Mac App Store

Let’s take a tour through ScreenFloat and see how it can power up your screenshots, too.

ScreenFloat powers up your screenshots by allowing you to take screenshots and recordings that float above everything else, keeping certain information always in sight. Its Shots Browser stores your shots and helps you organize, name, tag, rate, favorite and find them. Everything syncs across your Macs.
Extract, view and copy detected text, faces and barcodes. Edit, annotate, markup and redact your shots effortlessly and non-destructively. Pick colors any time. And more.

Posts in this Series

Part IHello ScreenFloat
Part IICapture – Take Screenshots and Record Your Screen
Part IIIFloat – Picture-in-Picture for your Screenshots and Recordings
Part IVEdit – OCR, Annotate, Crop, Fold, Resize, Rotate, Trim, Cut and Mute
Part VShare – Drag and Drop, Link Sharing, Export
Part VIStore – The Shots Browser, iCloud Sync, Tags Browser
Part VIIIntegrate – Widgets, Siri Shortcuts, AppleScript, Workflows, Spotlight

Part II: Capture – Take Screenshots and Recording your Screen

At the heart of ScreenFloat are its screen capturing abilities. Read on to learn how to take screenshots, take screenshots with a timer, and record your screen.

Table of Contents


Capture Screenshots and Recordings

With ScreenFloat, you can capture screenshots (by default, ⌘ ⇧ 2), recordings (by default, ⌥ ⇧ 2), and timed screenshots (by default, ^ ⇧ 2).

While the keyboard shortcuts are very handy, you can also start captures from ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon:

Speaking of the menu bar icon, you can also do this:
– option (⌥) – click onto ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon to take a screenshot
– option (⌥) – shift (⇧) – click onto ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon to start a screen recording
– option (⌥) – click onto ScreenFloat’s menu bar and then drag away to set up a timer for your screenshot between 3 and 15 seconds

All captures are selective, which means after you start a capture, you can select an area of your screen you’d like screenshot or record.

Any shot you take with ScreenFloat is stored in the Shots Browser for easy access.

Images and videos can be imported from other apps (like an image file in Finder, or an image from a webpage in Safari) – you can find out more about that in the Store section of this article series.

During the Capture

ScreenFloat uses macOS’ built-in screen capturing capabilities, which means you can make use of the following tricks while you select the area of your screen you’d like to capture:

Hold down the option (⌥) key while dragging the selection rectangle to select an area around a center point
Hold down the space bar while dragging the selection rectangle to move it around
Hold down the shift (⇧) key to only change one side of your selection rectangle
Press the space bar once after starting the capture to select windows.
By default, windows are captured without their shadows, a setting you can change in Settings > Capturing > Images > Remove shadows from captured windows.

Once you capture a shot by releasing the mouse button, the floating shot will appear.

Copy Text and Barcodes Right Away (OCR)

If you just want to quickly copy some non-copyable text or barcode content, here’s a neat trick:
Hold down control (^) and command (⌘) when releasing the mouse button, and any captured text will be copied to your clipboard right away.
If you want to copy the image data to your clipboard right away, hold down control (^) when releasing the mouse button.


Screen Recording Options

ScreenFloat offers a couple of options when you record a video of your screen:
+ Highlight your mouse cursor
+ Highlight mouse clicks
+ Highlight modifier and key strokes *

A recording captured with ScreenFloat, showing mouse-, mouse click- and keyboard highlights.

In addition to that, you can
+ Record audio input (using your default microphone)
+ Record system audio

To stop the recording, press the keyboard shortcut again, or select Stop Recording from ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon.
Audio can be removed from recordings at any time, all at once, or individually (only system- or microphone audio). You can trim, crop, resize and cut your recordings.

Screen recordings auto-trim away how you end the recording in ScreenFloat, which means that you pressing the keyboard shortcut to end the recording, or selecting “Stop Recording” from the menu bar icon, will not be part of the final video.

