Tiny Clips Refractored LLC

capture gif productivity screen-recorder screenshot

Use this command to install Tiny Clips with WinGet:

winget install --id=Refractored.TinyClips -e

Tiny Clips is a lightweight system-tray application designed for quick and efficient screen captures. It enables users to capture screenshots, record videos in MP4 format, and create animated GIFs with ease.

Key Features:

Region or Full-Screen Selection: Users can choose specific regions of the screen or capture the entire screen.
Global Hotkeys: Capture content quickly using predefined shortcuts without needing to navigate through menus.
Direct Saving: Captures are saved directly to default folders like Pictures and Videos, streamlining workflow.
Screenshot Editing: Post-capture editing allows for adjustments before saving.
Video and GIF Trimming: Users can trim videos and GIFs to focus on specific moments.
System-Tray Presence: Runs discretely in the system tray without requiring a dock icon.

Audience & Benefit: Ideal for users who require frequent screen captures but prefer simplicity and efficiency. Tiny Clips offers a seamless experience with minimal disruption, making it perfect for content creators, educators, or anyone needing quick access to screen capture tools.

Install via winget for easy setup on Windows.

Tiny Clips

A lightweight menu-bar (macOS) and system-tray (Windows) app for capturing screenshots (PNG), video (MP4), and animated GIFs of a selected screen region — on macOS and Windows.

tiny-clips-promo (1)

Features

Screenshot — Select a region, screen, or window and capture a PNG screenshot
Video Recording — Record to MP4 with hardware-accelerated H.264 encoding
GIF Recording — Record a screen region as an animated GIF
Capture Picker — Choose Region, Screen, or Window before any capture
Editor & Trimmers — Post-capture screenshot editor plus video and GIF trimmers
Menu Bar / Tray App — Lives in the macOS menu bar or Windows system tray with no Dock/taskbar icon
Region Selection — Drag to select any portion of any screen
Global Hotkeys — Quick capture from anywhere
Configurable — Save location, clipboard, reveal-in-Finder/Explorer, GIF quality, trimmer toggles, and more

> macOS uses Sparkle for auto-updates. On Windows, installs made through the .appinstaller update automatically with MSIX App Installer, winget installs update with winget upgrade, and Microsoft Store installs update through the Store.

macOS

Requirements

macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later
Xcode 16.0 or later (to build from source)

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips
brew trust jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips 2&gt;/dev/null || true
brew install --cask tiny-clips

The brew trust line is only needed on Homebrew versions that require trust for non-official taps; it safely no-ops elsewhere.

Download

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Build from Source

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips.git
cd tiny-clips

Open in Xcode:
```
open mac/TinyClips.xcodeproj
```
Add the Sparkle package dependency (see Sparkle Setup)
Build and run (⌘R)

Permissions

TinyClips requires Screen Recording permission. On first launch, macOS will prompt you to grant access. After granting, restart the app.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Screenshot	⌃⌥⌘5
Record Video	⌃⌥⌘6
Record GIF	⌃⌥⌘7
Screenshot Region (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Screenshot Window (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Screenshot Screen (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Copy Text from Region	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Picker: Region / Screen / Window	R / S / W
Picker: Cancel	Esc
Screenshot editor: Close	Esc / ⌘W
Stop Recording	⌘.
Settings	⌘,

Windows

A native WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK port lives under /windows.

Requirements

Windows 11 22H2 (build 22621) or later
.NET 10 SDK and Windows SDK 10.0.26100 (to build from source)

Installation

winget — Tiny Clips is published in the winget community repository, so you can install it from any Windows 11 terminal:

winget install Refractored.TinyClips

Keep it up to date with:

winget upgrade Refractored.TinyClips

A Microsoft Store listing (with optional Pro add-ons) is planned.

Build from Source

WinUI 3 requires an explicit platform (x64 or ARM64; AnyCPU is not supported).

dotnet restore windows/TinyClips.Windows.slnx
dotnet run --project windows/src/TinyClips.App/TinyClips.App.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64

See the Windows README for full build, layout, and CI details.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Screenshot	Ctrl+Shift+5
Screenshot Region (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Keyboard shortcuts
Screenshot Window (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Keyboard shortcuts
Screenshot Screen (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Keyboard shortcuts
Record Video	Ctrl+Shift+6
Record GIF	Ctrl+Shift+7
Picker: Region / Screen / Window	R / S / W
Picker: Cancel	Esc
Stop Recording	Ctrl+Shift+S

