Pointframe

Pointframe

A free Windows screenshot and recording tool built for fast bug reports, walkthroughs, and support replies.
Capture, annotate, blur, record to MP4/GIF, and extract text with OCR in one lightweight tray app.

🌐 Visit the Official Website

hero-demo.mp4

🚀 Quick Start

Install in seconds with the Windows Package Manager:

Starting with the 5.0 release line, the winget package ID is DimitarRadenkov.Pointframe.

winget install DimitarRadenkov.Pointframe

Prefer a manual install? Download the latest installer from the Releases page.

1. Install Pointframe with winget install DimitarRadenkov.Pointframe or download the latest installer from Releases.
2. Press Print Screen to capture a region.
3. Add arrows, text, or blur and then copy, save, pin, or record.

You can complete your first capture workflow in under a minute.

If you find Pointframe useful, a ⭐ on GitHub helps others discover it — thank you!

✨ Key highlights

• Live Video Annotations: Draw, highlight, and redact while recording. No need for post-production video editing.
• Privacy First (Live Blur): Drag over sensitive content (passwords, emails, API keys) to apply a live Gaussian blur that stays hidden in the final export.
• Built-in OCR: Lasso any text on your screen (even in images or videos) to instantly copy it to your clipboard.
• Pin to Screen: Pin captured screenshots as floating, always-on-top windows for quick reference while coding or writing.

🆕 What shipped in recent releases

Jul 2026

• Tray menu UX refresh — Improved command grouping, clearer labels, and iconized top-level actions.
• Capture Library OCR hardening — Better reliability and scale for OCR-backed library search.
• Capture + recording hot-path optimizations — Smoother performance in frequent capture/recording flows.

Jun 2026

• Clean Window Snip — Capture cleaner active-window results via tray action and hotkey.
• Video watermark support — Configurable watermark overlays for recorded MP4 output.
• Video trim workflow — Trim recordings directly in-app from recent recordings actions.
• Auto-update tray notification improvements — Better update signaling and install flow behavior from tray.

May 2026

• Capture delay customization — Adjustable delay presets to capture menus and transient UI states.
• Screenshot watermark support — Add configurable watermarking for screenshots.
• Library and tray workflow upgrades — Open folders submenu, richer recents actions, and improved tray ergonomics.
• Expanded auto-update intervals — Additional cadence options including short intervals and disable mode.

Apr-Mar 2026 (foundation releases)

• Whole-screen snip mode and whole-screen record hotkey.
• Recording HUD improvements including compact mode and better in-recording controls.
• GIF export, cursor highlight, and click ripple for clearer instructional recordings.
• Open existing image, callout tool, color picker, pixel ruler, and style presets.
• Telemetry and usage reporting foundation for anonymous feature adoption metrics.

For full detail by version, see the Releases page.

Why people use it

• Show the problem, not just describe it — Bugs and UI issues are easier to understand when the screenshot or recording already contains the important highlights.
• Make tutorials easier to follow — Arrows, text, and numbered steps keep people focused on what matters.
• Hide private details before sharing — Blur emails, passwords, tokens, and anything else you do not want on screen.
• Work from one place — Capture, annotate, copy, save, pin, and record without bouncing between tools.

