A free macOS screenshot tool — source available, free to use, built for people who take screenshots seriously.
Reticle is a macOS-native screenshot tool that brings the full power of ShareX — the gold standard on Windows — to macOS.
Most macOS screenshot tools are either too simple (built-in Screenshot.app) or too expensive (CleanShot X at $29). Reticle is completely free to use, with a ShareX-style annotation toolbar, workflow automation, and cloud upload built in from day one.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Region capture (freeze + annotate) | ✅ |
| Full-screen capture | ✅ |
| Per-monitor capture | ✅ |
| Window capture (click-to-pick) | ✅ |
| Scrolling screenshot | ✅ |
| Last region repeat | ✅ |
| Saved regions | ✅ |
| Auto capture (interval timer) | ✅ |
| Capture delay (countdown) | ✅ |
| ShareX-style instant capture (drag or click) | ✅ |
| Screen recording (MP4 / GIF) | ✅ |
21 tools, ShareX-style toolbar that slides in from the top of the frozen screen.
Each tool is sticky — stays active until you switch to another.
| Tool | Notes |
|---|---|
| Rectangle / Ellipse | Solid / dashed / dotted stroke |
| Line / Arrow | Solid / dashed / dotted, angle-snap with Shift |
| Freehand pen | Smooth cardinal spline |
| Freehand arrow | |
| Text | Outline, background variants |
| Step numbers | Auto-increments, drag to add leader line |
| Speech balloon | Click-through text input |
| Highlight | Defaults to fluorescent yellow, adjustable opacity |
| Blur (Gaussian) | Live preview, expanded-crop for edge accuracy |
| Pixelate | Live preview |
| Blackout | |
| Spotlight | Dark overlay with circular reveal |
| Magnify / Loupe | Circular magnifier with configurable scale |
| Emoji / Sticker | |
| Mouse cursor stamp | |
| Image insert | |
| Ruler | With scale readout |
| Crop | Non-destructive selection crop |
| Eraser | Smart: trims pen strokes point-by-point |
| Select / Move | Rotate, resize, multi-select with Shift |
| Action | Status |
|---|---|
| Copy to clipboard | ✅ |
| Save to file (configurable path + filename tokens) | ✅ |
| Desktop notification with thumbnail | ✅ |
| OCR — extract text via Vision framework | ✅ |
| Pin to screen (floating image overlay) | ✅ |
| Open in viewer | ✅ |
| Reveal in Finder | ✅ |
| Copy file path | ✅ |
| Destination | Status |
|---|---|
| Imgur | ✅ |
| Amazon S3 / Backblaze B2 / Cloudflare R2 | ✅ |
| SFTP | ✅ |
| Custom HTTP uploader (JSON-defined) | ✅ |
| Google Drive / Dropbox | 🔜 |
| URL shortener | 🔜 |
| Feature | Notes |
|---|---|
| MP4 (H.264) | Configurable FPS (default 30), 8 Mbps |
| Animated GIF | Auto-downscale to 1280 px, 30 s cap |
| Menu bar timer | Live elapsed time, stop from menu bar |
| After recording | Copy path · Notification · Reveal in Finder |
| Tool | Status |
|---|---|
| Screen color picker (loupe + HEX copy) | ✅ |
| Clipboard history (⌘⇧V, last 30 items) | ✅ |
| OCR result panel | ✅ |
| Workflow profiles (hotkey → capture mode → upload) | ✅ |
| Customizable global hotkeys | ✅ |
| Launch at login (SMAppService) | ✅ |
| SFTP / S3 Test Connection | ✅ |
| Reticle | CleanShot X | Shottr | Snagit | Flameshot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $29 one-time | Free | $62/year | Free |
| Open source | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| ShareX-style annotation | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | partial | ❌ |
| Sticky tool mode | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Live blur / pixelate preview | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Line style (solid/dashed/dotted) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Scrolling screenshot | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Window picker (click-to-capture) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Color picker | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Clipboard history | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| OCR | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Pin to screen | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Cloud uploads | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Workflow automation | ✅ | partial | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Screen recording (MP4/GIF) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Pixel-perfect capture | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Display P3 color space preserved | ✅ | ✅ | ❓ | ❓ | ❌ |
| Static Mask (auto-redact regions) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Vision PII auto-detection | 🔜 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
ShareX is the undisputed best screenshot tool — on Windows. Reticle aims for feature parity on macOS, built natively with SwiftUI + AppKit + ScreenCaptureKit rather than a port.
| Reticle | ShareX (Windows) | |
|---|---|---|
| Native macOS (SwiftUI / AppKit) | ✅ | — |
| Freeze-screen annotation overlay | ✅ | ✅ |
| Instant drag-or-click capture | ✅ | ✅ |
| Annotation toolbar (21 tools) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Workflow / after-capture pipeline | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cloud upload destinations | ✅ | ✅ |
| Screen recording (MP4 / GIF) | ✅ | ✅ |
- Notarized DMG — no more
xattrbypass on first launch - QR code — generate / scan from captured image
- macOS 13 Ventura or later
- Apple Silicon or Intel
brew tap croc100/reticle
brew install --cask reticleFirst launch: Reticle is not yet notarized. Right-click → Open, or run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Reticle.app
Grab the latest Reticle-x.x.x.dmg from Releases.
First launch (not yet notarized): Right-click → Open, or run once:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Reticle.app
git clone https://github.com/croc100/Reticle.git
cd Reticle
swift build -c release
# Or open Package.swift in Xcode → select ReticleApp scheme → RunGrant Screen Recording permission on first launch.
Grant Accessibility permission for scroll capture and hotkey recording.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
⌘⇧2 |
Reticle Region Capture — freeze + annotate |
⌘⇧3 |
macOS full-screen (system default, untouched) |
⌘⇧4 |
macOS region (system default, untouched) |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Drag or click window | Instant capture (ShareX-style) |
⌘Z |
Undo last annotation |
Delete / Backspace |
Delete selected annotation |
Return / Enter |
Finalize and capture |
Escape |
Cancel |
Shift + drag |
Constrain to square / 45° angle |
ReticleApp — Menu bar app, hotkey wiring, capture coordinator
├── ReticleCapture — ScreenCaptureKit wrapper (region / window / full-screen / scroll)
├── ReticleOverlay — Full-screen freeze overlay + annotation toolbar (SwiftUI + AppKit)
├── ReticleEffects — CoreImage blur / pixelate / mask rendering
├── ReticlePipeline — Capture → AfterCapture → Output → AfterOutput task chain
├── ReticleRecorder — Screen recording: SCStream → MP4 (AVAssetWriter) / GIF (ImageIO)
├── ReticleNaming — Filename token parser (%year%, %counter%, %app%, …)
├── ReticleVision — Vision framework OCR + PII detector
├── ReticleWorkflow — Hotkey → workflow profile binding
├── ReticleUploaders— Upload adapters (Imgur, S3, custom HTTP, …)
└── ReticleCore — Shared models, protocols, Defaults keys
Reticle is free forever. If it saves you time, consider sponsoring — it helps fund the Apple Developer ID needed for notarized releases.
Contributions are welcome! Open an issue or PR on GitHub.
For bug reports and feature requests, use the issue tracker.
Apache 2.0 + Commons Clause — free to use and modify for personal and non-commercial purposes. Commercial sale or redistribution of the software requires explicit permission from the author.
© 2026 croc100
