Annotation tools — deep dive

DrawShot ships with 10 tools. Each is single-key, each can be styled with the same 6 colors + 3 stroke weights + 3 line styles. This page is the long-form reference.

For the keyboard-only version, see keyboard-shortcuts.md.

Arrow — A

The most-used tool. Draws a line ending in a filled arrowhead.

• Drag from start point to end point — arrowhead points at the end.
• Hold Shift to constrain to 0° / 45° / 90° angles.
• Hold Option to keep the arrow straight even if your hand wobbles.
• Style: solid / dashed / dotted shaft. Arrowhead is always filled.
• Use when: pointing at the one thing in the screenshot that matters. 80% of annotations in user testing were just an arrow.

Rectangle — R

A bordered rectangle (no fill by default).

• Drag to define corners.
• Hold Shift for a perfect square.
• Hold Option to draw from center outward.
• Press \ to cycle stroke style (solid / dashed / dotted).
• Press the same key (R) twice while the rectangle is selected to fill it.
• Use when: framing a UI element, drawing a box around an error message.

Ellipse — O

A bordered ellipse / circle.

• Drag to define the bounding box — the ellipse fills it.
• Hold Shift for a perfect circle.
• Hold Option to draw from center outward.
• Use when: circling a value in a chart, drawing attention to a face / avatar without using the cropping rectangle.

Highlighter — H

A semi-transparent stroke (default opacity 35%) that overlays the screenshot.

• Drag to define the highlighted region.
• Always rectangular — for freeform highlight, use the pen tool.
• Default color is yellow (5); cycle to any other.
• Use when: highlighting a row in a table, marking a paragraph in a doc.

Line — L

A straight line with no arrowhead.

• Drag from start to end.
• Hold Shift to constrain angles.
• Use when: showing a connection between two elements without implying direction (which arrow does).

Text — T

A text label with auto-sized background pill.

• Click to drop a cursor; type your label.
• The background pill auto-sizes around the text — adjustable padding in Preferences.
• Background defaults to the active color with high contrast text (white on saturated colors, black on yellow).
• Esc finishes editing; Return adds a line break.
• Use when: captioning what the arrow is pointing at, leaving a TODO note on a screenshot you'll come back to.

Blur — B

A pixelated / blurred rectangle for redacting sensitive info.

• Drag to define the region.
• Three blur strengths — cycle with [ and ].
• Blur is destructive at save time — the underlying pixels are replaced before the file is written, so there's no way to recover the original from a saved DrawShot file.
• Use when: redacting an email address, a customer name, an API key, a password field that auto-filled before you got there.

Note on PII: the blur tool produces visually-blurred pixels. If you're sharing a screenshot in a context where someone might try to reconstruct the original (e.g. legal), use ⌘E → Export → "Flatten with redaction" which writes solid black pixels instead.

Step marker — S

A numbered circle that auto-increments. Drops 1, 2, 3, ... as you click.

• Click anywhere to drop the next number.
• Numbers reset when the canvas reopens — they're per-session.
• Drag an existing step marker to move it; the others stay in their original numbers.
• Right-click a step marker to renumber the sequence starting from this one.
• Use when: writing a how-to guide. Tutorial / docs / onboarding content uses this constantly.

Pen — P

Freehand drawing. Like drawing on a screenshot with a marker.

• Click + drag to draw.
• The stroke is smoothed automatically (Catmull-Rom) so your wobbly hand looks intentional.
• No Shift constrain — use the line / rectangle / ellipse tools for straight shapes.
• Use when: circling something with an irregular shape, drawing a flow between three boxes, marking up a wireframe.

Select — V

The "click + move" tool. Not a draw tool — used to manipulate annotations you've already placed.

• Click an annotation to select it.
• Drag to move.
• Click + drag empty space to multi-select.
• ⌘A selects everything.
• Arrow keys nudge by 1px; with Shift, by 10px.
• Delete / Backspace removes.
• Use when: cleaning up a screenshot you over-annotated.

Style — color / weight / line

The toolbar is the same shape for every tool. Pick a tool, then style applies until you change it.

Color (6 presets)

Keys 1 through 6:

You can edit the palette in Preferences → Style → Color palette (Pro adds 8 brand colour presets).

Stroke weight (3 levels)

Keys [ (decrease) and ] (increase):

• Thin — 2px — for fine work, close-up captures
• Medium — 4px (default) — covers 90% of use
• Thick — 6px — for screenshots viewed from a distance (Loom-style demos, presentations)

Line style

Press \ to cycle:

• Solid (default) — most common
• Dashed — implied connection, "this leads to"
• Dotted — suggestion, "consider this"

Tool combinations that compound

Some patterns from heavy users:

• Arrow + text caption — the workhorse. Point + label = 90% of useful annotations.
• Rectangle + step marker — for writing how-to docs. Frame the click target, drop the step number.
• Blur + arrow — redact a value, then arrow to "this is the field."
• Highlighter + rectangle — soft highlight + hard frame for hierarchy.

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