Features

• Region capture — Press the configured hotkey (default: Print Screen) to draw a selection on screen
• Whole-screen snip — Instantly capture the entire screen from the tray icon or a dedicated hotkey
• Clean window snip — Capture a cleaner active-window result directly from tray and dedicated hotkey
• Frozen screen snapshot — The screen is captured instantly when the hotkey is pressed, freezing menus, tooltips, and popups exactly as they appear
• Selection magnifier — A zoomed loupe follows your cursor while drawing the capture region for pixel-accurate selection
• Configurable capture hotkeys — Change the region-capture hotkey and the whole-screen record hotkey independently from Settings
• Annotation tools — Arrow, line, rectangle, circle, pen, highlighter, text, numbered labels, blur/pixelate, callout (speech bubble), color picker, pixel ruler
• Style presets — Up to 5 named color-and-thickness shortcuts shown as quick-access dots in the annotation toolbar; fully configurable in Settings
• Color picker tool — Sample any pixel color from the frozen screenshot; the loupe zooms in with a hex preview and sets the active annotation color
• Pixel ruler tool — Draw a ruler across the screenshot to measure distances in pixels
• Blur tool — Drag over sensitive content (faces, emails, passwords) to apply a Gaussian blur before sharing
• OCR — Copy Text — Draw a lasso around text in the screenshot to extract it via OCR and copy to clipboard (uses Windows.Media.Ocr, no external dependencies)
• Capture Library — Browse your saved captures, filter by date range, and search by filename or OCR text from the tray Library entry
• Open existing image — Load a PNG, JPG/JPEG, or BMP from the tray menu and annotate it without taking a new screenshot
• Pin screenshot — Pin the captured screenshot as a floating, always-on-top, resizable window for quick reference while you work
• Undo / redo — Full undo/redo stack during annotation
• Copy & auto-save — Copy to clipboard; optional auto-save to a configurable folder
• Screen recording — Record a selected region to MP4 (H.264 via ffmpeg) or start a whole-screen recording instantly with Ctrl+Shift+R (default); optional microphone audio from a selected Windows input device
• Recording-time annotations — Add shapes and text directly on top of a recording while it is in progress; switch between draw mode and interact mode from the floating HUD
• Video watermark — Optionally burn a configurable watermark into MP4 recordings
• Tray menu icons — Core tray actions now include consistent glyph icons for faster scanning
• Cursor highlight — Configurable glowing ring around the cursor during recording so viewers never lose track of your pointer
• Click ripple — Visual ripple effect on mouse clicks during recording to make interactions obvious
• GIF export — Export any recent recording to GIF directly from the tray's Recent recordings menu (requires ffmpeg)
• Capture delay — Configurable countdown (0 / 3 / 5 / 10 s) before the selection overlay appears, useful for capturing menus and hover states
• Auto-updates — A background service checks GitHub Releases on launch and on a configurable schedule (every 2 hours / 6 hours / 12 hours / day / 2 days / 3 days / never). When a new version is found a tray balloon appears; click it to confirm and install without opening the browser
• System tray — Runs silently in the background; all actions accessible from the tray icon
• Theme support — Choose Light, Dark, or follow the system theme from Settings

Use cases

• Bug reports — Capture a precise region, annotate it, and copy or save the result for issue tracking and support requests
• Documentation — Create quick step-by-step screenshots with arrows, numbered steps, and text callouts for guides and tutorials
• Live workflow capture — Record a selected region while drawing annotations on top of the recording as you work
• Sensitive content redaction — Blur passwords, emails, and other private details before sharing screenshots or recordings
• Text extraction — Select text in a screenshot with OCR and copy it directly to the clipboard

System tray menu

Right-click the tray icon to access all actions:

Item	Description
New Snip	Open the region-capture overlay (same as the capture hotkey)
Whole Screen Snip	Instantly capture the entire screen
Clean Window Snip	Capture the active window with a cleaner result
Open Image...	Load a PNG / JPG / BMP file and open it in the annotation overlay
Recent Captures	Submenu listing the last 5 saved screenshots; each has Open and Open folder actions
Recent Recordings	Submenu listing the last 5 recordings; each has Open, Trim, Export to GIF, and Open folder actions
Library	Open the capture library window
Open Folders	Quick access to Snips Folder, Videos Folder, and Logs Folder
Settings	Open the Settings window
Check for Updates / Install Update	Manually check for updates or install a pending update directly from tray
About	Show version information
Quit Pointframe	Quit the application

Left-clicking the tray icon triggers New Snip directly.

Settings

Open Settings from the tray icon to configure:

Capture

Setting	Description
Screenshot save folder	Where auto-saved screenshots are written
Auto-save on copy	Automatically save every screenshot when copied
Capture delay	Countdown (sec) before the selection overlay opens: 0 / 3 / 5 / 10
Capture hotkey	The key that triggers the region-capture overlay (default: Print Screen); supports modifier keys (Ctrl, Shift, Alt)

Recording

Setting	Description
Recording output folder	Where recorded MP4 files are saved
Record hotkey	The key combination that starts a whole-screen recording (default: Ctrl+Shift+R)
Video watermark	Optional watermark overlay in MP4 recordings
Cursor highlight	Show a glowing ring around the cursor during recording; configurable size
Click ripple	Show a ripple effect on mouse clicks during recording
Microphone (advanced)	Include microphone audio when recording starts
Microphone device (advanced)	Which Windows audio input device to use
GIF export FPS (advanced)	Frame rate for GIF exports: 5 / 8 / 10 / 15 / 20

