Free, open source, and built for fast bug reports and walkthroughs on Windows

Screenshot, annotate, and share on Windows in under 60 seconds

Pointframe is the fast Windows capture workflow for engineers, support, and product teams. Screenshot or record, add arrows and blur, then copy or send without jumping between tools — from the tray app, a scriptable CLI, or an AI agent over MCP.

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Download Pointframe Free

Free and open source No account required Install via winget or the installer Works on Windows 10 and 11

Report bugs faster

Capture, annotate with arrows and numbers, and attach clear evidence to tickets without switching tools.

See bug report workflow

Create guided recordings

Record your screen with live drawing, blur sensitive data, trim the result, and export MP4 or GIF for docs and demos.

See recording workflow

Extract text instantly

Use OCR to copy text from screenshots and UI states when regular copy paste is not possible.

See OCR workflow

Why this Windows screenshot and screen recording tool stands out

Built for fast screen capture, live explanation, and sharing without post-editing friction.

Live Video Annotations

Draw, highlight, and point things out while you are recording. Switch between draw mode and interact mode from the floating HUD. No need for complicated post-production video editing to explain a bug or tutorial.

Ctrl+Shift+R starts a whole-screen recording

Privacy First (Live Blur)

Drag over sensitive content (passwords, emails, API keys) to apply a Gaussian blur instantly. It stays blurred even in your exported video recordings.

Built-in OCR (Text Extraction)

Can't copy text from an image or video? Just lasso the text on your screen with Pointframe, and it instantly extracts and copies it to your clipboard. Runs fully offline via Windows OCR.

Searchable Capture Library

New

Every saved capture lands in a built-in library. Browse thumbnails, filter by date range, and search by filename — or by the text inside the screenshot, thanks to OCR indexing. That error dialog from three weeks ago is one search away.

Clean Window Snip

New

Capture the active window with clean edges in one keystroke — no manual region dragging, no desktop clutter around it.

Ctrl+Shift+W

Pin to Screen

Working on something complex? Pin a captured screenshot as a floating, always-on-top window for quick reference while you code or type.

Precision Capture Tools

A frozen-screen snapshot, zoom loupe for pixel-accurate selection, color picker, pixel ruler, and a configurable capture delay (3 / 5 / 10 s) for catching menus and hover states.

Trim, Watermark, and Export

New

Trim recordings right in the app — no video editor required. Optionally burn a watermark into MP4 output, and export high-quality MP4 videos or lightweight GIFs that embed cleanly into pull requests, Jira tickets, Slack messages, and docs.

Microphone Audio

Explain what you are doing with your voice. Pointframe captures any Windows input device alongside the screen and your live annotations to create complete, intuitive video guides.

Automate captures with the Pointframe MCP server and CLI

Give AI agents and scripts direct access to monitor and window discovery, screenshots, on-screen text, and recordings on Windows — no tray app, overlay window, or manual capture required.

Pointframe MCP Server

New

A standalone Model Context Protocol server for AI agents that need a real, verifiable screenshot or recording instead of a text-only description. List displays and windows, capture a monitor, a sub-region, or a single window to a PNG artifact, read on-screen text with OCR, or start and stop a redaction-aware MP4 recording — all as local MCP tools.

list_displays / list_windows
capture_monitor        → PNG, shown to the model inline
capture_window         → PNG of one window
read_text_from_monitor → PNG + OCR text
read_text_from_window  → PNG + OCR text
search_captures        → find saved screenshots by text
get_capture            → one saved capture + preview
start_recording        → MP4 (redaction-aware)
get_recording_status   → is a recording active?
stop_recording         → finalized artifact

Set it up in Claude, VS Code, or Cursor → llms.txt for agents →

Standalone CLI

New

A self-contained Windows command-line tool for scripts and terminals. Download the release ZIP, run .\Pointframe.Cli.exe install, then run pointframe — no .NET runtime and no Pointframe app process required. Every command returns single-line JSON on both success and failure, with stable error codes for scripting.