Easily extract still images from your video shots with a right-click.

Highlights Customization

Make your mouse cursor’s position more prominent, highlight mouse clicks (left, right, and other), and show an overlay for key strokes * – all customizable in ScreenFloat’s settings.

Change the mouse cursor highlight’s color and strength;
Change the highlight colors for left clicks, right clicks and other-button clicks, as well as the highlight’s strength;
Change the key stroke highlight’s text color, background color, its placement (top left, top center, top right, middle left, middle center, middle right, bottom left, bottom center, bottom right), whether to show caps lock and function key presses, or if every key press should be highlighted.

*Privacy note on key stroke highlights: Keyboard input monitoring begins and ends with video recordings and does not operate at any other time when ScreenFloat is running. Key strokes are neither stored, nor logged, and certainly not transmitted. Input monitoring is exclusively used to display key presses in your video recordings. You can grant and revoke input monitoring permissions any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Input Monitoring. Please refer to my privacy policy for further info.


Timed Screenshots

In addition to screenshots and screen recordings, you can also take timed screenshots, where the selected area will be captured after a countdown. Press ^ ⇧ 2 to start the countdown, and press it again to cancel it if you change your mind.

This can be handy when trying to capture a menu item in a submenu, or for anything else that needs further preparation and can’t be captured instantly with a normal screenshot.

The default interval is 5 seconds, but you can change it in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Capture Shot With Timer > … .

As explained at the beginning of this article, you can also option (⌥)-drag from ScreenFloat’s menu bar item to select a range between 3 and 15 seconds.

Re-Capture Previously Captured Areas

Sometimes you’ll want to re-frame a shot slightly, or just capture an area again.
It’s easily done with ScreenFloat. Just press and hold any of the capture keyboard shortcuts, and you’ll be able to re-frame the previously selected area.

Press-and-hold any “capture” keyboard shortcut to re-capture the previously selected area

You can also select an aspect ratio when re-capturing by right-clicking:

And save areas you find yourself capturing repeatedly for quick access:

Lastly, you can re-use the frames of previously captured shots, by right-clicking onto them and selecting “Re-capture and Delete…”, which will bring up that shot’s area again for you to capture (and will only delete the original shot if you actually capture anew), or, if you hold down the option (⌥) key, you can select “Capture Shot Again…”, which will do the same, without the deletion part.


Up Next

The next part of this series – Part III: Float – Picture-in-Picture for your Screenshots and Recordings – takes a detailed look at all the advantages that floating shots have. Definitely take a look, there’s a lot of neat stuff there!

Links

ScreenFloat Website (+ free trial)
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store (one-time purchase, free for existing customers)
ScreenFloat Usage Tips

Eternal Storms Software Productivity Apps Bundle (Yoink, ScreenFloat and Transloader at ~25% off)
Contact & Connect


Thank you for your time. I do hope you enjoy ScreenFloat!

Read more

Let’s take a tour through ScreenFloat and see how it can power up your screenshots.

ScreenFloat for Mac – Your Screen Capture All-rounder

ScreenFloat Website (+ free trial)
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store (one-time purchase, free for existing customers)
Eternal Storms Software Productivity Apps Bundle (ScreenFloat, Yoink and Transloader at ~25% off)

Posts in this Series

Part IHello ScreenFloat
Part IICapture – Take Screenshots and Record Your Screen
Part IIIFloat – Picture-in-Picture for your Screenshots and Recordings
Part IVEdit – OCR, Annotate, Crop, Fold, Resize, Rotate, Trim, Cut and Mute
Part VShare – Drag and Drop, Link Sharing, Export
Part VIStore – The Shots Browser, iCloud Sync, Tags Browser
Part VIIIntegrate – Widgets, Siri Shortcuts, AppleScript, Workflows, Spotlight

Part I – Hello ScreenFloat

ScreenFloat is a versatile screen capture utility that powers up your screenshots and recordings in numerous ways:

