All releases

v1.0

April 2026

Initial Release

Screen Annotations is a native macOS menu bar app for drawing on your screen, sketching on a whiteboard, and letting AI assistants create diagrams via MCP. Here's everything that's included in 1.0.

Drawing Tools

12 tools, each with a single-key shortcut: Pen, Highlighter, Arrow, Line, Shape, Text, Formula, Image, Eraser, Laser Pointer, plus Select and Hand tools.

135+ Shapes in 20 Categories

Every shape you'd need, organized into categories you can browse or search.

  • Basic (11) — Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Circle, Ellipse, Triangle, Right Triangle, Diamond, Hexagon, Pentagon, Star, Speech Bubble
  • Flowchart (18) — Process, Decision, Terminator, Data, Pill, Parallelogram, Trapezoid, Document, Cylinder, Cloud, Note, Subroutine, Manual Input, Display, Delay, Preparation, Internal Storage, Off-Page Connector
  • Arrows (2) — Right Arrow, Bidirectional Arrow
  • Geometry (3) — Cube, Cone, Pyramid
  • Math (16) — Coordinate Plane, Number Line, Protractor, Graph Grid, Segment, Ray, Infinite Line, Vector, Dimension Line, Right Angle Mark, Angle Arc, Parallel Marks, Function Plot, Fraction Bar, Matrix Brackets
  • Physics (16) — Force/Velocity/Acceleration Vectors, Inclined Plane, Spring, Pulley, Mirror, Lens, Wave Ray, Battery, Resistor, Capacitor, Switch, Ground, Lamp, Current Arrow
  • Electronics (21) — Diode, LED, Photodiode, Zener Diode, Inductor, Transformer, Potentiometer, Variable Capacitor, Fuse, Relay, Motor, Speaker, Microphone, Op-Amp, Integrated Circuit, Voltmeter, Ammeter, NPN/PNP Transistor, AC/DC Source
  • Science (12) — Beaker, Flask, Test Tube, Burner, Stand Clamp, Microscope, Ruler, Scale Bar, Leader Callout, Numbered Marker, Table Block, Observation Panel
  • Computer Science — Class Box, Interface Box, Package, Component Node, Array Grid, Stack Frame, Linked List, Binary Tree, Graph Node, Process Node, Thread Node
  • Architecture — Browser, Mobile Device, Desktop App, User, Users, Terminal, Server, Service, Microservice, Container, Kubernetes Pod, Worker, Database, Cache, Object Storage, Queue, API, API Gateway, Event Bus, Webhook, Load Balancer, CDN, Firewall, Auth Service, Metrics Dashboard, Log Store

Arrow & Line Styles

3 arrow types (straight, curved, elbow with smart pathfinding), 4 arrowhead styles, 3 stroke styles (solid, dashed, dotted), and 3 fill modes with separate fill color. Connection anchors on all sides for snapping arrows to shapes. Rounded corners toggle for rectangles and diamonds.

STEM Academic Shapes (50+)

Each academic shape has a floating inspector panel for configuring domain-specific properties like axis ranges, tick intervals, grid divisions, labels, expressions, rows, and columns.

  • Expression Evaluation — Fraction Bar computes numerator/denominator expressions (e.g., sin(pi/2)/cos(pi/4) = 1.41). Angle Arc displays radians, sin, cos, and tan values.
  • Matrix Operations (9) — Add, subtract, multiply, transpose, determinant, inverse, trace, RREF with result preview and configurable precision.
  • Function Plotting — Graph sin(x), x^2, sqrt(x), ln(x) with configurable X/Y range, grid, sample count, and automatic discontinuity detection.
  • Formula Rendering — LaTeX-style math formulas with real-time preview via SwiftMath.
  • 3D Vectors — Three-component vectors with orbital rotation (free, horizontal-only, vertical-only).

Three Canvas Modes

  • Screen overlay — A transparent layer on your desktop. Draw on top of anything.
  • Fullscreen whiteboard — A solid-color canvas that fills the screen.
  • Windowed whiteboard — A resizable window with optional embedded toolbar.

4 background patterns (Blank, Dots, Grid, Lines) with adjustable spacing. Infinite canvas with pan and zoom from 10% to 500%.

AI Integration (MCP)

25 MCP tools for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Codex. AI takes a screenshot, understands context, and draws precise annotations. Batch drawing renders entire diagrams in a single atomic call with auto-sized canvas and layout guidelines. All 135+ shapes are available to AI with full configuration support.

  • Canvas management — Open, close, hide, show whiteboard
  • Drawing — Shape, formula, academic object, text, arrow, line, freehand
  • Batch — Draw multiple elements atomically (preferred for complex diagrams)
  • Canvas ops — Clear, undo, redo, set background, export as PNG
  • Save/load — Serialize and restore drawings
  • Capture — Take screenshot with coordinate mapping, get shape catalog, get status

Supports HTTP (localhost:31337) and stdio bridge transports. Compatible with MCP protocol versions 2024-10-07 through 2025-11-25.

Copy, Paste, Duplicate

Cmd+C/V/D with grouped shapes preserved. Z-order controls (front, back, forward, backward) and group/ungroup. You can also import from Excalidraw by pasting shapes, arrows, and text directly (V1 and V2 library formats supported).

Presentation Tools

  • Cursor Highlight — 4 styles (ring, filled circle, squircle, rhombus) with configurable color, size, opacity, border width, and left/right click animations.
  • Spotlight — Dims the screen except around your cursor with configurable size, dim opacity, edge softness, and follow speed (instant or smooth).
  • Keystroke Display — Floating key pills with 6 position options, configurable font size, fade duration, display width, background opacity, and modifiers-only mode.

Save & Export

Save drawings to .screenannotation files. Export as transparent PNG. Shape picker with full-text search, 8 tabbed sections, and persistent recently used shapes.

Additional Features

  • Screen Dim — Adjustable overlay darkness (0–75%) for contrast.
  • Laser Pointer — Temporary strokes with configurable fade duration.
  • Auto-Erase — Timer-based automatic removal of annotations.
  • Image Insertion — Drag or pick images (JPEG, PNG, HEIF), auto-scaled to 400pt max.

Design Principles

Menu bar app with no dock icon, always ready when you need it. The overlay never steals focus from your active application. 11-color palette for stroke and fill, multi-display support with independent overlays per screen, and 7 configurable global hotkeys plus full single-key tool shortcuts. Everything runs localhost only with no external network access, no cloud, no analytics, no tracking, and no account.

Requirements

macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later.