User guide

Getting started

DrawOnClip lives in your menu bar. The whole loop is three steps:

1 — Capture. Press ⌃⇧⌘4 and drag over any area. That copies it to your clipboard. (Plain ⇧⌘4 saves a file instead — that works too, see "Getting an image in".)

2 — Open it. Click the pencil in the menu bar, or press ⌃⌥A. Your capture opens ready to draw.

3 — Send it back out. Mark it up, then hit Copy (⌘C) and paste it wherever you were going — Slack, Mail, a doc. Or Save, Share, or drag it out.

That's it. Everything else in this guide is optional depth.

A note on the menu bar icon: a normal click opens your clipboard image immediately — that's the fast path. To reach the menu (Past Sessions, Settings, Help), right-click the icon or hold ⌥ while clicking.

Getting an image in

There are five ways to load an image, and none of them require special permissions except the last one.

From the clipboard (the main way). Copy any image — ⌃⇧⌘4, "Copy Image" in a browser, a copied file in Finder — then click the menu bar icon or press ⌃⌥A.

Recent screenshot rescue. If you used plain ⇧⌘4 (which saves a file to your Desktop instead of copying), the empty window offers "Open recent screenshot" for anything captured in the last 5 minutes. The first time, you'll click "Look for Recent Screenshots…" so macOS can ask permission for that folder.

Open File… (⌘O). PNG, JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, GIF, WebP, or the first page of a PDF. You can also open a saved .docsession to resume past work.

Drag and drop. Drop an image file onto an empty DrawOnClip window.

From Finder. Right-click an image ▸ Open With ▸ DrawOnClip.

New Screenshot. Takes the shot from inside the app (menu bar ▸ New Screenshot). This is the only path that needs Screen Recording permission — see Troubleshooting if it asks and won't proceed.

Multi-frame files (animated GIFs, multi-page PDFs/TIFFs) load the first frame and tell you so.

Drawing tools

Every tool has a one-key shortcut. The current tool is highlighted in the toolbar.

V — Select. Click an object to select it. Drag to move, drag a corner handle to resize, ⌘D to duplicate, ⌫ to delete, arrow keys to nudge. Changing the color or width while something is selected restyles it.

P — Pen. Freehand. A single click makes a dot.

H — Highlighter. Translucent, multiplies with what's underneath, like a real marker.

L — Line · A — Arrow · R — Rectangle · O — Ellipse. Drag to draw. Shapes are outline-only.

T — Text. Click to place a box and start typing. Return commits it; Esc cancels; ⌥Return makes a new line. Text automatically gets a subtle outline so it stays readable on any background.

N — Numbered badge. Click to drop 1, 2, 3… They renumber themselves automatically if you delete one.

X — Redact. See "Hiding sensitive things".

C — Crop. Drag a box, then Return to apply or Esc to cancel. A crop is just another step, so you can undo it later.

Hold ⇧ to constrain: lines and arrows snap to 45°, rectangles and ellipses become squares and circles.

Color and width are in the toolbar; the dot next to the slider previews your current stroke width. Both are remembered between sessions.

Zoom with ⌘+ / ⌘− / ⌘0, or pinch on a trackpad. Zoom only affects your view — exports are always full resolution.

Hiding sensitive things

The X tool covers an area. There are two styles, and the difference matters:

Solid (default). A flat opaque block. Nothing can be recovered from it. Use this for passwords, tokens, account numbers — anything that actually matters.

Pixelate. Chunky blocks that still hint at the underlying shape. It looks tidier, but for known text in a known font, pixelation can sometimes be reversed by an attacker. It's fine for faces or general clutter; it is not the right choice for secrets.

What's guaranteed in exports: every image you copy, save, share or drag out is a flattened render. The hidden pixels are genuinely gone from it — not layered underneath — and exports carry no embedded thumbnail, no leftover metadata, and no hidden trailing data. (That last part is the flaw that famously leaked "cropped" screenshots in other tools; it's excluded here by construction and covered by an automated test.)

One honest caveat: while the session is still open or saved, the original un-redacted image is kept in that session's autosave so you can undo. It lives only on your Mac, but it will also be in any backup (Time Machine) that copies it. If a capture is sensitive enough that this bothers you, use File ▸ Delete Session Now — that erases the session's saved data immediately and stops it being saved further.

History, undo, and forking

The strip under the toolbar is your history. Every change is one frame, oldest on the left, starting with "base" (the untouched image).

Undo / Redo. The two arrows in the toolbar, or ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z.

Jump anywhere. Click any frame to rewind to that exact point. Hover over a frame for a moment to peek at it enlarged without committing.

Drawing after you rewind would normally throw away everything after that point. Instead, DrawOnClip asks:

• Fork to New Window — keeps both versions. The original window stays exactly as it is with all its steps, and your new direction continues in a fresh window. Nothing is lost.
• Replace Later Steps — the classic behavior: discard the steps after this point and continue.

Frames after your current position appear dimmed, which is your cue that they're the ones at stake.

Whatever you're viewing is exactly what exports — if you rewind to step 3 and hit Copy, you get step 3.

Getting the result out

Four ways out, all producing the same full-resolution, faithful image (original scale, original colors — Retina captures stay sharp):

Copy (⌘C). Straight to the clipboard, ready to paste. This is the fast path.

Save… (⌘S). A file on disk. PNG by default, JPEG if you choose it. Defaults to your Desktop and then remembers wherever you last saved.

Share. The standard macOS share sheet — AirDrop, Mail, Messages, Notes, and so on.

Drag out. Drag the small image chip at the right end of the toolbar straight into Finder, a chat window, or an email. Often the fastest route of all.