Annotation

Setting	Description
Default annotation color	Pre-selected color when the overlay opens
Stroke thickness	Default pen/shape width
Style presets	Up to 5 named color-and-thickness shortcuts shown in the annotation toolbar

Shortcuts

Setting	Description
Region capture hotkey	Opens the region capture overlay (default: Print Screen)
Whole-screen record hotkey	Starts whole-screen recording (default: Ctrl+Shift+R)
Clean window snip hotkey	Starts clean-window capture (default: Ctrl+Shift+W)
Overlay shortcuts	Configure copy, save-as, undo, redo, show-shortcuts, and close keys for the overlay

App

Setting	Description
Theme	App appearance: Light, Dark, or System (follows Windows)
Auto-update check interval	How often to check for new releases: Every 2 hours / Every 6 hours / Every 12 hours / Every day / Every 2 days / Every 3 days / Never

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Print Screen (default, configurable)	Open region-capture overlay
Ctrl+Shift+R (default, configurable)	Start whole-screen recording
Ctrl+Shift+W (default, configurable)	Start clean-window snip
Ctrl+Z	Undo last annotation
Ctrl+Y	Redo annotation
Ctrl+C	Copy screenshot to clipboard
Escape	Close the overlay / cancel current action

Requirements

• Windows 10 or later
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Installation

Via Scoop

scoop install pointframe

Via winget (recommended)

winget install DimitarRadenkov.Pointframe

Manual installer

Download the latest installer from the Releases page and run it. During setup you can choose to download ffmpeg.exe, which is required for MP4 recording and GIF export.

Troubleshooting

• Recording or GIF export does not start — Pointframe requires ffmpeg.exe for MP4 recording and GIF export. If you skipped the ffmpeg download during setup, install ffmpeg.exe next to the app, under Assets\ffmpeg, or on PATH.
• OCR is unavailable — OCR uses Windows.Media.Ocr and requires a supported Windows build.
• Hotkey seems ignored — Make sure another app is not already using the same key and try changing the capture hotkey in Settings.
• App is running but not visible — Pointframe lives in the system tray after launch.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/dimitar-radenkov/Pointframe.git
cd Pointframe

dotnet build Pointframe/Pointframe.csproj
dotnet run   --project Pointframe/Pointframe.csproj

Running tests

dotnet test Pointframe.Tests/Pointframe.Tests.csproj

Project structure

Pointframe/             Main WPF application
  App.xaml.cs           DI setup, tray icon, global hotkeys
  AnnotationTool.cs     Enum of all annotation tool types
  CountdownWindow       Fullscreen countdown overlay
  OverlayWindow         Region-selection and annotation UI
  RecordingOverlayWindow  Live annotation surface during recording
  ViewModels/           MVVM view models
  Services/             Screen capture, recording, geometry, update check
  Models/               Immutable data records and settings

Pointframe.Tests/       xUnit test project
  Services/             Service unit tests
  ViewModels/           ViewModel unit tests

Versioning

Versions are managed automatically by Nerdbank.GitVersioning.

• The base version (major.minor) is declared in version.json.
• The patch number is derived from the commit height — it increments automatically with every commit, so you never need to touch it manually.
• On a tagged release (v*) the version has no pre-release suffix (e.g. 1.2.5). On non-release builds a short commit hash is appended (e.g. 1.2.5-g1a2b3c4).

To bump the version:

Goal	Action
Bug-fix / patch	Nothing — commit height auto-increments
New feature (minor)	Edit version.json → "version": "1.3"
Breaking change (major)	Edit version.json → "version": "2.0"

Tech stack

• WPF / .NET 10
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm — [ObservableProperty], [RelayCommand]
• Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection — constructor injection throughout
• Serilog — file + debug logging (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Pointframe\logs\)
• ffmpeg — external encoder used for MP4 recording and GIF export
• Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting — Generic Host + BackgroundService for the auto-update background loop
• Windows.Media.Ocr — built-in Windows OCR for text extraction
• Hardcodet.Wpf.TaskbarNotification — system tray icon
• Nerdbank.GitVersioning — automatic semantic versioning from git history
• xUnit — unit tests
• Azure Monitor / OpenTelemetry — anonymous usage telemetry (disabled when connection string is absent)

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Whether it's reporting a bug, suggesting a feature, or submitting a pull request. Pointframe is built on a very clean, modern stack (.NET 10, WPF, CommunityToolkit.Mvvm) making it a great jumping-off point for developers.

1. Check out our Developer Guide and Architecture Knowledge Base.
2. Browse our Planned Features or look for issues tagged good first issue.
3. Open a Pull Request!