  • Capture screenshots, timed screenshots, recordings (with system and mic audio), your clipboard’s contents, or import photos, scans and sketches from your iOS devices (or files from Finder and other apps).
  • Float shots, so they’re always visible, like Picture-in-Picture. It’s a great memory aid, perfect for reference material, and gives quick and easy access to ScreenFloat’s OCR capabilities and other features, like the color picker and quicksmart-redaction. Create powerful workflows you run on floating shots with a simple double-click.
  • Edit your shots. Add annotations and markup, crop, “fold”, rotate, resize, de-retinize, trim, mute and cut them. Quicksmart-redact text, barcodes and faces, or copy text and barcode content to your clipboard.
  • Share effortlessly, by dragging the floating shot to other apps. Change formatting, sizing and quality options on-the-fly, and even decide if annotations should or should not be included. Create shareable and embeddable links for your shots with iCloud, ImageKit.io or Cloudinary.com.
  • Store, organize and collect your shots in the Shots Browser, and keep your Desktop clutter-free. Name, tag, rate, favorite and find them. Synchronize your shots over iCloud.
  • Integrate with macOS and other apps, using ScreenFloat’s Shortcuts, url scheme, and its AppleScript integration. Use Spotlight to find shots system-wide. Widgets make your shots, tags, folders and picked colors accessible system-wide.

Table of Contents


Getting Started

When you first launch ScreenFloat, you’ll be greeted by its setup screen that helps you set up keyboard shortcuts, iCloud sync, Spotlight indexing, and also – if you used ScreenFloat 1.x – upgrades your existing shots library to the new v2 format, analyzing your shots for texts, barcodes and faces along the way. (Depending on the number of shots you have, this might take a little while)

ScreenFloat is an app that runs in the background. More specifically, in your menu bar: you will not find it in your Dock, nor the app switcher (although you can, of course, drag ScreenFloat to your Dock manually).
You can access ScreenFloat any time via its icon in the right portion of your menu bar:

Using its keyboard shortcuts, menu bar icon, or widgets, ScreenFloat is always ready for you to capture your screen, or browse your Shots in the Shots Browser.


Capturing, Importing

ScreenFloat offers three types of captures: Screenshots, Screen Recordings, and Timed Screenshots.

Screenshots

To take a screenshot, use the according keyboard shortcut (by default, command (⌘) – shift (⇧) – 2), or select it from the menu bar icon. You can then select the portion of the screen you’d like to capture.

Recordings

Screen recordings can be started in the same fashion – by pressing its keyboard shortcut (by default, shift (⇧) – option (⌥) – 2), or via the menu bar icon. You have several recording options available to you – whether to highlight the mouse cursor, clicks, and key presses. You can also record your Mac’s audio output (speakers) and input (microphone).

Timed Screenshots

A timed shot is like a screenshot, only that it is taken with a delay. It can be very useful when you need to take a screenshot of something that takes extra steps to get to. You can take one by pressing its keyboard shortcut (by default, control (^) – option (⌥) – 2), or the menu bar icon.

Previously captured areas can easily be re-captured by press-and-holding the relevant keyboard shortcut.

You can copy the shot to your clipboard instead of making it float by holding the control key (^) on your keyboard when you release the mouse button for the capture.
Consequently, you can copy captured text to your clipboard right away after a capture, by holding the control (^) and command (⌘) keys pressed.

Import Shots

Importing files into ScreenFloat is easy. From Finder, you can right-click image and video files and select Open With > ScreenFloat, or Share > ScreenFloat. You can also drag them onto the app’s icon, or onto its symbol in your menu bar, or onto the Shots Browser. Or use a Siri Shortcut.

Tip: Did you know you can create shots of selected text from any app? It’s perfect for remembering stuff. Select some text, the click on the active app’s name in your menu bar and select Services > Create Shot from Selected Text. Alternatively, you can set up a keyboard shortcut for this in System Settings.app > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services > Text > Create Shot from Selected Text.
Or drag selected text to ScreenFloat’s icon in your menu bar.