The status chip next to those buttons always tells you the truth about where things stand: "Not exported yet", "Copied ✓ 2:41 PM", or "Edited since export" if you've drawn something since. Hover it to see every export you've made in this session.

If you close a window with unexported changes, you'll be asked first — and "Copy & Close" does both in one click. Sessions are kept afterwards anyway (see "Past sessions").

Draw from another device

You can draw on the current screenshot from a tablet or phone — with a stylus, if you have one.

Setup: File ▸ Draw on Another Device…, then scan the QR code with the other device's camera. It opens a drawing page in the browser; no app to install. Both devices must be on the same Wi-Fi.

Your strokes appear on the Mac live and become ordinary steps in the timeline, so you can undo them, rewind past them, and export normally. The Mac always does the exporting.

While connected you'll see a "● Connected — Disconnect" chip in the toolbar, and the menu bar icon changes to a tablet and animates. Click Disconnect (or close the window, or quit) to end it — the service stops immediately.

What's protected: the pairing code in the QR is a 128-bit secret that never travels over the network, and everything after it — the image and every stroke — is encrypted and tamper-checked with that code. Someone else on your Wi-Fi cannot read your screenshot or inject strokes.

What to know: this is app-level encryption, not a certified secure connection, so prefer a network you trust. The page keeps a copy of the image in the browser's cache on that device — use a private tab for sensitive captures. And if the tablet sleeps or you switch apps for a while, the connection drops; just scan a fresh QR.

If it won't connect: check the Mac's firewall prompt, make sure both devices are on the same network, and note that guest/public Wi-Fi often blocks devices from talking to each other.

Past sessions

DrawOnClip saves continuously while you work — you never have to. If the app quits, crashes, or you close a window by accident, the work is still there.

To get back to it: right-click the menu bar icon ▸ Past Sessions ▸. That lists your most recent sessions newest-first, each with its size, when you last touched it, and how many steps it has. Ones that were interrupted rather than closed cleanly are tagged "· recovered". Pick one and it reopens exactly where you left off — full timeline, even the step you were viewing.

If something crashed, you'll also be offered the recovered sessions the next time you open a window.

How long they last: 14 days. Work you never exported is never removed early to save space — only sessions whose exact contents you already exported can be trimmed, and only past 50 of them.

Where they live: ~/Library/Application Support/DrawOnClip/Sessions. Each is a .docsession bundle you can double-click in Finder to reopen, or move somewhere safe if you want to keep it beyond 14 days.

Your data and privacy

DrawOnClip never connects to the internet. No accounts, no sync, no analytics, no update checks. The only network feature is "Draw on Another Device", which runs a small service on your local network, only while you're paired, and only after you turn it on.

What's stored on your Mac:

• Sessions — ~/Library/Application Support/DrawOnClip/Sessions (kept 14 days). These contain the original image, including anything you've redacted, so undo can work.

• Preferences — your tool, color, hotkey, and window choices.

• Diagnostic logs — standard macOS logs, which age out on their own. They record that things happened, never your image contents or the text you type.

Files you export are yours. DrawOnClip never touches them again, and "Clear All Data" doesn't delete them.

To erase things:

• File ▸ Delete Session Now — wipes the current session's saved data immediately (including the un-redacted original) and stops saving it. The window stays open so you can finish and export.

• Settings ▸ Clear All Data — removes every saved session and resets preferences. It tells you exactly what will go before you confirm.

To remove the app entirely: drag it to the Trash, then delete the Sessions folder above and the app's preferences file.

Keyboard shortcuts

Getting started

⌃⇧⌘4 — capture an area to the clipboard (macOS)

⌃⌥A — open the clipboard image in DrawOnClip

⌘N — annotate clipboard · ⌘O — open a file · ⌘W — close window · ⌘, — settings · ⌘/ — this help

Tools

V select · P pen · H highlighter · L line · A arrow

R rectangle · O ellipse · T text · N numbered badge · X redact · C crop

⇧ (held) — constrain to 45° / squares / circles

Editing

⌘Z undo · ⇧⌘Z redo · ⌘D duplicate selection · ⌫ delete selection · arrow keys nudge

Return — apply crop / commit text · Esc — cancel crop, text, or selection · ⌥Return — new line in text

View

⌘+ zoom in · ⌘− zoom out · ⌘0 fit to window · pinch to zoom

Sending it out

⌘C copy · ⌘S save… · drag the toolbar chip to export by dragging

Troubleshooting

"New Screenshot" says it needs Screen Recording permission.

Taking a screenshot from inside an app requires that permission from macOS. Turn on DrawOnClip in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Screen Recording, then quit and reopen DrawOnClip. If it already looks enabled, switch it off and on again — a stale grant can linger after an update. You can skip all of this by capturing with ⌃⇧⌘4 and clicking the menu bar icon instead; that needs no permission.

Nothing happens when I click the icon.

It opens whatever image is on your clipboard. If there isn't one, you'll get a window explaining how to capture. Check the top of the menu — it always says what's currently on your clipboard.

I can't find the menu.

A normal click on the icon annotates immediately. Right-click (or ⌥-click) the icon for the menu. If the icon is hidden behind the notch on a smaller MacBook, use ⌃⌥A instead.

The other device won't connect.

Both devices need to be on the same Wi-Fi; guest and public networks usually block device-to-device connections. Also check for a macOS firewall prompt. If the Mac's IP changed, generate a new code.

A banner says autosaving is failing.

Usually a full disk. Copy your work out (the banner offers a button) and free some space.

Where did my work go?

Nowhere — see "Past sessions". Right-click the menu bar icon ▸ Past Sessions.