ScreenGrabs

Overview

ScreenGrabs takes screenshots with its own hotkeys, saves them in your Screenshots folder, and puts them in Clipboard History, ready to paste. ⇧⌘2 captures every screen, ⇧⌘3 captures every screen and opens the editor, and ⇧⌘4 captures an area you select and opens the editor. Mark up a screenshot, or any image you copied, with arrow, text, draw, blur, and redact.

On macOS 15 or later, ⇧⌘5 records an area, a window, a screen, or all your screens, with your voice and the Mac’s sound. When you stop, the recording opens in a window where you can trim, crop, and blur it before you save it in your Recordings folder. The ScreenGrabs tab (⌘3) lists your recordings beside your screenshots, newest first.

Shortcuts

4 by default, such as⇧⌘2

Tab in Quick Search

ScreenGrabs ⌘3 by default

macOS permissions

Screen RecordingOptional: Accessibility, Microphone, Input Monitoring

How to use it

1. Press ⇧⌘4 and select an area to open it in the editor, or ⇧⌘2 for every screen.⇧⌘4
2. Open Quick Search and press ⌘3 (by default) for the ScreenGrabs tab, which lists your screenshots and recordings. ⌘Return marks a screenshot up or opens a recording.⌘3
3. On macOS 15 or later, press ⇧⌘5 to record an area, a window, or a screen. Stop from the bar, then trim, crop, or blur it and save it in your Recordings folder.⇧⌘5

Key features

• Hotkeys for every screen, every screen then edit, and a selected area; each can be changed
• Choose where screenshots and, on macOS 15 or later, recordings save in Settings › ScreenGrabs, each recording in a folder of its own; until you do, both go where macOS saves screenshots, usually the Desktop
• Screenshots from these hotkeys and from macOS’s own tools appear in Clipboard History and the ScreenGrabs tab, a grid of large thumbnails
• New screenshots also go on the clipboard, unless you turn that off or copied something since
• An editor with arrow, text, draw, blur, and redact; Save (Return) copies the result and saves “<name> (edited).png” beside the original
• Screenshot Screen and Edit and Screenshot Area and Edit copy only when you Save, so an unredacted shot never lands on the clipboard
• In the ScreenGrabs tab, Return or ⌘C copies a screenshot or a recording, ⌘V pastes it into the app you were using, and ⌘E (or ⌘Return) opens a screenshot in the editor or a recording in its window. One click selects a tile, a double-click copies it, and ⌘E also edits an image in Clipboard History while ScreenGrabs is on
• On macOS 15 or later, Record Screen (⇧⌘5, or “record” in Quick Search) records an area, a window, a screen, or all your screens
• Records your voice and the Mac’s sound, each with its own switch, after a countdown you can change
• A small bar, never in the video, shows the time and lets you pause, draw, mute, restart, discard, or stop
• Draw on the screen while you record with a pen, an arrow, a highlighter, or a rectangle
• Shows the shortcuts you press in the video, never what you type, and can highlight each click
• After you stop, trim the ends, cut out a section, crop, and blur, then Save (Return) or Copy (⌘C)
• The ScreenGrabs tab shows each recording with a frame, a play badge, and its length, even with Clipboard History off; with the search field empty, Space plays it in Quick Look
• While it’s on, Keybumps uses ⇧⌘3, ⇧⌘4, and ⇧⌘5 in place of macOS’s own, and gives them back when you turn it off

Commands

Open its tab in Quick Search, or use its shortcuts. You can change the shortcuts in Settings › ScreenGrabs.

• ScreenGrabs tabIn Quick Search, with its default key⌘3

• Screenshot Screen⇧⌘2
• Screenshot Screen and Edit⇧⌘3
• Screenshot Area and Edit⇧⌘4
• Record Screen⇧⌘5
• Pause & Resume RecordingOnly while recordingNot set by default
• Stop RecordingOnly while recordingNot set by default
• Discard RecordingOnly while recording. Asks first; press it again to discard.Not set by default
• Draw While RecordingOnly while recordingNot set by default

Permissions and privacy

ScreenGrabs asks for this macOS permission while it’s on:

• Screen RecordingLets ScreenGrabs take screenshots with its hotkeys, and record the screen and the Mac’s sound.

It can use these too, but works without them:

• AccessibilityLets ⌘V paste a screenshot into the app you were using. Without it, ⌘V copies the screenshot instead.
• MicrophoneRecords your voice with a recording. Without it, recordings have only the screen and the Mac’s sound.
• Input MonitoringShows the shortcuts you press in a recording, with Show shortcuts on screen on. Without it, recordings show none.

Questions