Floating Shots

Shots and recordings you capture with ScreenFloat float by default. Floating shots float above other windows, and follow you around your apps and spaces, so the shot is always in sight. That can be very helpful when trying to remember something, copying info from one app to another, or as reference material.

While floating shots follow you around by default, there are more options available to you. You can pin floating shots to a space or fullscreen-app, so they will stay contained in that space, or only have them be visible when a specific application is frontmost.
When a shot is in the way, you can hide and unhide it (or all of them), or you can use “Work mode”, which hides floating shots as you mouse over them, and shows them again when the mouse exits.
You can change a floating shot’s opacity by scrolling up and down within it, and you can even make it ignore mouse clicks, so you can click through them (great for artists, for example).

Naturally, you can also close floating shots. They are stored in the Shots Browser, from where you can make them float again with a double-click.

Floating shots can be resized like any other window, by dragging any of its corners or edges.
A right-click or click onto the gear button gives you access to all editing, OCR and management features.

Option-right-click-drag onto a floating shot to use the color picker.

Set up powerful workflows you can run on your floating shots with a simple double-click.
You always resize a shot and reduce its dpi before you attach it to a new Mail? There’s a double-click workflow for that (and more):


Editing, OCR, Redaction, Annotation

ScreenFloat offers a wide range of editing options:
Resize, de-retinize, crop, fold, rotate, trim, cut and mute (you can remove all audio, or the system- and microphone tracks individually).
Annotate, redact and markup your shots with ease.

Every shot you take or import is analyzed for text, barcodes and faces, allowing you to easily copy and view that information, or quicksmart-redact it.

Redacting a line of text and a face in a floating shot, and Quick Look’ing a barcode.

Detected data is indexed, so you can find shots by a certain phrase they depict, or barcode content, within the Shots Browser, and Spotlight.

ScreenFloat lets you annotate, redact and markup your shots to your heart’s content.
Freedraw, rectangles, circles, lines, arrows, stars, checkmarks, x-marks, Text, Smart Numbered Lists, Highlights and Redactions are available to you.

Cutting your video recordings allows you to remove middle sections of your recordings entirely, or just parts of individual audio tracks:


Share

It couldn’t be easier to drag a shot to other apps. Start a drag from the floating shot’s document button, or by long-pressing the shot, or open the on-the-fly options menu and change the format, resolution, dimensions, and whether annotations and metadata should be included.

(You can also Export your shots for even more control).

Link Sharing

A file is too large to send, or you want to send multiple shots at once? Use iCloud Link Sharing to create a download-link, valid for 30 days.
You want to embed an image or video in a Markdown document, or a website? Use ScreenFloat’s ImageKit.io or Cloudinary.com integration to create permanent, shareable and embeddable links:

You want to share your Shot a different way? Use ScreenFloat’s Run AppleScript or Run Shortcut double-click action to upload the double-clicked shot to a service of your choice with an AppleScript or Siri Shortcut.


Store

Anything you capture with ScreenFloat, or import into it, is stored in the Shots Browser, where you can collect, organize, categorize and synchronize your Shots.

Give shots a name, tag, rate and favorite them. Move them into folders, or use Smart Folders to collect shots that match the rules you specify. An extensive list of detailed options is available, like whether the shot contains a barcode, or you have annotated it with a certain text phrase, to name just two.

You can synchronize your library (that means your shots, your folders, your tags, and metadata) via iCloud across your Macs, making your shots available everywhere your Macs are.

And you decide what gets synced – all shots, only images, or only recordings. Or only shots up to a certain file size.

To manage your tags, ScreenFloat has a Tags Browser, where you can rename tags, favorite, merge or delete them.


Integrate

ScreenFloat comes with a wide array of widgets and Siri Shortcuts, so its features are readily available to across macOS.

