Capture Markup | Snapzy Docs

How It Works

Capture Markup freezes your screens and opens a native overlay. Rather than saving first and opening the editor later, you draw directly on top of the selection. When you finish, the final composite image is exported with your annotations baked in.

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To launch Capture Markup, use the global shortcut ⇧⌘7 or open the URL scheme snapzy://capture/area-annotate.

Region Adjustment

When Capture Markup starts, you first draw a selection rectangle over the region you want to capture:

8 Resize Handles — Drag any corner or edge handle to resize the region. The cursor dynamically adapts to show resize directions.
Move Selection — Press and hold the Spacebar and drag to shift the entire selection region, or use the selection move handles in the toolbar.
Annotation Preservation — Resizing or moving the region automatically adjusts the position of your existing drawing annotations so you do not lose your work.

Supported Drawing Tools & Keys

Reusing the robust native drawing engine from the full Annotate window, Capture Markup supports the following tools, switchable with single-key shortcuts:

V Selection Tool — Select, move, and edit properties of individual annotations.
R Rectangle — Draw wireframe rectangles.
F Filled Rectangle — Draw rectangles with synced border & fill.
O Oval — Draw circular/oval boundaries.
A Arrow — Point to elements with clean arrow lines.
L Line — Draw simple straight separators.
T Text Input — Add text labels with background color styling.
H Highlighter — Draw translucent overlay highlights.
B Blur — Obfuscate sensitive info (System / Radial / Smooth).
N Counter — Place sequential step badges (1, 2, 3...).
W Watermark — Apply branding overlays with custom text & rotation.
P Pencil — Freeform drawings and sketches.

Tool Exceptions — Crop and 3D Mockups require editing the layout envelope, so they are not available in the inline overlay. If you need them, save the capture and open it in the full editor.

Quick Properties & Defaults Sync

An inline properties bar floats right below the toolbar when drawing tools are active. It gives you instant access to:

Stroke colors (primary, outline, and text backgrounds)
Stroke width and font size
Opacity slider and corner radius controls
Watermark styling (rotation angle, custom text)

By default, styling changes update future annotation defaults. You can disable this synchronization under Settings → Annotate → Sync tool defaults to keep drawing preferences isolated per tool.

Action Rail & Shortcuts

The action rail displays beside the crop area with three key operations:

Enter or ⌘S — Finish and export the image directly.
Esc — Cancel capture markup session.
Copy — Copy composite annotated image to clipboard and dismiss.

Multi-Display Mechanics

Capture Markup is powered by a coordination layer that spans all your connected monitors. When triggered, it spawns an NSPanel at the .screenSaver window level per screen.

If your selected capture region spans across display boundaries, Snapzy uses composite blending (cropCompositeImage) to merge pixels from different display frames into a single unified workspace.

Persisted Annotation Sessions

Snapzy automatically persists your active annotation sessions. If you close the overlay or the editor window, your drawing annotations, history, and canvas states are safely stored. Reopening the capture restores your workspace exactly where you left off, preventing any loss of work.