Usage

Click the Tiny Clips icon in the menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows)
Choose Screenshot, Record Video, or Record GIF
Choose Region, Screen, or Window in the capture picker (with an optional countdown)
For region recordings, confirm audio/mic options in the floating Record panel
Click the floating Stop button when done (or use the stop shortcut)

Settings

Option	Description
Save Directory	Where captures are saved (default: Pictures/TinyClips)
Copy to Clipboard	Auto-copy captures to clipboard
Reveal in Finder / Explorer	Reveal the saved file after capture
GIF Frame Rate	5–30 fps (default: 10)
GIF Max Width	320–1920 px (default: 640)
Video Frame Rate	24, 30, or 60 fps
Open Trimmer	Show trim editor after recording

Sparkle Setup (macOS)

Sparkle must be added manually via Xcode:

Open mac/TinyClips.xcodeproj in Xcode
Go to File → Add Package Dependencies...
Enter URL: https://github.com/sparkle-project/Sparkle
Select version rule: Up to Next Major Version from 2.8.1
Add the Sparkle framework to the TinyClips target

See docs/sparkle-setup.md for full setup including key generation.

App Store / Store Variants

macOS: to ship both a direct (Sparkle, non-sandbox) build and a Mac App Store (sandboxed, no Sparkle) build from one codebase, see docs/app-store-variant-setup.md.
Windows: the WinUI 3 app targets a free winget/direct build now and a Microsoft Store listing later; see /plans/windows-winui3-port-plan.md.

Architecture

macOS

ScreenCaptureKit (SCStream / SCScreenshotManager)
       │
       ├── ScreenshotCapture → CGImageDestination → PNG
       ├── VideoRecorder → AVAssetWriter → MP4
       └── GifWriter → CGImageDestination → GIF

Windows

Windows.Graphics.Capture (Direct3D11CaptureFramePool)
       │
       ├── ScreenshotService → BitmapEncoder → PNG/JPEG
       ├── VideoRecordingService → Media Foundation → H.264 MP4
       └── GifRecordingService → BitmapEncoder → GIF

See CONTRIBUTING.md and the Windows README for component-level detail.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.

Project Canvas

The TinyClips Team Load canvas shows what each teammate and the Copilot coding agent is working on across the app, website, and marketing repositories, so new work goes to whoever has room. Every person has a load meter and a profile with their momentum and assigned work. A Momentum chart tracks daily commits, PRs, and issues over 7 (default), 30, or 90 days and is cached for an hour. Unowned issues can be assigned to a person or Copilot, and an issue that already has an owner can have assignees added or removed. Open tinyclips-team-load in a Copilot host with project canvas support. The people and repositories you track are chosen in the canvas and saved in your Copilot home, not the repository.

Release Tagging Helpers

Create one or both release tags by selecting platforms (--mac, --windows):

pwsh -File scripts/create-release-tags.ps1 v1.0.8 -Mac -Windows -Push
# creates: v1.0.8-mac and v1.0.8-windows

scripts/create-release-tags.sh v1.0.8 --mac --windows --push
# creates: v1.0.8-mac and v1.0.8-windows

Copilot extension tool is also available in this repo:

release_tagging_create_tags version=v1.0.8 mac=true windows=true push=true

Tiny Clips

A lightweight menu-bar (macOS) and system-tray (Windows) app for capturing screenshots (PNG), video (MP4), and animated GIFs of a selected screen region — on macOS and Windows.

tiny-clips-promo (1)

Features

Screenshot — Select a region, screen, or window and capture a PNG screenshot
Video Recording — Record to MP4 with hardware-accelerated H.264 encoding
GIF Recording — Record a screen region as an animated GIF
Capture Picker — Choose Region, Screen, or Window before any capture
Editor & Trimmers — Post-capture screenshot editor plus video and GIF trimmers
Menu Bar / Tray App — Lives in the macOS menu bar or Windows system tray with no Dock/taskbar icon
Region Selection — Drag to select any portion of any screen
Global Hotkeys — Quick capture from anywhere
Configurable — Save location, clipboard, reveal-in-Finder/Explorer, GIF quality, trimmer toggles, and more

macOS

Requirements

macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later
Xcode 16.0 or later (to build from source)

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips
brew trust jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips 2&gt;/dev/null || true
brew install --cask tiny-clips

The brew trust line is only needed on Homebrew versions that require trust for non-official taps; it safely no-ops elsewhere.

