Short answer: you can annotate a screenshot on a Mac for free with the built-in Markup tool (Preview / Quick Look) for basics like arrows and text — or with Lovely Screenshots for 13 tools including numbered badges, blur/redaction and a highlighter, with annotations that stay editable. Here’s both.
The built-in way: macOS Markup
Open a screenshot in Preview, click the Markup icon (the pen tip), and you get arrows, rectangles, ovals, a freehand pen, text and a signature. You can also mark up straight from Quick Look: select the file, press Space, and click Markup. It’s free and always there — great for a quick arrow.
Where it runs out of road: no numbered badges for step-by-step guides, no blur or pixelate to hide sensitive info, no spotlight to focus attention, and once you save-and-flatten, the marks are permanent. For anything beyond a quick scribble, a dedicated editor is faster.
The faster way: the Lovely Screenshots editor
Lovely Screenshots is a free macOS app whose editor is built for exactly this — bug reports, tutorials, feedback — with 13 tools and single-key switching.
- Take a screenshot. Capture an area with ⌘⇧4 (or your Lovely capture shortcut). A preview card slides in at the edge of the screen.
- Open it in the editor. Hover the preview card and click the pencil, or open any shot from History. The full editor opens with the image centered.
- Pick a tool and mark it up. Choose from 13 tools — arrow, rectangle, oval, line, pen, highlighter, text, numbered badge, blur, pixelate, spotlight and more — with a single keypress each (A arrow, R rectangle, T text, B numbered badge…). Pick a colour and stroke width, then draw.
- Copy or save. Hit Copy to put the annotated image straight on the clipboard, or Save to write a PNG. Your annotations stay re-editable later thanks to metadata saved inside the file.
Frequently asked questions
Can I annotate a screenshot on Mac for free?
Yes. macOS Markup (in Preview and Quick Look) covers the basics — arrows, shapes, text and a signature. Lovely Screenshots goes further for free: 13 tools including numbered badges, a highlighter, blur/redaction, spotlight and pixelate, plus re-editable annotations and one-key tool switching — all with no watermark on plain annotations.
How is this better than Preview’s Markup?
Preview’s Markup is handy but limited: no numbered step badges, no blur/redaction of sensitive info, no pixelation, no spotlight, and once you flatten the image the annotations are gone. Lovely keeps every annotation editable, adds tools designed for bug reports and tutorials, and lets you switch tools with single-letter shortcuts.
Can I blur or hide sensitive information?
Yes. Use the blur or pixelate tool to cover emails, API keys, card numbers or faces before you share. Redaction happens on your Mac and is baked into the exported image, so the hidden pixels aren’t recoverable from the file you send.
Do my screenshots get uploaded anywhere?
No. Capturing, annotating and saving all happen locally — screenshots never leave your Mac unless you choose to share them. There’s no account and no cloud in the middle.