Better Shot

Better Shot is a native macOS application designed to capture, edit, and annotate screenshots. The program operates with global keyboard shortcuts and keeps all image processing on the local device. It offers configurable capture modes, an integrated editor with a background library, annotation tools, and built-in OCR functionality to extract text from images.

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• Region capture. Default capture mode. Allows you to select an arbitrary rectangular area of the screen using the cursor. It is activated by a predefined keyboard shortcut. The selection shows a real-time preview of the dimensions. The captured area is transferred directly to the application editor.
• Fullscreen capture. Captures all visible content on the main monitor. This mode must be enabled in the application preferences. Upon activation, it takes a snapshot of the entire screen resolution. The resulting image goes to the editor for further processing or annotation.
• Window capture. Allows you to select and capture a specific application window. It automatically detects the boundaries of open windows. The system ignores other interface elements outside the outline of the selected window. This mode also requires manual enabling in the settings.
• Integrated background library. Collection of background images available within the editor. Includes curated wallpapers, Mac device renderings, and mesh patterns. Backgrounds are applied behind the screenshot to create visual compositions. They facilitate the preparation of material for documentation or presentations.
• Custom backgrounds. Option to use a custom solid color as a background. Also allows a transparent checkerboard background. The color picker offers a wide color space for your choice. The transparency background helps prepare images for overlays in other projects.
• Visual effects adjustments. Controls to apply blur and noise to the capture. Blur allows you to obscure sensitive areas or details. The noise control adds a granular texture to the image. Both effects are adjustable using sliders with numerical values.
• Shadow and corner rounding. Separate control to add a drop shadow behind the capture. Adjusts the opacity, blur, and offset of the shadow. The rounding control adjusts the corner radius of the captured image. These functions add depth and style to the final composition.
• Shape annotation tools. Set of geometric shapes for marking areas in the image. Includes circles, rectangles, lines, and arrows. Each shape is customizable in color, stroke thickness, and opacity. Annotations can be selected, moved, and deleted after creation.
• Text and numbered labels. Tool to insert text blocks at any position. Allows you to adjust the font size and text color. Numbered labels are badges that automatically increment their number. They are suitable for creating step-by-step guides or listing items in an image.
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Integrated engine to extract text from screenshots. It analyzes the entire edited image, including overlaid annotations. It performs automatic preprocessing that converts to grayscale and adjusts contrast. It works completely offline, using included language data.
• Automatic OCR preprocessing. Process that improves the image before text analysis. Applies grayscale conversion and contrast and brightness adjustments. These operations increase the accuracy of character recognition. Includes automatic rotation detection to correct skewed text.
• Export and clipboard. Ability to save the final composition in an image format. Export settings allow you to control the quality and file format. The copy to clipboard option places the image directly for pasting into other applications. The default save path is configurable in preferences.
• Global keyboard shortcuts. Key combinations that activate capture from any application. The shortcuts work even when the main Better Shot window is minimized. Each capture mode has a default assigned combination. All combinations are customizable in the application settings panel.
• Automatic settings application. Configuration that bypasses opening the editor after capture. Applies a default background and effects configured beforehand. Saves the resulting image directly to the designated location. Speeds up the workflow for repetitive captures with the same style.
• Menu bar access. Persistent icon in the macOS system menu bar. Provides quick access to capture functions and the preferences window. Displays the application status and allows you to enable or disable global shortcuts. Allows you to quit the application completely from the context menu.

Development of Better Shot began in 2023. The application is built with the Tauri framework, using Rust for the backend and React for the user interface. This combination allows for native performance and a small binary size. The developers focused on creating a specialized tool for macOS that handles all operations locally, prioritizing execution speed and user privacy. The OCR engine was implemented with Tesseract.js and integrated language data to operate without network dependencies.

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