Add arrows and annotations to a Mac screenshot

You send a screenshot to a colleague and write “see the button on the left” — and then have to clarify which button on the left, because there are four. One arrow saves you three follow-up messages.

Two paths

The free way (built-in macOS Markup)

macOS’s Markup tool (the one tucked inside Preview and the screenshot floating preview) has the basics — shapes, text, a draw tool, a small palette of colours.

1. Take a screenshot with ⌘⇧4. Click the floating preview that appears in the corner before it disappears.
2. In the Markup toolbar, click the shapes button and pick the arrow.
3. Drag to draw the arrow. Use the colour and line-thickness pickers to style it.
4. Add a text box if you need a caption — click the T icon, drag a region, and type.
5. Click Done to save the changes back into the screenshot.

This works. The downsides: only one arrow style, no proper highlight tool, and once you save, every annotation is flattened into pixels. Change your mind about the arrow position later and you’ll be re-cropping and redrawing.

The Bench way

Bench’s editor opens automatically after every capture and gives you a richer set of tools — and every annotation stays editable forever.

1. Take a screenshot with ⌘⇧2 (area) or ⌘⇧1 (full screen). The editor opens.
2. Click the Arrow tool. Drag from where the arrow should start to where it should point. Pick a style — classic, tapered, line, thick, or double-ended — from the inspector.
3. Use the Rectangle or Oval tools to box things in. Use Highlight to draw a semi-transparent emphasis stroke over text.
4. Add captions with the Text tool. Use the Pen for freehand scribbles when you want to circle something organically.
5. Click any annotation later to move it, recolour it, change its style, or delete it. Nothing is baked in until you share.

Two small tips that pay off:

• Less is more. One bold arrow beats five small ones. If you’re tempted to add a fourth arrow, ask whether the screenshot just needs to be cropped tighter instead.
• Pick one accent colour. A red arrow next to a yellow box next to a green highlight reads as noise. Stick to a single colour per screenshot and the eye goes where you want it.

When you’re done, hit Share. Bench Cloud bakes in the annotations on export and gives you a bnch.sh/… link with an unguessable code. If you want the version with a different annotation set later, edit and re-share — the original PNG and the annotations stay on your Mac, untouched.