iTake

A native macOS menu bar app for screenshots, screen recording, OCR, annotation and uploads.

• Capture a region, window or the full screen
• Mark up with arrows, shapes, text and blur
• Record your screen with system audio
• Pull text off anything on-screen using OCR (+ translating)
• Pin captures to your screen
• Save, copy or upload text and media to a HTTP endpoint, with no Dock icon or third-party frameworks, using AppKit/SwiftUI, ScreenCaptureKit, AVFoundation, Vision, and CoreImage.

Showcase

Menu Bar	Annotation Editor	Recent Captures

Settings

General	Uploader	Shortcuts

Features

• Screenshots: Screenshot a region, window, or full screen. Uses the native screencapture picker
• Annotation editor: Arrows, lines, rectangles, ellipses, triangles, stars, rounded rectangles, speech bubbles, freehand pens, eraser, text, numbered step badges, highlighter and blur. Highlighter, erasers and blur are brush tools you paint on freely. Every placed item is selectable, draggable and deletable, with undo/redo, custom colours and zoom for precise editing
  • Optionally opens after capture
• Screen recording: Record a region, window or full display with pause, resume and optional system audio
• OCR ("Capture Text"): Select a region to capture its text and copy it to your clipboard or use "Capture Text (Translate)" to see the recognized text and its translation side by side
• Pin to Screen: Pin a region so it floats on top of everything. Pinned regions are draggable, stackable and switchable to click-through, with a fade so you can tell it's there, when it's in your way
• Recent Captures: Thumbnail history with copy, upload, reveal, delete and a full browsable window
• Configurable uploader: Upload to one or more HTTP destinations, built and edited right in Preferences or via your own .itup config file
  • Upload progress and confirmations show as small floating overlays. Failed upload offers to save the capture to disk instead of discarding it
• Customizable global hotkeys: With an option to take over macOS's own ⌘⇧3/⌘⇧4/⌘⇧5 screenshot shortcuts
• Menu bar only: No Dock icon or main window, with a choice of menu bar icons

Requirements

• MacOS 15 (Sequoia) or later
• To build: Xcode Command Line Tools (swiftc, codesign). A full Xcode install isn't required as this is a plain Swift Package

Installing

Download the latest Release. The app is not signed with a Developers Certificate so you may receive "Apple could not verify iTake is free of malware", to fix it:

1. Drag iTake.app into /Applications
2. Follow one of the solutions:
   • Right-click it in Finder > Open > confirm Open (double clicking won't work)
   • Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Scroll to the Bottom > Click on "Open Anyway"
   • From Terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/iTake.app
3. On first capture or recording, grant Screen Recording access when MacOS asks (System Settings > Privacy & Security). You may need to relaunch iTake for it to take effect
4. On first file upload to your uploader, grant Keychain access by entering your password for Keychain and click on "Always Allow"

Building & Running

swift run isn't enough. Menu bar behaviour and TCC permissions need a real signed .app. Use the following scripts instead:

# build + package + launch
scripts/run.sh

# just build + package
scripts/build_app.sh

# package into a distributable .dmg
scripts/build_dmg.sh

Default Keyboard Shortcuts

Customizable in Preferences > Shortcuts:

Action	Default
Capture Region	⌃⌘⇧2
Capture Region (Edit)	⌃⌘⇧1
Capture Full Screen	⌃⌘⇧3
Capture Window	⌃⌘⇧4
Capture Text (OCR)	⌃⌘⇧5
Capture Text (Translate)	⌃⌘⇧6
Pin Region	⌃⌘⇧7
Toggle Recording	⌃⌘⇧R

"Capture Region (Edit)" always opens the annotation editor regardless of the "Open Editor After Capture" setting. The "Use macOS Default Shortcuts" toggle switches to ⌘⇧3/⌘⇧4/⌘⇧5 and disables the built-in Screenshot app' response to those keys.

The Uploader & .itup Files

Build a destination directly in Preferences > Uploader, or hand-write a .itup file (plain JSON, double-click to import):

{
  "name": "My Uploader",
  "request": {
    "url": "https://example.com/api/upload",
    "method": "POST",
    "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
  },
  "body": { "type": "multipart", "fileField": "file", "fields": {} },
  "response": { "linkPath": "url" }
}

body.type is "multipart" or "raw" response.linkPath is a dot-path into the JSON response pointing at the resulting URL (e.g. "files.0.url") Header/secret values live in the Keychain, never in the file itself, safe to export and share. Examples are in examples/

Where Things Are Saved

What	Where
Screenshots & recordings	Matches macOS's own screenshot location, or ~/Desktop. Changeable in Preferences > General
Recent Captures history + thumbnails	~/Library/Application Support/iTake/
Preferences, hotkey bindings & Uploader configs	UserDefaults, domain com.SerStars.iTake
Uploader secrets	macOS Keychain

Credits

• Neocat & Neofox snuggle emote by Volpeon used as the app icon

License

GPL-3.0