Screenshot & Annotation

Screenshot & annotation in CodeExpander is an all-in-one capture and edit flow: region/window/fullscreen/scroll and Pin overlay, then straight into the editor to annotate (arrows, highlight, blur, text), style, OCR, copy or save. Trigger from tray or shortcut (e.g. Cmd+Shift+A). Multi-monitor: captures the display under the cursor.

What capture modes are supported?

Multi-monitor: Captures the display under the cursor automatically.

Shortcut configuration (Settings → Screenshot):

You can also assign independent shortcuts for fullscreen, window, scroll, and delayed capture.

Annotation & Styling

Annotation Tools

Editing operations: Undo (Cmd/Ctrl+Z), Redo (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z), Clear all.

Background Styling

• Background type: Gradient presets / solid color / pattern
• Corner radius: Adjust screenshot corner radius
• Shadow: Add shadow effect
• Padding: Add margins around the image
• Device frames: macOS dark/light, browser dark/light, terminal presets
• Watermark: Text or image watermark with position settings
• Presets: Save current style combination for one-click reuse next time

Color Picker

Invoke during capture with shortcut; supports:

• Color formats: HEX, RGB, HSL, OKLCH
• Real-time screen pixel color preview
• Copy color value to clipboard

OCR

You need an invoice number from a photo. Capture it, run OCR, paste the text into a sheet. Recognition stays on this computer.

• 10/day on Free, unlimited on Pro. The count is stored on this machine.
• Settings → Capture → OCR: pick an engine (auto is fine) and how results appear (dialog / toast and copy / pin).
• Number-annotation trials are a separate daily cap.

Typical scenarios: foreign UI text, invoices/contracts, code screenshots to text.

GIF & export

A button does nothing after a click. Start GIF recording from the tray or a hotkey, draw a region, stop, and send the file. Default stop hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+G. Region, cursor, and frame rate live under Settings → Capture.

Record stays visible. Free recordings stop at the cap. After you stop, the editor (the capture one, not the snippet editor) trims the timeline. Export GIF, APNG, or MP4 (MP4 needs ffmpeg on this computer). All of it stays on this machine.

Typical scenarios: tutorial GIFs, bug repros, a quick demo in chat.

Save & Output

• Copy — Enter or Copy in editor; screenshot/GIF to clipboard for paste in docs or chat
• Save — Cmd/Ctrl+S or Save As; formats: PNG, JPG, WebP
• Quick save (Settings): Save directly to configured folder without dialog
• Auto-save (Settings): Automatically write to folder when copying to clipboard or pinning

Filename Template

Supports time placeholders, e.g.:

APSDAL_${yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss}.png

Common placeholders:

• ${yyyy} — Year (4 digits)
• ${MM} — Month (2 digits)
• ${dd} — Day (2 digits)
• ${HH} — Hour (24h)
• ${mm} — Minute
• ${ss} — Second

Screenshot Settings

Configure in Settings → Screenshot:

Workflow

• Screenshot history — Recent captures viewable in editor or history for copy/edit.
• Multi-monitor — Capture the display under the cursor.

Typical Workflows

1. Tutorial screenshots: Region capture → arrow/number annotation → background styling (rounded corners + shadow) → copy to document
2. Bug report: Window capture → mosaic/blur sensitive info → copy to colleague or issue tracker
3. Code review: Region capture → numbered callouts for issues → export or copy
4. Design color picking: Region capture → color picker extracts value → copy HEX to design tool