Guides

Screenshots on macOS, explained properly

These answer the question completely, including the free way to do it. If macOS already solves your problem, these pages say so.

How to find text in a screenshot on MacLive Text, Preview, and the harder problem of finding which screenshot it was.Does Spotlight search text inside images?No — and the reason why is more useful than the answer.How to stop screenshots cluttering your DesktopSix approaches, from a thirty-second defaults write to something that holds up over months.Where does macOS save screenshots?The default location, changing it, the file format, and the settings worth knowing.How to search thousands of old screenshotsMaking an existing backlog findable, from free manual triage to full indexing.How to extract text from a folder of screenshotsBatch OCR with Shortcuts, a script, or an app — all on-device.How to blur sensitive data before sharingWhy blur isn't redaction, what to use instead, and what people forget to cover.Screenshot tools that don't upload your imagesHow to verify for yourself where a screenshot app sends things — including this one.