Annotate
Arrows in four styles including curved, lines, rectangles and ovals, text as label, outline or plain, auto-numbered counters, highlighter and freehand. Switch on the hand-drawn look for a sketchier feel.
⌘⇧2 Screenshot tool for macOS
Screenshot.Annotate.Done.
Kestrel lives in your menu bar. Press ⌘⇧2, drag out an area, mark what matters and copy the result. The whole thing takes a few seconds and you never touch the mouse more than you need to.
From key press to clipboard
Capture
Press the shortcut. Every monitor freezes, and you drag out an area with crosshair and loupe, or click a window.
Annotate
Arrows, boxes, text, counters, blur. Each tool sits on one key, so your hand stays on the keyboard.
Share
Copy, save, pin it on screen, drag it into another app, or get a link from Kestrel Cloud.
Capture
Every way you need to grab the screen
The overlay freezes the screen the moment you press the shortcut, on every monitor at once. A loupe shows the pixels under the crosshair and the size readout tells you exactly what you get.
- Area ⌘⇧2
- Hold ⇧ for a square, Esc cancels. A click without dragging takes the window under the cursor.
- Screen ⌘⇧1
- The display under the cursor.
- Window
- Hover any window and click it, with or without its shadow.
- Active window
- The focused window of the front-most app.
- Repeat area
- The last region again, pixel for pixel.
- Delayed
- Waits a few seconds first, 3 s by default. For menus and hover states.
Assign the rest in Settings → Shortcuts. Kestrel can hide your desktop icons while it captures, and every capture lands in a history window you can reopen later.
412 × 236
Editor
A real editor, not a crop box
One canvas renders what you see and what you export, so the copy looks exactly like the editor.
Hide and focus
Blur, pixelate or erase sensitive spots. Hide Text removes every recognised line in a selection. Spotlight dims everything else, the magnifier enlarges a detail.
Measure
Auto rulers snap to content, guides and snapping keep things aligned, and ⌥ shows the distances between objects. Read colours in HEX, RGB or OKLCH and check contrast with WCAG and APCA.
Present
Backdrop with gradient, padding, rounded corners, shadow and aspect ratio. Insert more captures or images, resize on export, or build a before/after GIF.
Keyboard first
Every tool is one key away
Try it: press any of these letters on your keyboard.
In the editor
- VSelect / crop
- AArrow
- LLine
- RRectangle
- OOval
- TText
- CCounter
- HHighlighter
- DFreehand
- BBlur / pixelate
- SSpotlight
- MMagnifier
- 1Horizontal ruler
- 2Vertical ruler
- GGuide
- KBackdrop
- UPoints ↔ pixels
Global shortcuts
- ⌘⇧2Capture area
- ⌘⇧1Capture screen
- ⌘CCopy
- ⌘SSave
- ⌘PPin
- EscCopy and close
⌘⇧3, 4 and 5 stay with the macOS screenshot tool. Every shortcut can be changed.
Text and QR
Copy text out of anything on screen
Select an area and the recognised text or QR payload goes to your clipboard. Recognition runs on your Mac with Apple Vision, nothing leaves the device. Line breaks can be removed on the way.
Scrolling capture
Long pages in one image
Kestrel scrolls for you, or you scroll yourself. The frames are stitched together, sticky headers and footers appear only once, and a maximum height keeps things sane.
- Automatic scrolling needs Accessibility, manual scrolling does not
- Sticky header and footer detection
- Configurable maximum height
For developers
Let your coding agent see the screen
Kestrel ships an MCP server. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others can list windows, take screenshots and read text through Kestrel, which already has the Screen Recording permission. It is off by default and every capture shows a notification.
claude mcp add kestrel -- /Applications/Kestrel.app/Contents/MacOS/kestrel --mcpOne-click setup in Settings → General finds Claude Code, Codex, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Gemini CLI.
Read the MCP docsKestrel Cloud
A link instead of an attachment
Sign in to Kestrel Cloud from the app and share any capture as a link with a clean viewer page. Links expire when you want them to, Pro adds passwords and syncs your capture history across Macs.
- Share links
- kestrelscreen.app/s/… with a preview card for Slack and social
- Expiry
- Up to 7 days free, 30 with a supporter licence, any length on Pro
- History sync
- Your captures on every Mac you sign in to (Pro)
Privacy
Your screen stays yours
A screenshot tool sees everything you see. So Kestrel works offline, keeps captures on your Mac and sends nothing unless you ask it to.
- Text recognition
- On your Mac, with Apple Vision
- Account
- Not needed. The app is free without one
- Tracking
- None in the app, none on this site
- Uploads
- Only when you share to Kestrel Cloud or your own S3 storage
- Credentials
- S3 keys live in the macOS keychain
- Permissions
- Screen Recording. Accessibility only for automatic scrolling
Pricing
The app is free. Support is welcome.
Every capture and editor feature is free, without an account. A supporter licence funds development, Kestrel Cloud Pro adds sharing and sync.
Kestrel
The full app.
€0forever
- All capture modes, scrolling capture, text and QR
- The complete editor and measuring tools
- MCP server for coding agents
- Automatic updates
- 25 Cloud share links with a free account
Supporter licence
Keeps Kestrel independent.
€12once
- Works on 3 Macs, never expires
- All future updates
- No more support reminders
- Cloud: 100 links, 30-day expiry, 2 GB
Cloud Pro
For people who share a lot.
€4per month, or €36 a year
- Unlimited share links (fair use)
- Any expiry, including never
- Password-protected links
- Capture history sync across Macs
- 50 GB storage, 100 MB uploads
Prices include VAT where it applies.
Kestrel Cloud plans in detail
| Free | Free + supporter | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share links (active) | 25 | 100 | Unlimited (fair use) |
| Max link expiry | 7 days | 30 days | Any, incl. never |
| Password links | Not included | Not included | Included |
| History sync | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Storage | 500 MB | 2 GB | 50 GB |
| Max upload | 25 MB | 25 MB | 100 MB |
Questions
Is Kestrel really free?
Yes. The app is free, with every capture and editor feature and no account. Kestrel lives from its users’ support, so if it saves you time, a supporter licence (€12, once) keeps development going.
What does the supporter licence change?
It is a thank-you more than a paywall: it works on 3 Macs, does not expire, includes all future updates, stops the occasional support reminder and raises your Kestrel Cloud limits to 100 links with 30-day expiry.
Which Macs are supported?
macOS 13 Ventura or newer on Apple Silicon. Windows is planned, the core already builds for it.
Does Kestrel send my screenshots anywhere?
No. Captures stay on your Mac. An image only leaves it when you share it to Kestrel Cloud or upload it to S3 storage you set up yourself.
Which permissions does it need?
Screen Recording, for every capture. Accessibility only if you want automatic scrolling capture, manual scrolling works without it. The setup guide shows the live status of both.
How do updates work?
Kestrel checks for updates on its own and offers them in the menu bar. You can also choose “Check for Updates…” at any time.
Can I trigger Kestrel from Raycast or Alfred?
Yes, with the kestrel:// URL scheme, for example kestrel://capture/area or kestrel://capture/scroll. It is off by default, turn it on in Settings → General.
Your next screenshot could take three seconds.
Download Kestrel, press ⌘⇧2, and see.
Download for macOS