Control ScreenFloat from your Desktop or Control Center, or access your recent captures, picked colors, and more, with its Widgets:

Automate capturing and importing with Siri Shortcuts:

… or with ScreenFloat’s URL scheme.
Find shots with Spotlight, and run AppleScripts and Shortcuts with your shots using a double-click action.
Build custom workflows, executable on your floating shots with a simple double-click.


Up Next

The next part of this series – Part II: Capture – Take Screenshots and Record your Screen – takes a detailed look at all the capturing options ScreenFloat offers you. Definitely take a look, there’s a lot of neat stuff there!

Links

ScreenFloat Website (+ free trial)
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store (one-time purchase, free for existing customers)
ScreenFloat Usage Tips

Eternal Storms Software Productivity Apps Bundle (Yoink, ScreenFloat and Transloader at ~25% off)
Contact & Connect


Thank you for your time. I do hope you enjoy ScreenFloat!

Read more

It’s been over a year and a half in the making (and so much longer since the last substantial update to the app), and now it is finally here.
I’m so very happy to announce the release of ScreenFloat 2, available now!

Re-written completely from the ground up in Swift and based on Core Data, ScreenFloat 2 keeps true to its roots – floating screenshots, and the Shots Browser – and builds upon them in multiple, very useful ways.

If you’d like to skip all the details and just download the trial or get the app from the Mac App Store, please feel free to scroll all the way down.

What is ScreenFloat?

At its core, ScreenFloat creates floating screenshots.
Think of it as Picture-in-Picture for your screenshots and recordings: it keeps information always in sight, no matter what window, (fullscreen-) app or Space you’re in.
It’s useful in so many ways: you want to remember something, you want to transfer information from one app to another, you want to keep a visual reference to something on screen – anything you can screenshot, you can float with ScreenFloat.

In the Shots Browser, your shots are stored and organized.
It keeps your desktop clutter-free and your shots always at your disposal.

What’s New with ScreenFloat 2’s Floating Shots?

ScreenFloat 2 brings a lot of changes to floating shots, so here are the most important ones.

+ Screen Recordings
A floating screen recording

Not only can ScreenFloat 2 take screenshots, it can also record your screen, together with (optional) microphone- and system audio. Of course, these recordings can be floated and interacted with, like you would any other screenshot.
They can be trimmed, rotated, cropped and muted. Still-images can be easily extracted.

+ Text-, Face- and Barcode Detection
Copying text detected in a Shot, quick-redacting faces and text, and viewing a QR code’s contents is easily done.

Every shot you take is analyzed for text, faces and barcodes.
It’s so easy to view the contents of a QR Code (supported are urls, calendar events, vCards and more), or quickly redact information, with a simple right-click.

+ Annotation, Markup and Redaction (non-destructive)
Annotations, Markup and Redactions in action

You can add annotations and markup to shots: freedraw, rectangles, ovals, lines, arrows, stars, checkmarks, x-marks, text, smart enumerated lists, highlights and redactions.
All of this is non-destructive. That means you can always come back and make changes, or delete them all and revert to the original image.
Double-click a tool or an annotation to edit its properties, like line weight, font, or color.

+ Crop, Rotate, “Fold”, Resize, “De-Retinize”
By “folding” a shot, you can remove a middle section of it, and the remaining two parts get stitched together.

Crop shots, rotate them, “fold” them(see video above), and resize them effortlessly.
Reduce a shot’s resolution from its “retina” dpi of >= 144 to 72 dpi when you want to save some space, or know you won’t need the higher resolution going forward.

+ Quick Drag
Dragging from floating shots has become much more useful

Drag a floating shot’s document icon to any app to share the image as you see it via drag and drop.
Or click the document icon, and get access to quick export options so you’re able to drag out a different format, at a different quality, “de-retinized”, at a different size, and with or without annotations/markup.

+ Color Picker
Pick colors from floating screenshots and -recordings.

When you option(⌥)-click-drag on a floating shot, the color picker will appear. When you release the mouse button over a pixel, you’ll be able to copy that pixel’s color’s values, a color sample image, and even drag out the color onto a target in another app.

