Region Capture
Region capture is the ShareX capture mode for selecting a specific part of the screen. Instead of capturing the entire monitor or active window, you can draw a rectangle, ellipse, or freehand region around only the area you need.
Region capture is useful for screenshots of buttons, dialogs, menus, error messages, form fields, code snippets, sections of web pages, or any other area where a full-screen capture would include unnecessary content. You can also draw annotations during the capture, copy position and size information, reuse the last selected region, or capture multiple regions depending on your task settings.
You can start region capture in several ways:
A typical region capture workflow in ShareX is:
If Multi region mode is enabled, selecting a region does not immediately finish the capture. You can create, move, resize, and adjust regions, then press Enter or double-click to capture them.
If you cancel the selection before it is completed, ShareX returns to the previous state without creating a capture.
Rectangle is the most common region type. Use it for UI elements, windows, webpage sections, dialogs, and most normal screenshot selections.
Ellipse captures an oval or circular area. It is useful when you want to focus attention on a rounded subject or create a screenshot with a non-rectangular shape.
Freehand lets you draw a custom-shaped region. Use it when the part of the screen you want does not fit a rectangle or ellipse.
Draw a rectangular annotation or selection. Rectangle annotations are useful for highlighting windows, buttons, panels, and other rectangular UI elements.
Draw an ellipse or circle annotation. Use it for rounded highlights or to call attention to a specific area.
Draw freehand strokes on the capture. This is useful for quick circles, underlines, handwritten marks, and rough highlights.
Draw a freehand arrow to point at a specific item while keeping a hand-drawn style.
Draw a straight line between two points.
Draw an arrow to point at a control, message, setting, or area of interest.
Add text annotations. Region capture supports text styles such as outline text and background text.
Add a speech balloon annotation for short callouts directly on the screenshot.
Place numbered step markers on the capture. This is useful for tutorials, guides, and multi-step screenshots.
Magnify a small part of the screen so it can be read more easily.
Insert an image from a file or from the screen as part of the capture annotation workflow.
Add a sticker annotation as a visual marker.
Insert a cursor graphic when you need to show pointer position clearly.
Cover small areas by blending with nearby colors.
Blur a selected area to hide sensitive information such as names, email addresses, tokens, or account details.
Pixelate a selected area to obscure private information while making the redaction obvious.
Highlight an area without fully covering the underlying content.
Crop the capture to the selected area.
Remove part of the capture, usually to shorten an image or remove irrelevant space.
While region capture is open, you can quickly capture a monitor or the full screen without manually dragging a region:
These shortcuts are useful on multi-monitor setups or when you start region capture but decide that a full monitor capture is faster.
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Hold left click / Insert | Start region selection |
| Delete | Delete current shape |
| Shift + Delete | Delete all shapes |
| Ctrl + C | Copy position and size info |
| Ctrl + V | Paste image or text |
| Ctrl + D | Duplicate shape |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
| Arrow keys | Move cursor / Move current shape |
| Ctrl + Arrow keys | Resize current shape from bottom-right corner |
| Alt + Arrow keys | Resize current shape from top-left corner |
| Shift + Arrow keys | Resize or move faster |
| Home | Move current shape to top |
| End | Move current shape to bottom |
| Page up | Move current shape up |
| Page down | Move current shape down |
| Mouse wheel | Change magnifier size |
| Hold Ctrl | Disable shape selection to allow drawing on top of another shape |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Release left click / Insert | Finish region selection |
| Right click / Delete | Cancel region selection |
| Hold Ctrl | Move shape |
| Hold Shift | Proportional resizing |
| Hold Alt | Snap selection to preset sizes |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Left click / Insert | Select shape |
| Hold left click | Move shape |
| Right click / Delete | Delete shape |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Esc / Right click | Close region capture |
| Tab / Middle click | Switch between last region and last drawing tool |
| Space | Fullscreen capture |
| 1 / 2 / 3 … 0 | Specific monitor capture |
| ~ | Active monitor capture |
| Double left click / Enter | Capture selected regions when multi-region mode is enabled |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| M | Select and move |
| R | Rectangle |
| E | Ellipse |
| F | Freehand |
| L | Line |
| A | Arrow |
| O | Text (Outline) |
| T | Text (Background) |
| S | Speech balloon |
| I | Step |
| B | Blur |
| P | Pixelate |
| H | Highlight |
| C | Crop image |
| X | Cut out |