5 Best Screenshot Apps for macOS


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By default, macOS contains a pretty impressive collection of screenshot capabilities. But if you take a lot of screenshots, you might start to notice limitations. For example, the built-in capability doesn’t make it easy to take the same sized screenshot repeatedly, and it’s difficult to adjust where files are saved or what format they’re saved in. If you want a little more power and flexibility, check out some of the best screenshot apps for macOS to expand your screenshot toolset.

best screenshot apps macos monosnap

 

Monosnap is a uniquely powerful screenshot tool with an awesome set of capabilities. The screenshot utility is slim and easy to use. The selection tools is hyper accurate, with pixel-perfect zoom for selecting boundaries easily. You can invoke an area or full-screen capture from the keyboard, and you’ll have access to the annotation tools as soon as the screenshot is captured. When you’re happy with your annotations, you can export a JPG or PNG file, or even send the app to an external editor like Photoshop or Preview.

It does more than just screenshots too. The app can also record videos of your screen activity, or use your Mac’s front-facing camera to take selfies like Photo Booth. If you pay for the pro version, you can integrate the app with cloud services like Evernote and Dropbox.

The only downside we uncovered in tested was a lack of application window captures. If you want to capture an application window with a shadow, you’ll need to use the built-in screenshot tool. Outside of that omission, it’s a great tool: we just wish it didn’t lack that feature. Overall, Monosnap is a powerful companion for anyone who needs to take a ton of screen captures.

best screenshot apps macos skitch

 

Skitch might be getting a little long in the tooth, but it’s still one of the best image annotation apps available. It might not be the most flexible for actually producing screenshots, but Skitch’s annotation tools are where the app really shines. Marking up images is fluid and simple, with an obvious interface, attractive defaults and just enough options. There’s also a limited palette of export options in addition to uploading the screenshot to your Evernote account. It’s our go-to tool for drawing an arrow on something, even if we use the default macOS tools to actually make a screenshot.

best screenshot apps macos snapndrag

 

My favorite feature of SnapNDrag is the library. Rather than capturing screenshots to your Desktop or another directory, it instead embeds them inside a single a library file in your screenshot directory. This avoids cluttering up your directory with five slightly different images of the same interface. When you get the one you like, you can export it as your choice of image format. You can take many different types of screenshots, with timed and instant options available. The annotation aren’t as great as Skitch, however, and the free version locks away some important features.

But the main drawback of SnapNDrag is the cost. The full version of the app is $10, and functionality like resizing screenshots to arbitrary dimensions costs another $10 on top of that.

best screenshot apps macos lightshot

 

Lightshot is a lightweight screenshot utility with limited but useful functionality. Once the utility is invoked, the user selects their screen with a drag tool. Once the drag is complete, the user can use a floating utility to annotate the image in place. Then, it can be saved either to the user’s hard drive or an online utility called prntscr.com and shared publicly. That’s really it. If you just need a utility in infrequently created annotated screenshots, Lightshot is a great choice.

best screenshot apps macos snagit

 

Snagit is another professional-grade screenshot utility with a cost to match. It might be the most powerful utility on the list, with a nearly bewildering array of annotation options and features. It’s truly immense, and it’s perfect for users that need to create screenshots constantly. Professionals that need extensive annotation might find the extended utility to be worth the $50 cost. If you want to try it out, you can get a 15-day free trial with all features unlocked. And if you like Snagit but you can’t get behind the cost, you mighty try Jing instead. It’s by the same developers but free and sharing images over their social service.

Conclusion

If you want the best of all worlds, Monosnap is a great choice. Power users can get more out of an app like Snagit or Snapz Pro X, and occasional screenshot makers might like the lightweight Lightshot.

You might also like:

Screenshot Secrets for macOS
How To: Take a Screenshot

Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

2 Comments

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  1. Monosnap “used” to be king of these apps…until a few months ago when the text annotation feature stopped working. The developer said at that time he’d fix this in the next update, but since then there have been several updates and text annotation still doesn’t work. So if all you need to do is draw arrows or boxes, etc., on an image or screenshot, Monosnap works great. But if you need to add text to the image, you’re out of luck with Monosnap.