Every shortcut in DrawShot v1.4.8, grouped by the job you're trying to do.
The whole app is built around the keyboard. The toolbar is there so you don't have to remember these — but learn the ones for tools you use most, and your time-to-clipboard drops from ~10 seconds to ~4.
Capture
DrawShot doesn't bind its own capture hotkey. It watches your Desktop — the moment macOS writes a screenshot file there, a toast slides in and the annotator opens.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘⇧3 |
Full-screen capture (macOS native) |
⌘⇧4 |
Region capture (macOS native, the one you probably use) |
⌘⇧5 |
Screenshot menu (window / region / record — macOS native) |
Your muscle memory keeps working. DrawShot picks up the file the moment it lands on
~/Desktop. First-shot latency is 150–300 ms thanks to a pre-warmed thumbnail window.
You can also open an existing PNG via the tray menu or ⌘O — see Open existing files below.
Tools
All 11 single-key, no modifier. Just press the letter on your keyboard while the canvas is focused.
| Key | Tool | What it does |
|---|---|---|
D |
Draw (default) | Freehand pen, current color + stroke width |
A |
Arrow | Drag to draw a straight arrow with arrowhead |
R |
Rectangle | Drag to draw an outline rectangle |
O |
Circle | Drag to draw an outline ellipse / circle |
H |
Highlight | Drag to overlay a translucent highlighter stroke |
E |
Eraser | Click any annotation to delete it |
S |
Stamp | Click to drop an emoji from the sticker picker |
B |
Blur | Drag a rectangle → permanent 10px mosaic |
C |
Crop | Drag selection → ✓/✗ confirm bar → trims canvas |
L |
Callout | Click → textarea → speech bubble with tail (auto-points up/down) |
N |
Step #s | Click to drop numbered circles. Auto-increments 1, 2, 3… |
Re-entering the Step tool resets the counter to 1. Double-click a callout to re-edit. Crop bumps the canvas dimensions — undo still works.
Colors & strokes
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Switch active color | Click one of the 4 presets (Red · Amber · Blue · Ink) in the toolbar |
| Custom color | Click the wheel button — opens a full color picker |
| Stroke width | Click Thin · Medium · Thick (2, 4, 8 px) in the toolbar |
The primary swatch in the toolbar always shows your current color.
Edit & history
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘Z |
Undo (works for every tool, including crop which mutates canvas size) |
| Clear all (toolbar button) | Wipes every annotation in one click |
Esc |
Cancel the current popover / cancel crop / close the active textarea |
Enter |
Confirm crop selection |
Save
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘S |
Save the annotated PNG and copy it to your clipboard (in one keystroke) |
Save mode (Settings → segmented control):
- Replace (default) — overwrites the original file. The untouched original is backed up to
userData/originals/. - Copy — writes
<name>_annotated.pngnext to the original. Auto-increments the suffix if the file already exists.
Copy-to-clipboard toggle (Settings, default ON) — when on, every ⌘S also drops the PNG on the system clipboard so you can paste straight into Slack / Linear / GitHub / Notion.
The save toast tells you what just happened: ✓ Saved · ✓ Saved as copy · · copied to clipboard.
Open & window
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘O |
Open Screenshot… (file picker, multi-select) |
⌘M |
Minimize to thumbnail (preserves your edits) |
⌘W |
Close the annotation canvas (prompts to confirm if there are unsaved changes) |
⌘Q |
Quit DrawShot |
There are four other entry points for opening an existing file:
- Tray menu → Open Screenshot…
- Finder right-click → Open With → DrawShot (file association registered for PNG / JPG / JPEG / HEIC)
- Drag a file onto the DrawShot menu-bar icon
- CLI:
open -a DrawShot.app file.png
DrawShot uses a single-instance lock — extra files queue up and route to the existing window.
Toolbar
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Make the toolbar smaller | [ (or - / _) |
| Make the toolbar larger | ] (or = / +) |
| Move toolbar to top / bottom | Grab the blue D logo, drop it in the top or bottom half — position persists across launches |
The toolbar wraps to multiple rows when the window is too narrow. All popovers (settings, sticker picker) flip orientation based on toolbar position.
Tray menu
The DrawShot icon in your menu bar opens a small panel:
- ● Watching for screenshots — pulses while the Desktop watcher is active
- Open Screenshot… (
⌘O) - Auto-dismiss thumbnail toggle
- Launch at login toggle
- Quit DrawShot (
⌘Q)
No Dock icon — DrawShot lives in the menu bar only.
Need a printable version?
The 1-page cheat sheet PDF is in pdfs/keyboard-shortcuts-cheat-sheet.md — render with pandoc, pin near your desk.
drawshot.dev · v1.4.8 · macOS 13+ · free