+ Double-click Action Workflows

Set up custom, keyboard-modifier-key-based double-click workflows, like:
– Reduce the floating shot’s opacity to 40% and make it ignore mouse clicks
or
– Edit the shot with annotations, and when I’m done, upload it to iCloud(see above)

What’s New in the Shots Browser?

Apart from adding the ability to rate and favorite shots, here are the most important new features in the Shots Browser.

+ iCloud Sync

Your shots, tags, annotations/markup and metadata are synced over iCloud across your devices.
You have the last say over what gets synced, though: all shots, only image or video shots, or only shots up to a certain file size.

+ Privacy

With Privacy enabled, your Trash and any folder that may contain hidden shots require authorization before you can access their contents.

+ Smarter Smart Folders, Search, System-Wide Spotlight Search

Smart Folders come with a lot of new criteria for you to find just the shots you’re looking for.
These are also available in the Shots Browser’s search.
Shots are (optionally) indexed with Spotlight, so you can find them system-wide.

(Spotlight) Search and Smart Folder criteria not only find attributes you give your shots (like filenames or tags), but also what’s in a shot, like texts, or barcode contents.

+ Tag Browser

With the Tag Browser, you rename, favorite, merge and delete tags, so you can keep things clean, neat and organized.

+ Exporting, Sharing

Export shots in the format, quality, size and resolution you need. With or without annotations and metadata.
Upload multiple or large shots to iCloud and share a link to that, instead of attaching a large file.

What else is New in ScreenFloat 2?

+ Siri Shortcuts

Automate taking screenshots, timed screenshots and recordings with Siri Shortcuts. Add a title, notes, tags, and move them into folders, all in one go.

+ Widgets

Access your shots, folders, picked colors and more with ScreenFloat’s widgets.

Availability and Pricing

Alright, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

– ScreenFloat 2 requires macOS 12 Monterey or newer.macOS 13 Ventura or newer required for recording your microphone/system audio alongside screen recordings.
– A (free) iCloud account is required if you wish to have ScreenFloat synchronize your library across your devices.

ScreenFloat 2 is a free upgrade for existing customers of the app. If you’d like to support my work beyond its one-time purchase price, there’s a completely voluntary and optional tipping mechanism (in-app-purchase) available in ScreenFloat 2’s settings.

There’s a free, 28-day trial for you to download here (direct download link)
You can purchase ScreenFloat exclusively on the Mac App Store at USD 6.99 / EUR 7,99 / GBP 6.99 for a limited time, then the price will go up to USD 14.99 / EUR 15,99 / GBP 14.99.
It is at this time localized into English, German and Chinese (Simplified).

Downloads and Links

Download the ScreenFloat 2 28-day free trial
Download the ScreenFloat 2 Press Kit

Visit the ScreenFloat 2 Website
Check out ScreenFloat 2’s Usage Tips
Get to Know ScreenFloat 2 – Blog Series

ScreenFloat 2 on the Mac App Store
Eternal Storms Software Productivity Bundle (save ~25% on ScreenFloat, Yoink and Transloader)

Eternal Storms Software YouTube Channel

Contact & Connect
Eternal Storms Software Privacy Policy

Support / Feedback / Questions

If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to write me.
If you’d like to review ScreenFloat 2 in a publication of some sort (blog, news site, podcast, etc), you’re more than welcome to write me and I’ll get you the information you need.
I do look forward to hearing from you.

I hope you’ll enjoy ScreenFloat 2. I couldn’t be happier it’s finally out!

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For its 11th year of existing, Transloader for Mac, iPhone and iPad is ~40% off at USD 4.99 / EUR 5,99 for a limited duration.

Start downloads on your Macs remotely, from your iPhone, iPad, or other Macs with Transloader.

Website(+ free trial)
Mac App Store(paid)
iOS App Store(free)

Enjoy 😊