Pixel.Noted Help

Version 26.3 · macOS 14 Sonoma and later (Apple Silicon)

Pixel.Noted is a native Mac screenshot, screen-recording, and image-annotation app built for developers, designers, support teams, and anyone who documents their screen. It's entirely local — no account, no tracking, and it makes no network connections at all, so nothing you capture ever leaves your Mac. This page covers every feature, tool, shortcut, and setting. Can't find what you're looking for? Use the contact form.

Getting Started

Capturing something

Open the Capture panel and choose a mode — Full Screen, Region, or Window — then click the shutter button. Your capture opens straight in the editor, ready to annotate.

No global shortcuts are set by default. To capture from any app with the keyboard, record your own in Settings ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.

Opening an existing image

• Menu: File → Open (⌘O)
• Drag and drop: drag any image onto the Pixel.Noted window or Dock icon
• Double-click: double-click a saved .pixelnoted file in Finder to reopen it with all layers intact
• Library: recent captures appear in the Library panel for one-click reopening

The two modes

Pixel.Noted has two modes, switched with the Capture / Editor toggle at the top of the window:

• Capture — take screenshots and start recordings
• Editor — annotate, mark up, crop, and export

Saving and exporting

• Save as an editable .pixelnoted file: ⌘S
• Save As: ⌘⇧S
• Export to PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIF, TIFF, BMP, or PDF: ⌘⇧E
• Copy to Clipboard: the clipboard button in the toolbar, or right-click → Copy to Clipboard

Capturing Your Screen

Choose a capture mode from the Capture panel, then click the shutter button.

Capture modes

Capture options

• Capture Cursor — include or hide the mouse pointer in the shot
• Timer / Second Delay — add a short countdown before the capture fires, giving you time to set up the screen
• Multiple displays — on a multi-monitor setup, Pixel.Noted lets you choose which display to capture

Scrolling capture

Scrolling capture records a page as you scroll and automatically stitches the frames into a single tall image — ideal for long web pages, documents, or chat threads that don't fit on one screen. Panorama capture works the same way but stitches horizontally, for wide content.

Screen Recording

Record your screen as a QuickTime-compatible H.264 MP4 that opens directly in QuickTime Player and iMovie — no conversion needed.

Recording modes (scope)

Each time you start a recording, choose the scope:

• Full Screen — record an entire display
• Region — draw a crosshair rectangle to record just part of the screen
• Window — record a single window

To start or stop recording with the keyboard, record your own shortcut in Settings ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts. No global shortcuts are set by default.

The floating recording HUD

While recording, a floating control bar appears that you can drag anywhere on screen. It gives you quick access to:

• Webcam overlay — show a live camera feed in the corner of the recording (choose the device in Record options / Settings → Devices)
• Microphone — record audio from any connected mic or AirPods, mixed into the MP4
• Pause / Resume
• Stop

Multi-display recording

On multiple monitors, a picker with live display thumbnails lets you choose which screen to record.

Cancelling

Press Esc to cancel the scope picker or the region selector before recording starts.

Click animations

Recordings can show click animations, so viewers can see where you clicked.

Interval Recording

Interval Recording makes time-lapses of your screen.

Step Recorder

The Step Recorder turns your clicks into a numbered step-by-step guide.

Video Tools

Trim recordings, convert them to GIF, combine clips, and turn images into a video or GIF.

The Editor

The editor is where you mark up a capture. The canvas sits in the center, the toolbar runs across the top, the Layers panel is on the left, and the Inspector (properties) is on the right.

Working with annotations

• Every annotation you add stays fully editable until you export — select it any time to move, resize, restyle, or delete it.
• Use the Select tool to click an object and reveal its handles.
• Objects are drawn on layers and can be reordered and toggled in the Layers panel.

Zoom

Zoom is controlled from the toolbar zoom buttons and the right-click menu:

• Zoom In / Zoom Out
• Zoom to Fit — fit the whole image in the window
• Zoom to Actual Size — 100%

Annotation Tools

Select a tool from the toolbar; the active tool is highlighted. Every annotation lives on its own layer and stays editable.

Tips

• Highlighter starts on yellow and lists yellow as the first swatch.
• Arrow can be re-selected by clicking anywhere in its bounding box, so it stays editable even after you add other objects.
• Step and Focus Steps counters can be reset from the toolbar controls that appear when those tools are active.

The Inspector (Properties)

When you select an annotation, the Inspector on the right shows the controls for that object. Available controls depend on the tool:

• Color — 8 color presets plus custom color
• Shape Width — stroke thickness
• Arrow Head — arrowhead size, independent of stroke width (Arrow tool)
• Corner Radius — rounded corners, 0–24 pt (Rectangle)
• Fill — toggle a solid fill on shapes
• Opacity — overall transparency (e.g. Highlighter opacity 10–100%)
• Shadow — drop-shadow radius, offset, and color
• Font size — for Text and Callout
• Focus Step — badge and label position controls for Focus Steps

Property changes are undoable, and a slider drag records a single undo step (not one per frame).

Crop, Resize & Redaction

Crop

Select the Crop tool. Pixel.Noted supports two crop styles (set the default in Settings → Editor → Crop):

• Adjust Edges (default) — the crop frame surrounds the whole image; drag any edge to move that side independently, or drag a corner to move two sides at once.
• Draw Region — drag out a rectangle to define the crop area.

Confirm the crop with Return (Apply) or cancel with Esc.

