iShot 1.6.17: Annotation Tools That Stay On

What changed in this release, and in 1.6.16 from earlier today:

1. Square, circle, arrow, line, draw, blur and text no longer switch off after one use.
2. The shape you just drew is selected, so you can resize it right away.
3. Blur regions can be resized from their edges and corners.
4. Dragging near a screen edge no longer shrinks the capture window.
5. The Claude and ChatGPT model lists can change without a new iShot version.
6. Screenshots are taken through Apple’s ScreenCaptureKit (since 1.6.16).

Draw several shapes without picking the tool again

Until now, every shape put you back in select mode. Three arrows meant three trips to the toolbar. That was fine for one callout and annoying for a screenshot that needs five.

Pick Arrow once and drag as many as you want. The one you just drew stays selected with its handles showing, so if it came out a bit long you pull an end before drawing the next. This works for Square, Circle, Arrow, Line, Draw and Blur.

To go back to moving things around, click the active tool button a second time. With no tool on, clicking a shape selects it and dragging moves it. While a tool is on, a click inside an existing shape draws a new one, which is what you want when an arrow has to sit inside a box.

Resize a blur after you draw it

You could move a blur region but not change its size, and pressing on its edge did nothing. That’s fixed: drag any edge or corner. It matters most when you’ve covered an email address and the box turned out half a character too short. If you share screenshots with other people’s details in them, our guide to blurring sensitive data covers the habits that go with it.

Text boxes follow the same rule

Click, type, then click somewhere else to start the next box. A new text box is created selected, with handles on both sides to set its width. Click an existing box to keep typing in it, drag it to move it. A box you left empty disappears when you click away.

The capture window stays the size of your screen

On the main display, pressing the shortcut and then dragging near the edge or a corner could resize the capture window itself. You ended up with a narrow strip and your screenshot squeezed inside it. The window is now fixed-size. Secondary displays were never affected.

New AI models without a new iShot

The model lists for Claude and for ChatGPT sign-in used to be written into the app, so each new model from Anthropic or OpenAI waited for our next release. From 1.6.17 the lists come from our website. When a model ships we add it, and your dropdown picks it up the next time iShot starts or you open Settings.

Offline, or if the list can’t be read for any reason, iShot uses the last good copy and then the list built into the app, so the AI panel keeps working. Models you load with your own OpenAI key were already fetched live and work as before. If you use your own Claude API key, nothing changes about how the key is stored. To see what the AI panel does with a capture, see how to ask Claude about a screenshot.

How iShot takes the picture (1.6.16)

Earlier versions called the macOS screencapture command for each display. A few of you reported captures that hung for several seconds now and then. Since 1.6.16 iShot asks ScreenCaptureKit, Apple’s screen capture framework, for the image directly. If that fails for a display, iShot falls back to the old command for that display.

We timed it on a MacBook with an external display. From pressing the shortcut to seeing the capture took 0.4 to 1 second most of the time, and up to about 1.7 seconds on the slowest runs. We can’t promise it’s faster in the ordinary case. The target is the occasional long stall, and we’ll only know whether that’s gone after more people have used it. If a capture still hangs on your Mac, email [email protected] with your macOS version and how many displays you use.

Getting the update

With Auto-update on, which is the default, iShot checks for updates when it launches and installs the new version the next time you open it. You can also get it from the download page. iShot is still a one-time purchase.