combination in Settings → Shortcuts. For blank captures, check screen-capture permission first.
Quit ShotZen, then move it to the Trash. If launch at login was enabled, check System Settings → General → Login Items for a remaining entry. Files you saved to your own folders remain there until you delete them.
macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. Screenshots and region recording require screen-capture permission. ShotZen does not request microphone, camera, Accessibility, or Input Monitoring access.
No account, analytics, or cloud upload in the app. Captures are processed locally; you choose where to copy, save, or share them.
Help with screenshots, region recording, scrolling capture, annotations, or floating references. ShotZen is built by one person; your feedback helps shape it.
Email your ShotZen version, macOS version, Mac chip, and steps to reproduce the issue. Attach a screenshot or short recording if useful, after removing any sensitive information.