Photon icon

Photon

Screenshots, markup and screen recording for macOS and Windows, written in Rust.

Download for MacApple silicon · macOS 15 or later Download for WindowsWindows 10 or 11 · 64-bit

Free and open source (GPL-3.0)Source on GitHubAll releases

Photon’s capture overlay: a selected region of a dashboard marked up with an arrow, a box, numbered steps and a pixelated email address, beside the tool palette and the action bar. A recording countdown and the Recording saved panel sit to the left.

Screenshots on ⇧⌘9, recordings on ⇧⌘0

Photon is a free, open-source screenshot and screen recording app for macOS and Windows.

Press ⇧⌘9 (Windows: Ctrl+Shift+9) and the screen freezes while you select an area, mark it up and copy it. ⇧⌘0 records a region, a window or a whole screen at 60 fps, and afterwards you can trim the recording or turn it into a GIF.

The program file is under 1 MB on both the Mac and Windows. On the Mac, Photon uses about 12 MB of memory at launch and about 45 MB after the first capture. It makes no network connections.

Take a screenshot

  1. Press ⇧⌘9 (Windows: Ctrl+Shift+9). Your screens freeze at full resolution.
  2. Drag over an area, click a window to select it, or click the desktop for the whole screen. Adjust the selection with the handles or the arrow keys. A badge shows its size in pixels.
  3. Mark it up if you like.
  4. Press Return to copy it, or use the action bar to save it as PNG or JPEG, print it, or pin it above your other windows.

Press Esc to cancel at any point.

Shift-Command-9 (Ctrl+Shift+9 on Windows) takes a screenshot. Shift-Command-0 starts a recording.

Mark it up

The tools are a pen, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, highlighter and text. Pixelate hides passwords and email addresses, and numbered steps (1, 2, 3…) are for how-to guides.

Hold Shift for straight lines, squares and circles. There are eight colours and a custom colour picker, and three stroke sizes on [ and ] or the scroll wheel.

Pixelation is burned into the exported image, and the original pixels aren’t kept.

Marking up a screenshot in Photon: the tool palette with its colour swatches open

Record your screen

  1. Press ⇧⌘0 (Windows: Ctrl+Shift+0).
  2. Drag a region, or click a window or a screen. When you pick a window, Photon records only that window, even if something covers it.
  3. Press Return. A countdown starts, which you can skip.
  4. Press the shortcut again to stop.

Recordings are 60 fps H.264, or HEVC for smaller files, encoded in hardware and written straight to disk. System audio is recorded by default. You can add your microphone and a webcam bubble (not available when recording a window), highlight your clicks, and pause and resume.

The countdown before a recording starts, showing 3 and a Skip button The Recording saved panel, with buttons to show the file, copy it, open it, trim it and make a GIF

Trim it, turn it into a GIF, or send it

When you stop, a panel offers Copy file (which pastes straight into chat apps and email), Open, Trim (cuts the start and end without re-encoding), Make GIF (a looping 12 fps GIF of the first 60 seconds, up to 960 px wide) and Show in Finder.

Where files go

  • Screenshots go to the clipboard. Turn on auto-save to also keep a copy in a folder.
  • Recordings go to your Movies (Windows: Videos) folder, or a folder you choose.
  • Photon finds your OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and iCloud Drive folders. Save to any of them and the provider’s app uploads the files. Photon never signs in to anything.
  • File names follow a template with tokens for the date, time, app name, size and a counter, with a live preview.
Photon’s Settings, Screenshots tab: auto-save, the save folder and the file name template with a live preview

Keyboard shortcuts

Both main shortcuts can be changed in Settings › General. Scripts and launchers can drive Photon with photon://capture, photon://record and photon://stop links.

MacWindowsAction
⇧⌘9Ctrl+Shift+9Take a screenshot (also stops a recording)
⇧⌘0Ctrl+Shift+0Start a recording, or stop it
ReturnEnterCopy the screenshot, or start recording
EscEscCancel
⌘C ⌘S ⌘P ⌘ZCtrl+C S P ZCopy, save, print, undo
Arrow keysArrow keysMove the selection (Shift for 10 px; ⌥ or Alt to resize)
Shift while drawingShift while drawingStraight lines, squares and circles
[ ] or scroll[ ] or scrollChange the stroke size

Get Photon

Download the zip for your computer from the latest release.

Requirements

Mac
Apple silicon (M1 or later), macOS 15 or later
Windows PC
Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or Windows 11, 64-bit
Size
1.5 MB app on the Mac, 0.9 MB program on Windows
Account
None

Downloads

Mac
Photon-macOS-arm64.zip
Windows
Photon-windows-x64.zip
Other versions
Releases on GitHub

Install on a Mac

  1. Open the zip and drag Photon into your Applications folder.
  2. Open Photon and confirm that you want to open an app downloaded from the internet. It’s signed and notarized by Apple, so macOS doesn’t ask you to approve it in Privacy & Security.
  3. Allow Screen & System Audio Recording when macOS asks.
  4. Photon’s icon appears in the menu bar. Press ⇧⌘9 to take your first screenshot.

To check your Mac, open the Apple menu › About This Mac. Photon runs on it if the Chip line says Apple M1 or later.

Install on Windows

  1. Open the zip and copy Photon.exe anywhere you like, such as your Desktop or a Programs folder.
  2. Double-click it. If SmartScreen appears, click More info › Run anyway.
  3. Photon’s icon appears in the notification area by the clock. Press Ctrl+Shift+9 to take your first screenshot.

To start Photon with your computer, turn on Launch at Login in its menu (on Windows, right-click the tray icon). To remove it, see Uninstalling for the Mac or Photon for Windows.

Build from source

On a Mac, with Rust and the Xcode Command Line Tools:

git clone https://github.com/piedol/photon.git
cd photon && scripts/bundle.sh --install

On Windows, with Rust (MSVC toolchain) and the Visual Studio Build Tools:

cd windows
cargo build --release

Privacy

Security & privacy has the details.

  • Photon captures the screen only when you press a shortcut, and records only between Record and Stop.
  • The microphone and camera are used only during a recording, and only when you turn them on.
  • Photon makes no network connections. Your files go only where you save or paste them.
  • Pixelation is burned into the exported image, and the original pixels aren’t kept.

Documentation

The full guides are in the repository.

Frequently asked questions

Is Photon free and open source?

Yes. Photon is free to download and use, and its source code is on GitHub under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.

Which computers does Photon run on?

A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 15 or later, or a 64-bit PC with Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or Windows 11.

Does Photon connect to the internet?

No. Photon makes no network connections and has no analytics, crash reporting or update checks. Your files go only where you save or paste them.

Can Photon record a window, or system audio?

Yes. When you pick a window, Photon records only that window, even if something covers it. System audio is recorded by default, and the microphone and a webcam bubble are optional.

How do I install Photon?

On a Mac, download Photon-macOS-arm64.zip, drag Photon into Applications and open it. On Windows, download Photon-windows-x64.zip and run Photon.exe.

How do I uninstall Photon?

Quit Photon and move /Applications/Photon.app to the Trash. Running defaults delete top.piedol.photon removes its settings. On Windows, quit it from the tray icon and delete Photon.exe. Your screenshots and recordings stay in their folders.

License

Photon is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.

  • Use it anywhere, including at work.
  • Read, change and share the source.
  • If you distribute a modified version, release its source under the same license.