Quick Access Overlay (Quick Preview)

What the Quick Access Overlay is

After you take a screenshot, a small thumbnail slides in at the corner of your screen. In the app and in Settings it is called Quick Preview. Your screenshot is saved and copied to the clipboard at the same time, so you can ignore the thumbnail and just paste, or use it to act on the capture right away.

When it appears

Quick Preview appears after Capture Area, Capture Area with Delay, Capture Screen, Capture Window, Repeat Last Screenshot and Capture Website, and when you restore a capture from Capture History. Capture Area (Editor) opens the editor instead, and Recognize Text only copies text. Screen recordings also end in Quick Preview, with buttons made for recordings.

Drag it into any app

Dragging the thumbnail is the fastest way to share a screenshot without saving or attaching anything by hand.

1. 1Press and hold on the thumbnail.
2. 2Drag it into a chat, an email, a document, a design tool, or a folder in Finder or File Explorer.
3. 3Release to drop the screenshot file there.

Buttons on the thumbnail

Hover over the thumbnail to show its buttons. Hovering also pauses auto-close.

1. 1Edit: opens the screenshot in the editor.
2. 2Upload & copy link: uploads the screenshot to ScreenSnap Cloud and copies a share link. It appears when Cloud Upload is on and Auto Upload is off.
3. 3Pin Screenshot: keeps the screenshot floating above all windows. See Pin Screenshots.
4. 4Copy Text (OCR): copies all the text in the screenshot. A check mark confirms it and the thumbnail closes.
5. 5Delete Screenshot: deletes the saved file from your computer and closes the thumbnail.
6. 6Click the image itself to open the file in your default image viewer.

Share a link from the thumbnail

Click Upload & copy link and wait for the check mark. The thumbnail then closes and the share link is on your clipboard, ready to paste into a chat or an email. Uploading needs an active license and Cloud Upload turned on in Settings > Cloud.

Dismiss it or let it close

Quick Preview closes by itself after 5 seconds by default. To dismiss it sooner, drag it toward the screen edge it sits against, or swipe sideways with two fingers on a trackpad. Dismissing only hides the thumbnail. Your file stays saved.

Change position, size and timing

Open Settings > Quick Preview to adjust how the thumbnail behaves:

1. 1Position: Bottom Right (default), Bottom Left, Top Right or Top Left.
2. 2Size: Extra small, Small, Medium (default), Large or Extra large.
3. 3Auto-close: when on (default), choose an Interval of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11 seconds. When off, the thumbnail stays until you swipe it away or use one of its buttons.
4. 4Close after dragging (on by default): dismiss the thumbnail after you drop it somewhere.
5. 5Move to active screen (on by default): show the thumbnail on the display where your pointer is. When off, it always appears on the primary display.

After a screen recording

When a recording finishes, Quick Preview shows it with its own buttons: Open Video Editor to edit it, Create Link to share it, and Delete Recording, which moves the recording to the Trash on Mac or the Recycle Bin on Windows. See Screen Recording.