Region Capture
Region capture is a ShareX feature that lets you select a particular portion of your screen. Instead of capturing the entire display or just the active window, you can outline the precise area you need using a rectangle, ellipse, or a freehand shape.
This feature is ideal for screenshots of interface elements like buttons, menus, dialog boxes, error messages, form fields, code sections, or parts of web pages—any instance where a full-screen image would contain superfluous information. During the capture process, you can also add annotations, copy size and position details, reuse the previous selection, or capture multiple areas, depending on your task settings.
You can initiate region capture through several methods:
Here's a common sequence for performing a region capture in ShareX:
If Multi-Region Captureis enabled, selecting an area does not instantly finalize the capture. You can create, move, resize, and adjust multiple regions. Then, pressEnter or double-click to capture them.
If you cancel the selection before completing it, ShareX will revert to its previous state without creating a capture.
The rectangle is the most common region shape. Use it for capturing user interface elements, windows, specific webpage sections, dialog boxes, and most standard screenshot selections.
Ellipse captures an oval or circular area. This is useful for drawing attention to a rounded subject or for creating screenshots with non-rectangular shapes.
Freehand allows you to define a custom-shaped region. Employ this option when the screen area you wish to capture does not fit a rectangular or elliptical form.
Draw a rectangular annotation or selection. Rectangle annotations are helpful for highlighting windows, buttons, panels, and other rectangular UI components.
Draw an ellipse or circle annotation. Use this for circular highlights or to emphasize a particular area.
Draw freehand lines on the capture. This is useful for quick circles, underlines, handwritten marks, and rough highlights.
Draw an arrow freehand to point at a specific item, maintaining a hand-drawn look.
Draw a straight line between two points.
Draw an arrow to indicate a control, message, setting, or area of interest.
Add text annotations. Region capture supports text styles like outline text and background text.
Add a speech bubble annotation for brief callouts directly on the screenshot.
Place numbered step markers on the capture. This feature is beneficial for tutorials, guides, and multi-step screenshots.
Magnify a small portion of the screen to enhance readability.
Insert an image from a file or directly from the screen as part of your capture annotation process.
Add a sticker annotation to serve as a visual marker.
Add a cursor image to clearly indicate the pointer's location.
Blend small sections with surrounding colors to seamlessly cover them.
Obscure names, email addresses, tokens, or account details by blurring a chosen area.
Pixelate a selected section to make private data unreadable and visibly redacted.
Emphasize an area without completely obscuring the content beneath it.
Trim the captured image to only include the selected area.
Remove a segment of the capture, typically to shorten the image or eliminate unused space.
When the region capture tool is active, you can quickly capture a monitor or the entire screen without having to manually draw a selection box:
These shortcuts prove beneficial in multi-monitor setups or when you begin a region capture but then decide a full monitor capture is more efficient.
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Hold left click / Insert | Begin region selection |
| Delete | Remove current shape |
| Shift + Delete | Remove all shapes |
| Ctrl + C | Duplicate position and dimension data |
| Ctrl + V | Insert image or text content |
| Ctrl + D | Create an identical shape |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
| Arrow keys | Adjust cursor position / Shift the active shape |
| Ctrl + Arrow keys | Resize the current shape from its bottom-right corner |
| Alt + Arrow keys | Resize the current shape from its top-left corner |
| Shift + Arrow keys | Accelerate resizing or movement |
| Home | Place the current shape at the top edge |
| End | Place the current shape at the bottom edge |
| Page up | Move the current shape upward |
| Page down | Move the current shape downward |
| Mouse wheel | Alter magnifier dimensions |
| Hold Ctrl | Deactivate shape selection to enable drawing over another shape |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Release left click / Insert | Complete region selection |
| Right click / Delete | Cancel region selection process |
| Hold Ctrl | Move shape |
| Hold Shift | Maintain aspect ratio during resizing |
| Hold Alt | Align selection to predefined dimensions |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Left click / Insert | Choose shape |
| Hold left click | Move shape |
| Right click / Delete | Remove shape |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| Esc / Right click | Terminate region capture |
| Tab / Middle click | Toggle between the most recent region and the last drawing tool used |
| Space | Capture the entire screen |
| 1 / 2 / 3 … 0 | Capture a specific monitor |
| ~ | Capture the active monitor |
| Double left click / Enter | When multi-region mode is active, capture chosen regions |
| Keybind | Description |
|---|---|
| M | Choose and relocate |
| R | Rectangle |
| E | Ellipse |
| F | Freehand |
| L | Line |
| A | Arrow |
| O | Text (Bordered) |
| T | Text (Filled) |
| S | Speech bubble |
| I | Step |
| B | Blur |
| P | Pixelate |
| H | Highlight |
| C | Crop image |
| X | Cut out |