Resize Canvas

Right-click → Resize Canvas… to change the image dimensions.

Redaction (Redact, Blur, Pixelate & Smart Redact)

Use Redact for solid bars, or the Blur and Pixelate tools to obscure sensitive regions — passwords, emails, tokens, faces — before you share. Blur and Pixelate are applied as editable regions until export.

Smart Redact finds emails, phone numbers and faces and covers them for you.

On-Device Vision

Extract text from any image and lift a subject out of a photo. Both use Apple’s on-device Vision framework, so your images never leave your Mac.

Layers & Library

Layers panel

Every annotation lives on a layer. In the Layers panel (left) you can:

• Reorder annotations
• Toggle a layer's visibility
• Select an object by clicking its layer

Library panel

The Library panel shows your recent captures for quick reopening. Toggle it with Show / Hide Library (⌘⇧L).

Board

Board is a system-wide clipboard history. Switch to the Board tab and everything you copy anywhere on your Mac — not just in Pixel.Noted — is saved automatically, organized, and searchable.

Automatic capture

Board watches the system clipboard and saves each new copy — text, links, colors, files, and images — sorted into categories automatically. Every Pixel.Noted screenshot also appears here, shared with the Library.

Privacy

Anything a password manager marks as concealed or auto-generated is never saved. Consecutive copies of the exact same thing aren't duplicated. If you'd rather Board not watch the system clipboard at all — for example if you use a different clipboard manager — set Settings ▸ Board ▸ Clipboard Capture to Screenshots Only (Board still shares your Pixel.Noted screenshots) or Off (Board saves nothing).

Organizing

Use the built-in categories (Screenshots, Text, Files, Links, Colors) or create your own tags. Pin important clips to keep them at the top. Double-click any clip, or use its Copy button, to put it back on the clipboard.

Export & Wipe

Settings ▸ Board lets you export your entire history to a JSON file, or permanently wipe everything. Both are manual, user-initiated actions — Board never expires or deletes clips on its own.

Social Media Templates

Right-click the canvas → Social Media Templates to frame your image for common social and marketing sizes, so exports fit the platform you're posting to.

Exporting & Saving

Native file format

Save as a .pixelnoted file (⌘S) to preserve the full image, all layers, and every editable annotation for later. Double-clicking a .pixelnoted file in Finder reopens it in Pixel.Noted.

Export formats

Export (⌘⇧E) supports 7 formats:

Export destinations

Choose where exports go: a default Pixel.Noted folder (inside Pictures), a custom folder you set once in Settings ▸ Output, or Choose Location… to pick a destination and filename every time.

Clipboard

Use Copy to Clipboard (toolbar button or right-click → Copy to Clipboard) to copy the finished image without saving a file.

Undo & Redo

Every edit is undoable.

• Undo: ⌘Z
• Redo: ⌘⇧Z

Undo and redo step through your full edit history in both directions.

Appearance & Settings

Open Settings with ⌘, or Pixel.Noted → Settings. Settings are organized into tabs:

Keyboard Shortcut Reference

Capture

No global shortcuts are set by default. Record your own in Settings ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.

File

Edit

Tools

These switch the active annotation tool — they only respond while the canvas has focus, and never while typing in a text field.

View & Window

Help

Menu Reference

Capture menu

File menu

Edit menu

View menu

Right-click (canvas) menu

Zoom to Fit · Zoom to Actual Size · Zoom In · Zoom Out · Copy to Clipboard · Export… · Select Tool · Crop · Resize Canvas… · Draw Arrow · Draw Rectangle · Add Text · Highlight · Blur / Redact · Show/Hide Library · Social Media Templates

Help menu

Frequently Asked Questions

What macOS version do I need?

macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple Silicon Macs.

Does Pixel.Noted work offline?

Yes, entirely. It makes no network connections at all, and there’s no account and no telemetry.

Is my data private?

Yes. Everything is processed on your Mac. Text extraction and subject lifting use Apple’s on-device Vision framework, and the app makes no network connections.

What image formats can I export?

PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIF, TIFF, BMP, and PDF. You can also copy the result straight to the clipboard.

What is a .pixelnoted file?

It's Pixel.Noted's native format. Unlike a flat PNG, it preserves the image plus every layer and annotation so you can reopen and keep editing later. Double-click one in Finder to open it.

How do I record my screen with a webcam and microphone?

Choose a recording scope, then enable the webcam and microphone from the floating recording HUD (pick your devices in Settings → Devices). The result is a single H.264 MP4.

How do I hide sensitive information in a screenshot?

Use Redact, Blur or Pixelate on the area, or Smart Redact to find and cover emails, phone numbers and faces automatically.

Can I make a step-by-step guide?

Yes. The Step Recorder turns your clicks into a numbered step-by-step guide.

Are there keyboard shortcuts for capturing?

Yes, you set your own. No global shortcuts are set by default; record them in Settings ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.

How do I crop an image?

Select the Crop tool. By default you drag the edges of the crop frame independently (or a corner to move two sides). You can switch to "draw a region" mode in Settings → Editor → Crop. Press Return to apply.

Can I capture a long, scrolling page?

Yes — use Scrolling capture, which stitches the scrolled frames into a single tall image.

My redo isn't working / my edits disappeared.

Undo is ⌘Z and Redo is ⌘⇧Z. Edit history steps through in both directions; if something looks wrong, Redo restores your most recent change.

Contact & Support

Didn't find what you needed? Use the contact form — we typically reply within 48 hours.