KartikLabhshetwar/better-shot v0.5.9

BetterShot 0.5.9

on GitHub

Added

• Settings opens to a new Home page. Start a Region, Screen, Window, Scrolling, Record, or Text capture with one click, each tile showing its current shortcut. Your five most recent captures are listed below and open directly; one that was moved or deleted points you to the Media Gallery instead. A Setup section shows the status of Screen Recording, Accessibility, Microphone, and Camera access.
• Freeze the screen while selecting a region. Turn it on in Settings > Capture > Region to select from a still frame of every display, so video, animations, and other moving content hold still while you choose the area. The screenshot is cropped from that same frame at full resolution, so it shows exactly what you selected from. It works with Capture as soon as I let go, adjusting the area, the remembered area, and the countdown, which finishes before the screen freezes. Window, scrolling, and text capture stay live. Off by default (#184, closes #182, thanks @solid-pixel)
• Use the native macOS region selector. Turn it on in Settings > Capture > Region to take region screenshots with the macOS crosshair, so open context menus and menu-bar menus stay visible because BetterShot is not activated. It captures when you release the mouse from the live screen, so Capture as soon as I let go and Freeze the screen while selecting are disabled while it is on. Capture Previous Region keeps the last area chosen with BetterShot's selector, and scrolling capture and recording areas still use it. Off by default (#176, closes #172 and #175, thanks @zergzorg and @icanhasjonas)
• Choose whether the selector starts with your last area. BetterShot's area selector still opens with the area you chose last, so Return captures it again. Turn off Start with the last area selected in Settings > Capture > Region to start every region screenshot, scrolling capture, and recording area from an empty selection. Capture Previous Region (⌘⇧1) still uses your last area. On by default (#185, thanks @erickhun)

Changed

• BetterShot runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and macOS 15 Sequoia again. The minimum is back to macOS 14 after requiring macOS 26 since 0.4.0. A few features need a newer system: microphone narration needs macOS 15, and narration subtitles and teleprompter speech tracking need macOS 26. On older systems the Mic button is disabled and says why, a recording that asks for the microphone continues without narration and tells you so, and Subtitles explains the requirement (#177, thanks @pareshbhangale)
• Settings pages are reorganized into grouped cards, with a short caption under each option explaining what it does. The sidebar lists Home, then the Settings pages, then About. Its section search field is gone; the Shortcuts page keeps its own search. Shortcuts now shows Accessibility access and tells you when shortcuts need a relaunch to start working. About shows the version, software updates, release notes, and the tour together, with links to the source code and issue tracker. Default Look groups its backgrounds under Color, Gradient, and Image.
• Shortcuts are recorded in a native field. Click a shortcut in Settings > Shortcuts and it becomes a standard macOS search-style field with a focus ring and a clear button. It reads Press Shortcut, shows the modifiers you hold as you press them, and records the first key. Escape, clicking away, or leaving the window cancels and keeps the old shortcut, Tab cancels and moves focus, and a held key never records twice. Delete clears a global shortcut, while editor shortcuts can record Delete as their key and use the clear button to remove it. The separate Cancel button and Clear Shortcut menu item are gone; Restore Default stays in the options menu (#179, thanks @zergzorg; requested in #165, thanks @icanhasjonas)
• Onboarding is rewritten as four short steps. Welcome, Permissions, Saving, and Try It Now each open with one clear title, and a single bar at the bottom holds Skip or Back, progress dots, and Continue. Permissions asks only for Screen Recording and Accessibility; the microphone and camera are requested the first time a recording uses them. Saving lets you choose your screenshot folder and whether new screenshots are saved there automatically. Try It Now waits for your first screenshot and shows it as soon as you take one, with a practice image if screen access is still off. If macOS asks you to quit after granting access, setup reopens on the step you left. The swipe-through slideshow and its demo videos are gone, and Settings > About > Take the Tour reopens the new flow.

Fixed

• Capturing after BetterShot opens at login. macOS can start login items before it applies their Screen Recording permission, which left BetterShot unable to capture until you quit and reopened it. Now, if BetterShot has captured before and macOS reports the permission missing, a screenshot or recording offers Restart instead of failing. After the restart, try the capture again. If access was actually turned off, BetterShot asks for it as before (#171, thanks @le0hard)
• Settings is always one window. ⌘, now opens the same Settings window as the menu bar instead of a second copy, opening Settings to a specific page switches the open window to that page, and a minimized Settings window is restored.
• Typing in one Settings > Sharing field now saves only that field. Previously every keystroke saved all five again, including the keys stored in your Keychain.
• Capture Text (OCR) is fast and reliable again, including on macOS 27. Text recognition now uses the same Live Text engine as Preview and Photos, so a scan finishes in a fraction of a second instead of stalling for up to half a minute on the first use after a macOS update, and BetterShot stays responsive while it runs. Languages are detected automatically, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic, and accented Latin text. QR codes and barcodes in the selection are copied first, followed by the text. Selecting an area with no text still leaves the clipboard unchanged.
• Save in the video editor now updates your saved video. Once a recording has been saved or exported to your folder, Save (⌘S) renders your edits into that same file, in its format, instead of only saving the project. Closing the editor while Save is still updating that file, or choosing Save when closing, waits for the update and keeps the window open with Retry if it fails. Saving the recording again from its preview also replaces that file instead of adding a copy. Export still writes a new file, and later Saves update the newest one. A recording saved by an earlier version, or whose file was moved, gets a new file the next time you save it from its preview or export it (#180, thanks @AlvaroNistal)
• 3D shots keep their background when depth blur is on. A 3D shot with depth blur now shows your background in the editor and in exports when keyboard captions or subtitles are on. Previously the frame could turn black for the length of the shot.
• Blur masks no longer change the rest of an exported video. While a blur mask was active, sharp edges outside it, such as text and window borders, could turn slightly lighter in exports and return to normal when the mask ended. The frame outside a mask now looks the same whether or not the mask is active.
• Dragging a JPEG screenshot from the preview into a folder now creates name.jpg instead of name.jpg.jpeg (#173, thanks @ajzrva-sys)
• Cloud sharing works with R2 buckets created in a jurisdiction. Settings > Sharing has a Jurisdiction picker (None, European Union, United States, or FedRAMP) that Test Connection, uploads, and deletions all use. When R2 answers AccessDenied, the error now suggests checking Jurisdiction and names the endpoint BetterShot used (#181, thanks @apps3000)
• Shortcut labels match your keyboard layout. Letter and symbol keys show what your current layout types, and labels follow when you switch layouts. Number-row shortcuts keep their digit labels on layouts such as AZERTY, and saved bindings do not change. Return, Tab, Delete, and Escape show as ↩ ⇥ ⌫ ⎋, and VoiceOver still reads their names. Shortcuts on F13 to F20 and the Japanese 英数 and かな keys are labeled instead of showing a key number, and recorded shortcut overlays label F20 and those keys too (#178, thanks @zergzorg; reported in #165, thanks @icanhasjonas)