How to annotate a screenshot on your Mac

Every Mac can annotate a screenshot for free. Click the thumbnail that appears after you take one, or open the picture in Preview and show the Markup toolbar. You get shapes, arrows, text, a highlighter and a magnifying loupe. What Markup lacks is numbered steps, the 1, 2, 3 badges every how-to uses.

Koi's Shift wheel has an Annotate tool with numbers, arrows, boxes, a magnifier and the rest. We make Koi, so read that part with that in mind. Apple's steps come from its own guides, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Take a screenshot: Shift-Command-4 for part of the screen, or Shift-Command-3 for all of it.
2. Click the thumbnail that slides into the corner of the screen.
3. Use the Markup tools at the top of the window that opens.
4. Click Done when you're finished.

Apple's screenshot guide says to click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot. You can also Control-click any picture in Finder and choose Quick Actions, Markup, which opens the same tools in a Quick Look window, as Apple's Finder guide shows.

Preview has the full set. From Apple's guide to annotating an image:

1. Open the screenshot in Preview and click Show Markup Toolbar.
2. For an arrow or a box, click Shapes, pick one, and drag it into place. Blue handles resize it; green ones change its shape.
3. For words, click Text, type, and drag the box where it goes. Text Style changes the font and colour.
4. To make a detail bigger, click Zoom (the loupe). The green handle sets how much it magnifies; the blue one, how big the lens is.
5. Use Shape Style, Border Color and Fill Color for line thickness, colours and a shadow.
6. Choose File, Save.

Apple's catch: once you save annotations on an image file, you can't edit, move or delete them. To keep them editable, convert the image to a PDF and annotate the PDF. Or work on a copy, and keep the clean original.

1. Start dragging the screenshot from your desktop.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. A wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop it on Annotate. The screenshot opens with the tools on the left.
4. Pick a tool and a colour, then mark the picture (what each does is below).
5. Pick Move to drag any mark somewhere else. Undo and Delete the picked one fix mistakes.
6. Click Save annotated copy. “Screenshot annotated.png” lands beside the original.

• Arrow: drag from the tail toward where it points.
• Text: type the words in What it says, then click where they go.
• Box and Ring: drag across what to frame.
• Pen draws freely; Highlighter lights up what you drag over.
• Number: click to drop 1, then click again for 2, then 3. Made for step-by-step guides.
• Magnifier: click what to enlarge, or drag to size the lens. It shows what's under it twice as big.
• Six colours: red, yellow, blue, purple, white and black.

Every mark stays movable until you save, and the Marks list shows them all. The original is never touched, so you can start again from it any time. It runs on your Mac; nothing is uploaded.

Writing instructions for a colleague or a customer? This order works with any tool, and with Koi it stays on one gesture:

1. Take one screenshot per step with Shift-Command-4, cropped to the part that matters.
2. Drop each on Annotate. Put a Number on what to click, in the order to click it.
3. Add a Magnifier over anything small, like a checkbox or a menu item.
4. Add one short Text label if the number isn't enough. Save the annotated copy.
5. Drop the result on Add BG for a clean frame, and on Compress if it's going in an email.

If the guide is for yourself, there's a shortcut: ask Koi on a call to show you around an app. Afterwards, Koi can keep the steps as a page with a picture of each, ready to share.

CleanShot X lists Arrow, Counter, Blur, Pixelate and Spotlight among its tools, and Shottr has a step counter and a spotlight. “Not stated” means their own page didn't say. Both are screenshot apps first, so they also take the shot.

• Too many arrows. One arrow per point. If you need five, use numbers instead.
• Red on red. Pick a colour that stands out from the app in the screenshot. Yellow or blue often reads better on a busy screen.
• Text too small. A screenshot shown on a phone shrinks your labels. Make them bigger than looks right on your Mac.
• Private details left in. Names, emails and open tabs. Cover them before you share.
• Saved over the original in Preview. Keep a copy, because those marks can't be moved later.

To cover things, see how to blur faces and text. To finish the shot on a gradient, see how to add a background to a screenshot. To cut it down first, how to crop a picture on Mac.

• A quick arrow or a word on a screenshot you just took: click the thumbnail and use Markup.
• A loupe, shapes and text, for free: Preview.
• You capture screenshots all day: a screenshot app like CleanShot X or Shottr.
• Numbered steps, a magnifier and arrows on any picture, plus redact, crop and background on the same gesture: Koi's Shift wheel.

Annotate comes with Koi on every plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. See the plans, or how to use the Shift wheel.