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mg-chao/snow-shot

★ 4,551TypeScriptAudience · generalComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A lightweight open-source screenshot tool for Windows and macOS that lets you capture, annotate, and pin screen regions, with optional plugins for OCR, video recording, and AI chat.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Screen capture
      Region selection
      Annotation tools
    Features
      Auto window detect
      Scrolling capture
      Floating pin overlay
    Plugin system
      OCR text extract
      Video recording
      AI chat
    Platforms
      Windows
      macOS
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Take a precisely selected screenshot, annotate it with arrows and text, and copy it to the clipboard instantly.

USE CASE 2

Pin a screenshot as a floating overlay on top of other windows for reference while you work.

USE CASE 3

Install the OCR plugin to extract text from any region of your screen.

USE CASE 4

Use auto window detection to snap a screenshot to a full application window without dragging a selection.

Tech stack

TypeScript

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

In plain English

Snow Shot is a screenshot tool for Windows and macOS. The name and interface are in Chinese, but the software itself works as a general-purpose screen capture utility. You take a screenshot by pressing a keyboard shortcut, and the tool appears so you can select what part of the screen to capture. Once you have a region selected, you can draw on it before saving: rectangles, circles, arrows, text labels, and marker highlights are all available. The tool also tries to automatically detect window boundaries, so if you point at a browser window or dialog box, it can snap to that shape rather than requiring you to drag a selection manually. Scrolling screenshots and pinning an image to stay on top of other windows are both supported. The install package is intentionally kept small. Features like video recording, text recognition (OCR), translation, and AI chat are delivered as separate plugins you download only if you need them. This keeps the base download fast and the tool lightweight for people who only want basic screenshots. Save options include writing the file to disk, copying it directly to the clipboard, or pinning the screenshot as a floating overlay on your screen. Keyboard shortcuts for all of these can be customized. Snow Shot is open source with an active community on GitHub and a Chinese social platform called Bilibili. The project website (snowshot.top) hosts the download and a user guide. The README is written in Chinese, and most community discussion happens in Chinese as well, though the software itself is usable regardless of language.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I use Snow Shot on Windows. Help me set up custom keyboard shortcuts to take a screenshot, add a red arrow annotation, and copy it to clipboard without touching the mouse.
Prompt 2
Walk me through Snow Shot's scrolling screenshot feature for capturing a long webpage.
Prompt 3
How do I install the OCR plugin for Snow Shot and use it to pull text out of a screenshot?
Prompt 4
I want to use Snow Shot's floating pin feature to keep a reference image on top while I work in another app. How do I set that up?
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