Download

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Build from Source

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/tiny-clips.git
cd tiny-clips

Open in Xcode:
```
open mac/TinyClips.xcodeproj
```
Add the Sparkle package dependency (see Sparkle Setup)
Build and run (⌘R)

Permissions

TinyClips requires Screen Recording permission. On first launch, macOS will prompt you to grant access. After granting, restart the app.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Screenshot	⌃⌥⌘5
Record Video	⌃⌥⌘6
Record GIF	⌃⌥⌘7
Screenshot Region (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Screenshot Window (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Screenshot Screen (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Copy Text from Region	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Shortcuts
Picker: Region / Screen / Window	R / S / W
Picker: Cancel	Esc
Screenshot editor: Close	Esc / ⌘W
Stop Recording	⌘.
Settings	⌘,

Windows

A native WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK port lives under /windows.

Requirements

Windows 11 22H2 (build 22621) or later
.NET 10 SDK and Windows SDK 10.0.26100 (to build from source)

Installation

winget — Tiny Clips is published in the winget community repository, so you can install it from any Windows 11 terminal:

winget install Refractored.TinyClips

Keep it up to date with:

winget upgrade Refractored.TinyClips

A Microsoft Store listing (with optional Pro add-ons) is planned.

Build from Source

WinUI 3 requires an explicit platform (x64 or ARM64; AnyCPU is not supported).

dotnet restore windows/TinyClips.Windows.slnx
dotnet run --project windows/src/TinyClips.App/TinyClips.App.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64

See the Windows README for full build, layout, and CI details.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Screenshot	Ctrl+Shift+5
Screenshot Region (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Keyboard shortcuts
Screenshot Window (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Keyboard shortcuts
Screenshot Screen (no picker)	Not set by default; configure in Settings > Keyboard shortcuts
Record Video	Ctrl+Shift+6
Record GIF	Ctrl+Shift+7
Picker: Region / Screen / Window	R / S / W
Picker: Cancel	Esc
Stop Recording	Ctrl+Shift+S

Usage

Click the Tiny Clips icon in the menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows)
Choose Screenshot, Record Video, or Record GIF
Choose Region, Screen, or Window in the capture picker (with an optional countdown)
For region recordings, confirm audio/mic options in the floating Record panel
Click the floating Stop button when done (or use the stop shortcut)

Settings

Option	Description
Save Directory	Where captures are saved (default: Pictures/TinyClips)
Copy to Clipboard	Auto-copy captures to clipboard
Reveal in Finder / Explorer	Reveal the saved file after capture
GIF Frame Rate	5–30 fps (default: 10)
GIF Max Width	320–1920 px (default: 640)
Video Frame Rate	24, 30, or 60 fps
Open Trimmer	Show trim editor after recording

Sparkle Setup (macOS)

Sparkle must be added manually via Xcode:

Open mac/TinyClips.xcodeproj in Xcode
Go to File → Add Package Dependencies...
Enter URL: https://github.com/sparkle-project/Sparkle
Select version rule: Up to Next Major Version from 2.8.1
Add the Sparkle framework to the TinyClips target

See docs/sparkle-setup.md for full setup including key generation.

App Store / Store Variants

macOS: to ship both a direct (Sparkle, non-sandbox) build and a Mac App Store (sandboxed, no Sparkle) build from one codebase, see docs/app-store-variant-setup.md.
Windows: the WinUI 3 app targets a free winget/direct build now and a Microsoft Store listing later; see /plans/windows-winui3-port-plan.md.

Architecture

macOS

ScreenCaptureKit (SCStream / SCScreenshotManager)
       │
       ├── ScreenshotCapture → CGImageDestination → PNG
       ├── VideoRecorder → AVAssetWriter → MP4
       └── GifWriter → CGImageDestination → GIF

Windows

Windows.Graphics.Capture (Direct3D11CaptureFramePool)
       │
       ├── ScreenshotService → BitmapEncoder → PNG/JPEG
       ├── VideoRecordingService → Media Foundation → H.264 MP4
       └── GifRecordingService → BitmapEncoder → GIF

See CONTRIBUTING.md and the Windows README for component-level detail.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.

Project Canvas

Release Tagging Helpers

Create one or both release tags by selecting platforms (--mac, --windows):

pwsh -File scripts/create-release-tags.ps1 v1.0.8 -Mac -Windows -Push
# creates: v1.0.8-mac and v1.0.8-windows

scripts/create-release-tags.sh v1.0.8 --mac --windows --push
# creates: v1.0.8-mac and v1.0.8-windows

Copilot extension tool is also available in this repo:

release_tagging_create_tags version=v1.0.8 mac=true windows=true push=true