.\Pointframe.Cli.exe install
pointframe displays
pointframe windows
pointframe capture --monitor \\.\DISPLAY1 -o shot.png
pointframe capture-window --window-id 12345678
pointframe ocr --monitor \\.\DISPLAY1
pointframe record --monitor \\.\DISPLAY1 --seconds 10

Read the CLI docs →

Let your coding agent test the real Windows UI

New

pointframe verify runs your project's own build and test commands. A Stop hook keeps Claude Code or Codex working until the last verdict is a fresh pass on the current files. Windows x64; after five blocks the agent may stop, and the message says the work was not verified.

pointframe verify init
pointframe verify run
pointframe verify status

See how verification works →

Useful for AI-assisted bug reports, verifying that a UI change actually rendered, generating test evidence, and scripted diagnostics — every capture produces a local artifact with a SHA-256 hash, monitor geometry, and DPI metadata. Both the MCP server and the CLI are Windows-only and require an interactive desktop session.

Shipping steadily — here is what's new

Pointframe gets regular releases. The highlights from the last few months:

Sep 2026

Window capture and OCR for automation

  • List windows and capture a single window by handle, from the CLI and MCP
  • Read on-screen text with OCR over MCP, not just in the app
  • Choose the exact output file with --output instead of a generated name

Sep 2026

Built for AI agents and automation

  • New standalone MCP server exposing display, capture, and recording tools
  • New self-contained CLI — no installer or .NET runtime required
  • Every automated capture ships with SHA-256 checksum and metadata

Jul 2026

Faster and more polished

  • Tray menu refresh with clearer grouping and icons
  • Capture Library OCR search hardening for large libraries
  • Performance optimizations in capture and recording hot paths

See the full release history on GitHub →

A practical alternative to Windows Snipping Tool, ShareX, Greenshot, and Snagit

People usually find Pointframe when they need a Windows screenshot tool with cleaner recording, easier annotation, or built-in OCR.

Compared with Windows Snipping Tool

Pointframe adds live recording annotations, built-in OCR, blur redaction, clean window snips, pinned screenshots, and a searchable capture library — faster explanation workflows for bug reports and tutorials.

Snipping Tool comparison

Compared with ShareX and Greenshot

Pointframe focuses on a simpler day-to-day capture experience with fewer setup steps, a cleaner UI, and quick access to the exact tools most people use constantly.

ShareX comparisonGreenshot comparison

Compared with Snagit

Pointframe gives you a free Windows screen capture and recording workflow with live markup, blur, OCR, a searchable capture library, and in-app video trimming — without requiring a paid license.

Snagit comparison

If you are searching for a free screen capture tool for Windows, a screen recorder with annotations, or a way to copy text from screenshots on Windows, this is the exact problem space Pointframe is designed for.

It works well for software demos, support tickets, bug reports, internal documentation, step-by-step tutorials, and any workflow where you need to show the important part of the screen quickly and clearly.

Popular guides people actually search for

These pages target the exact Windows screenshot, OCR, and recording problems people search for before they discover Pointframe.

Let your coding agent test the real Windows UI

Inspect your app, drive its controls, and run repeatable checks with screenshots and signed evidence.

Windows screenshot MCP server for AI agents

Let Claude, Copilot, or Cursor capture, read, and record your Windows screen through a free local MCP server.

Screen recorder with annotations for Windows

A dedicated page for people searching for Windows screen recording with live drawing, blur, and tutorial-friendly explanation tools.

Free Windows Snipping Tool alternative

A comparison page for users looking for more than the built-in Windows screenshot tool can offer.

How to copy text from a screenshot on Windows

An OCR-focused page for the high-intent search query around extracting text from screenshots and images.

Free Snagit alternative for Windows

How Pointframe covers the core Snagit workflows — capture, markup, blur, recording — for free.

How to blur a screen recording on Windows

Apply live blur to passwords and sensitive content while recording — no video editor needed.

Screen capture tool for bug reports

Capture, annotate with numbered steps, and attach evidence to tickets without leaving your workflow.

ShareX alternative for Windows teams

A simpler workflow for everyday screenshot, blur, and recording tasks without heavy setup.

Greenshot alternative for Windows

Keep the fast capture and markup loop, and add the screen recording Greenshot never had.

How to blur sensitive info in screenshots

Quickly hide passwords, emails, and tokens before sharing screenshots in chats, docs, and tickets.

Pick the workflow that matches your role

Pointframe is designed for practical communication in product, engineering, and support teams.

For QA and testing

Capture reproducible visual evidence, annotate expected versus actual behavior, and attach one artifact to your issue tracker. Find old evidence again with library search.

For support and success

Respond to customer issues with short, clear recordings that show fixes step by step — trim out the dead air before sending, without extra editing tools.

For product and engineering

Share async walkthroughs, capture edge cases quickly, and keep implementation context visible with pinned screenshots.