Privacy & Telemetry

Pointframe collects anonymous, privacy-safe usage telemetry in official builds to help understand how the app is used and catch errors early. Screenshots, recordings, OCR output, file names, file paths, exception messages, and stack traces are not sent as telemetry.

What is collected

Every event below is defined in TelemetryEventCatalog.cs, which is the single source of truth. A unit test fails the build if this table and the catalog ever disagree.

App lifecycle

Event	Properties
app_started	os_build, screen_count
startup_completed	duration_ms
app_heartbeat	uptime_minutes (sent every 4 hours while the tray app remains open)
app_closed	session_minutes

Capture

Event	Properties
snip_started	type (region / whole_screen), source (tray / hotkey)
snip_cancelled	type (region / whole_screen)
capture_delay_used	delay_seconds
capture_completed	action (copy / save / save_as / auto_save)
capture_pinned	—
first_capture_completed	capture_type, first_action, time_from_install_minutes when available
open_image_used	—
annotation_committed	tool, count (one event per tool, sent once when the annotation surface closes)

Recording

Event	Properties
recording_started	type (region / whole_screen)
recording_completed	duration_seconds when available
first_recording_completed	with_audio, duration_seconds and time_from_install_minutes when available
recording_hud_pause_toggled	state
recording_hud_stopped	duration_seconds
recording_hud_microphone_toggled	state
recording_hud_display_mode_changed	display_mode
recording_hud_annotation_input_toggled	annotation_input_state
recording_hud_tool_selected	annotation_tool
recording_hud_undo_annotations	—
recording_hud_clear_annotations	—
ffmpeg_missing	—
microphone_unavailable	—

Export and editing

Event	Properties
gif_export_started	—
gif_export_completed	success, duration_seconds
video_trim_opened	—
video_trim_started	—
video_trim_completed	success, canceled
beautify_opened	—
screenshot_beautified	—
screenshot_beautified_copied	—

OCR and library

Event	Properties
ocr_attempted	selection_width_px, selection_height_px
ocr_no_text	selection_width_px, selection_height_px
ocr_used	selection_width_px, selection_height_px
library_open_used	—
library_ocr_search_used	—

Settings and About

Event	Properties
settings_opened	app_section
settings_section_changed	app_section
settings_saved	app_section
settings_section_reset	app_section
settings_defaults_restored	—
settings_canceled	—
about_opened	—
about_closed	—
about_url_opened	url_host (host name only, never a full URL)

Updates and diagnostics

Event	Properties
update_check_manual	—
update_available	version
update_confirmed	version
update_dismissed	version
unhandled_exception	exception_type, context, last_action when available

Every event includes an app version, a per-run session_id, a telemetry_channel (product or diagnostic), a telemetry_schema_version, and an install_id when one is available. The install ID is a random GUID generated once on first launch and stored locally. It is used only to count unique installs; it is not tied to an account or identity.

Properties are allow-listed per event in the catalog: anything a caller passes that the event does not declare is reported as a schema violation, and every value is truncated to 200 characters. Both measures exist to keep paths, file names, and recognised text out of telemetry by construction rather than by convention.

The last_action value attached to unhandled_exception is the name of the most recent product event — background diagnostic events such as app_heartbeat never overwrite it.

Nothing leaves your machine except these anonymised events. Screenshots, recordings, OCR output, file names, and file paths are never transmitted. Local diagnostic logs are stored under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pointframe\logs\ and may include local paths to help troubleshoot issues; they are not uploaded automatically.

Source builds

Telemetry is disabled automatically when the ApplicationInsights:ConnectionString value in appsettings.json is empty (which is the default in the source repository). Only official builds distributed via the installer include the real connection string.

For contributors

To enable telemetry locally during development, create Pointframe/appsettings.Local.json (gitignored):

{
  "ApplicationInsights": {
    "ConnectionString": "<your-connection-string>"
  }
}

To set up your own Azure Application Insights resource, follow the Azure Monitor setup guide.

Feature usage report

Use the ready-to-run KQL report pack in docs/appinsights-feature-usage-queries.kql to track:

• Weekly active installs and sessions
• Per-feature adoption (% installs that used each feature)
• Feature funnel conversion (snip -> annotate -> pin/ocr)
• Power-user and stickiness indicators
• Version split and regression spotting after releases

Support

If you find this tool useful, consider buying me a beer 🍺