All notable changes to DrawShot. Format follows keepachangelog.com.
DrawShot uses semantic versioning: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Breaking changes to file formats or hotkey behavior bump MAJOR; new tools / preferences bump MINOR; fixes bump PATCH.
[1.0.0] — 2026-05-18
First public release. macOS 13+ universal binary, free, local-only.
Added
- 11 annotation tools, each with a single-key shortcut: Draw (
D), Arrow (A), Rectangle (R), Circle (O), Highlight (H), Eraser (E), Stamp (S), Blur (B), Crop (C), Callout (L), Step numbers (N). - 4-color preset palette (Red, Amber, Blue, Ink) plus a custom color wheel — switch by clicking a swatch in the toolbar.
- 3 stroke weights (
[/]) and 3 line styles (\). - Toast stack with disk-backed persistence — every keystroke saves to
annotations.json, so a crash never loses work. ⌘Sto copy annotated PNG to clipboard.⌘Ssaves to~/Pictures/DrawShot/and copies.- Region capture via
⌘⇧4(default), remappable in Preferences. - Screen Recording permission flow with a one-time onboarding card.
- Universal binary — runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel.
Privacy
- No telemetry, no analytics, no account.
- Single network connection: optional once-per-day update check to
updates.drawshot.dev. Toggle off in Preferences → Privacy.
Known limitations
- No window capture or scrolling capture in 1.0 — those are on the roadmap for 1.2.
- Sidecar iPad displays are not capturable (macOS restriction).
- No iCloud sync of toast stack across Macs (won't add — see roadmap).
[0.9.4] — 2026-05-12 (Beta)
Last beta before 1.0.
Fixed
- Step numbers right-click renumber rebuilt in screen order, not creation order.
- Text tool no longer drops the first character when typing right after clicking.
- Crash on capture when an external display was disconnected mid-session.
Changed
- Default save destination moved from
~/Desktop/DrawShot/to~/Pictures/DrawShot/— feedback from beta testers (4 of 9) said Desktop pollution was a dealbreaker.
[0.9.0] — 2026-05-05 (Beta)
First open beta. 31 testers.
Added
- Toast stack persistence — replaced the in-memory queue from 0.8.x with the on-disk session model.
- Blur tool (
B) — added based on beta feedback that 5 of 9 testers were screenshotting Stripe / billing pages and needed PII redaction. - Preferences pane with Hotkeys, Style, Save, Privacy tabs.
Removed
- "Quick share" tile that uploaded to an Imgur-style endpoint. Cut after 1 week — running a server was the wrong tradeoff for a free, local-only tool.
[0.8.0] — 2026-04-29 (Closed beta)
Closed beta with 9 testers, recruited from user research interviews.
Added
- Arrow, Rectangle, Highlighter, Text tools.
- 6-color palette.
- Region capture only (no fullscreen yet).
- macOS 14+ requirement (later loosened to 13+ in 0.9.4).
Known issues at the time
- Crashes on M3 Pro under sustained capture pressure (fixed in 0.8.2).
- Saved PNGs missing alpha on Intel Macs (fixed in 0.8.1).
[0.5.0] — 2026-04-25 (Internal)
First runnable build. Not distributed.
- Capture + clipboard copy only.
- No annotation, no toast stack, no preferences.
- Built to prove the capture pipeline worked end-to-end before investing in the annotation engine.
Versioning policy
- PATCH (
1.0.x): bug fixes, performance, copy changes. Safe to update. - MINOR (
1.x.0): new tools, new preferences, new file formats added (old files still readable). Safe to update. - MAJOR (
x.0.0): breaking change to hotkeys, file format, or default behavior. Migration notes included in the release.
Auto-update prompts only fire on MINOR and PATCH. MAJOR requires you to download manually so I can give you migration notes first.
drawshot.dev · v1.0 · macOS 13+ · free