What is Pin to Screen?
Pin to Screen is a ShareX tool that keeps an image visible on top of your desktop. It is useful when you want to reference a screenshot, compare two areas of the screen, keep instructions visible, or temporarily hold part of a window while working somewhere else.
A pinned image behaves like a small floating reference window. You can move it, resize it, adjust its opacity, copy it, reset it, minimize it, or close it without opening a separate image viewer.
Opening Pin to Screen
You can open Pin to Screen in several ways, depending on where the image comes from:
- Tools menu: Open Tools -> Pin to screen.
- Tools menu from screen: Use Tools -> Pin to screen (From screen) to select an area and pin it immediately.
- Tools menu from clipboard: Use Tools -> Pin to screen (From clipboard) to pin an image that is already copied to the clipboard.
- Tools menu from file: Use Tools -> Pin to screen (From file) to choose an image file and pin it.
- After capture tasks: Enable Pin to screen in the After capture tasks menu to pin captures automatically.
- Main window task list: Right click an image task in the main window and select Pin to screen.
- History windows: Open History or Image history, right click an image item, and select Pin to screen.
- Task notification: Configure a notification click action to pin the completed image.
- Hotkey: Create or edit a hotkey and set its task to Tools -> Pin to screen, Pin to screen (From screen), Pin to screen (From clipboard), or Pin to screen (From file).
Common uses
Pin to Screen is useful for many screenshot and productivity workflows:
- Keep a captured area visible while typing information into another window.
- Compare a current screen state with a previous screenshot.
- Pin a reference image while editing, testing, designing, or documenting.
- Keep a small instruction, code snippet, error message, QR code, or form value visible.
- Capture and pin menus, popups, or temporary UI elements before they disappear.
- Use opacity controls to keep the pinned image visible without fully covering the work area.
Working with pinned images
After an image is pinned, drag it with the left mouse button to move it. Use the mouse wheel or plus and minus keys to change its scale. Hold Ctrl while using the mouse wheel or plus and minus keys to change opacity.
Pinned images can be closed with right click or Escape. Middle click resets the pinned image, double click minimizes it, and Ctrl + C copies it to the clipboard.
Pinned images can show a toolbar with actions such as copy, scale, options, and close. If the pinned area is too small for the toolbar, ShareX can hide the toolbar automatically.
Pin to Screen options can control how pinned images appear and behave:
- Placement controls where the pinned image is placed.
- Placement offset adjusts the pinned image position.
- Top most keeps the pinned image above other windows.
- Keep center location keeps the center point stable while resizing.
- Shadow adds or removes a shadow around the pinned image.
- Border, Border size, and Border color control the outline.
- Minimize size controls the size used when a pinned image is minimized.
- Scale step controls how much the scale changes when using zoom shortcuts.
Tips
- Pin only the area you need when using the tool as a temporary reference.
- Lower the opacity when the pinned image covers an area you still need to see.
- Use Pin to screen (From screen) for menus, popups, tooltips, and other temporary UI elements.
- Use a hotkey if you pin screenshots frequently.
- Close pinned images when they are no longer needed to keep the desktop uncluttered.
Keybinds
| Keybind |
Description |
| Hold left click |
Move image |
| Right click / Escape |
Close image |
| Middle click |
Reset image |
| Double click |
Minimize image |
| Mouse wheel / + - |
Change image scale |
| Ctrl + Mouse wheel / Ctrl + + - |
Change image opacity |
| Ctrl + C |
Copy image |