HELP

How to use Annotator.

Draw over the app you're explaining, then use that app again without hiding your drawings. All tools are free.

Make your first drawing

Open Annotator and the app you want to explain. Choose a drawing tool in the floating toolbar. For example, choose Pen and drag on your screen.
Click Use apps to work in the app underneath. Your drawings stay visible.
Press Control-Shift-2 to draw again. This is the default Draw shortcut; you can change it in Settings > Shortcuts.

Escape finishes text or cancels an unfinished drawing first. Press it again to use apps. Escape also exits zoom.

Control-2 shows or hides drawings and tools together. Control-Option-2 only hides them. Hiding also hides covers. Your drawings are kept.

If the tools are hidden, click Annotator's menu-bar icon and choose Show drawings and tools. The same menu opens Settings and Help. Reopen the introduction from Settings > Help.

Check what others can see

If you share your whole screen, others may see your drawings and covers. If you share just one app or window, they may not. Ask someone on the call to check before showing private information. Quitting Annotator, or an app crash, removes its covers. Hiding drawings also hides covers.

Covers stay where you place them. They do not follow moving windows or scrolling content. Moving or resizing a window, scrolling or changing a page can uncover private details. System windows and windows kept above other apps may appear above covers.

Blur, Pixelate and Distort can leave details readable. Filled rectangles and covers do not remove the content underneath. They are not secure redaction. Remove private details from the material you plan to share.

Choose the permissions you need

Drawing and pasted image layers need neither Screen Recording nor Accessibility. Annotator does not use your microphone or camera.

Screen Recording: Screen zoom and live pixel effects need to see your screen. macOS calls this Screen Recording, but Annotator does not record or save a video.
Accessibility: Option-scroll over other apps needs this permission. The zoom buttons do not need Accessibility, but they still need Screen Recording.

Open Annotator Settings > Permissions to check access and open the matching macOS System Settings page. A permission being on does not prove screen access is working; start zoom to check it.

If Option-scroll works only over Annotator, check that the Accessibility entry belongs to the app copy you use. Replace only an older Annotator entry; leave other apps unchanged. Before quitting and reopening, stop screen sharing and save your board: quitting removes covers. Then try your Live zoom shortcut from Settings > Shortcuts.

Help people follow along

Open Tools > Focus for Cursor halo, Spotlight, Pointer lens and Screen zoom. A halo makes your pointer easier to spot. Spotlight dims the surrounding area. The lens and screen zoom make small details easier to read.

In Settings > Pointer, choose the halo's shape, color, size, outline, opacity and glow. Click the preview to try Pulse, Ripple or Turn. Keep it visible while turned on, or show it only when you move or click. Custom color expands right there in Settings. Drawing and pointer highlights don't need Screen Recording; zoom and live effects do.

Make the color yours

Stroke and Fill each have their own opacity control. New strokes start at 100%. Shapes start without a fill. Turn on Fill shape to use the outline's color or gradient at 40%, or choose a different fill. Changing the color keeps the opacity you've chosen.

Choose a solid swatch, a gradient, or Pick from screen. Expand Color wheel to choose a custom color without leaving the palette. Gradients stretch across your drawing rather than changing with time. New shape labels follow the outline's color or gradient. Choose a separate text color if you want the label to stand on its own.

Save and share your work

Save a board to edit your drawings later, or export a PNG to share an image. A board keeps original pasted images, including parts hidden under covers. Do not share a board that contains private details. Open an exported PNG and check it before sharing; blur can still leave details readable.

Exported PNGs leave out the live desktop but include images you pasted or inserted. To show your drawings over the desktop, use the macOS Screenshot tool (Shift-Command-5) and capture a selected portion or the entire screen. A single-window capture leaves your drawings out.

Choose a shape

Tools opens in a resizable window. Drag an edge or corner to show more columns and rows, or scroll through the grid. Choosing a shape hides the window; Command-L opens it again.

Web is a globe. API gateway and Load balancer are separate symbols. Database uses stacked disks; Cylinder preserves the older simple shape. System symbols keep their proportions and use the same artwork in the library and on the desktop.

Add labels to shapes

With Select, double-click anywhere inside a shape, even when it has no fill. Or choose Text and click inside it. Type a label and press Escape or Command-Return to finish. The label is centered and follows the shape when you move, resize, rotate, copy or save it. Double-click again to edit the label.

Shift-click objects or drag a selection box to select several. Drag a selected object to move them together. Use the shared corner handles to resize them proportionally, or the top handle to rotate them. Locked objects stay fixed. A selection containing an unlocked cover cannot rotate. Undo reverses the whole move or transform.

Use Properties to change the selected shapes together. Fill color is also available in quick properties on a narrow or vertical toolbar. Locked shapes keep their settings. Changing fill leaves each shape’s stroke color and width unchanged.

Long labels can expand the shape around its center. While editing, text properties change the label rather than the shape’s outline. Boards containing these labels use a newer file format; older builds reject them instead of dropping the labels.

Save your own shapes

Select a drawing or group, then open Tool library > My shapes. Give it a name and click Save selection. Click a saved shape to add an editable copy in the center of your view. Move it where you need it. Deleting a saved shape does not delete copies you already placed.

You can save drawings and text. Images, covers and live effects cannot be saved as shapes.

Change app settings

Start when you log in

Open Settings > General and turn on Launch at login. If approval is needed, click Open Login Items and allow Annotator in macOS System Settings. The app starts quietly at login; use its menu-bar icon or drawing shortcut when you need it. Turn the switch off to stop future login launches.

This setting belongs to your Mac account and is not included in exported profiles. Keep the app in a stable location, preferably Applications. Registration errors are shown rather than silently enabling a setting that does not work.

Choose how the app looks

In Settings, choose System, Light or Dark under Theme. This changes the app controls, not the colors of your drawings.

Under Workspace animation, choose how drawings and tools hide and return. Choose Off for no animation. macOS Reduce Motion also turns animations off. Hiding also hides covers.

Coffee reminders and settings files

Coffee reminders appear after continued use. Choose Not now to snooze them for at least 30 days. Annotator counts drawing-use days on this Mac to time them; those counts stay local.

Export profile saves tool settings, appearance and shortcuts. Import profile replaces those settings. It does not replace boards or change Launch at login.

Default keyboard shortcuts

Change shortcuts in Settings > Shortcuts. The app shows your saved keys; the table below lists the defaults. Symbols mean ⌃ Control, ⌥ Option, ⇧ Shift and ⌘ Command. Press the shown keys together.

Control-1: Turn screen zoom on or off. Screen Recording is required. Option-scroll over other apps also needs Accessibility; the − / + buttons do not.
Control-2: Hide or restore drawings and toolbar together, including covers.
Control-Shift-2: Resume drawing after using other apps. Shows hidden tools and never hides them. Change this in Settings > Shortcuts.
Control-Option-2: Always hide drawings and toolbar.
Escape: Finish text or cancel an unfinished drawing. If no edit is active, stop zoom or return to using the app underneath. Press Control-Shift-2 or click Resume drawing to draw again.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0: Select, rectangle, diamond, ellipse, arrow, line, pen, text, highlighter, eraser.
R G B Y O P C W K: Red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink, cyan, white, black ink.
Control-W / Control-B: Toggle whiteboard / blackboard.
Delete: Delete the selection; clear drawings on all displays when nothing is selected.
Toolbar trash: Clear drawings and effects on all displays and stop zoom, in one coordinated Undo step.
Command-V: Paste an image as an editable layer. Native text fields retain normal paste behavior.
Command-Return: Finish editing a text label.
Command-L: Open the resizable Tools window while Annotator receives keyboard input.
Command-Z / Shift-Command-Z: Undo and redo.

Properties cycles quick controls, full properties and tools only. Background, mode, history and window actions remain on the toolbar in each layout. Drag empty toolbar space to move it; buttons, fields and sliders keep their normal actions. Open the tool library for more tools and file actions. The app follows macOS Reduce Motion.

Drawing on more than one screen

Draw on a connected screen without moving the toolbar. Click that screen to edit its drawings. Desk/White/Black changes that screen's background; other screens keep their own backgrounds. Control-W toggles Whiteboard and Control-B toggles Blackboard.

Command-A selects drawings across screens. Properties, Delete and arrow keys apply to that selection together. Click a screen to select its drawings for dragging or resizing.

Drag the toolbar until the pointer touches a screen edge. A preview shows where it will sit. Top and bottom use a horizontal layout; left and right use a vertical layout. Move away from the edge to place it freely.

Drawing details

Pen, Highlighter and Eraser cursors show their size. Hold Shift while highlighting for a straight line. Release Shift to draw freely. Undo removes the whole stroke.

Effects offers Blur, Pixelate and Distort. Zero Blur or Pixelate strength turns off the effect. Use Rectangle with a fill for an ordinary solid block. Older solid covers remain opaque. Hold Shift while resizing to keep the same proportions.

The eraser can remove unlocked covers, and toolbar trash clears drawings and effects. Undo restores removed objects. Clear drawings (keep effects) preserves covers.

Compatibility

Requires macOS 14 or later and Apple Silicon (an Apple M-series chip). Check Apple menu > About This Mac. VoiceOver support and testing on other hardware are incomplete. Older supported Macs, multiple screens, more keyboard languages and screen-sharing apps still need physical checks. Intel support and an App Store release are not promised.

Keep Annotator in the Applications folder: it can update itself only from there. Open the disk image and drag Annotator into Applications, or move it there from the ZIP in Finder. If you open Annotator from anywhere else, it offers to show it in Finder so you can drag it into Applications. It never moves itself or changes macOS security checks.

Annotator works on the live desktop. It does not have a separate image editor or a built-in video recorder. See available releases and known limits.

Use an AI assistant (optional)

An AI app with computer-use tools can use Annotator's normal interface. That app needs its own macOS permissions and may send screenshots and text to its provider. Check its privacy settings before using private information. Read the setup steps and download the skill.

Report a problem

Open Settings > Help > Report a problem, or use the support page. You write the draft first. Opening a GitHub draft sends its text and app version to GitHub; submitting it there makes it public. Remove private details before opening GitHub.