🖼️ shotctl — macOS Screenshot Settings, From the Terminal

A tiny CLI for the macOS screenshot settings that are otherwise buried in defaults write com.apple.screencapture incantations — format, save location, window shadow, and filename prefix.

shotctl format jpg
shotctl location ~/Screenshots
shotctl status

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📥 Installation

brew install sleipner01/tap/shotctl

That's it. Tab completions work immediately — no .zshrc changes needed.

To update later: brew upgrade shotctl.

🛠️ Usage

Command	What it does
shotctl format <fmt>	Set the screenshot image format
shotctl location <dir>	Set the directory screenshots are saved to
shotctl shadow <on|off>	Include or drop the window shadow on window captures
shotctl prefix <string>	Set the screenshot filename prefix
shotctl status	Show all current settings
shotctl reset [setting]	Restore one setting — or all of them — to the macOS default

Plus -h/--help and -v/--version.

Run any setting with no argument and it reports the current value instead of erroring, so you never have to remember the defaults key:

$ shotctl location
location: /Users/you/Screenshots

Change it with:  shotctl location <directory>

Every write is read back and verified, so you find out immediately if macOS didn't take the change.

$ shotctl status
com.apple.screencapture
  format    jpg
  location  /Users/you/Screenshots
  shadow    off
  prefix    Shot

Supported formats

png · jpg · jpeg · pdf · tiff · gif · bmp · heic

• PNG — best for UI screenshots, text, graphics (lossless). The macOS default.
• JPG/JPEG — best for photos (lossy, much smaller files)
• HEIC — modern, good compression (macOS 10.13+)
• PDF — vector-friendly, handy for print workflows
• TIFF — large files, high quality (rarely needed)
• GIF — limited use (256 colors)
• BMP — uncompressed, rarely useful

An unrecognised format is passed through with a warning rather than rejected — macOS may support formats this list doesn't know about.

💡 Why this tool?

I take many screenshots of print products, where the optimal format varies. Switching formats lets me significantly reduce file size on both:

• internal servers, and
• the websites where these images are used.

This tool makes that switch instant and painless 🚀

📦 Requirements

macOS. Nothing else — the script runs on the zsh that ships with the system.

Note: changing the save location or format affects the built-in screenshot UI (⌘⇧3 / ⌘⇧4 / ⌘⇧5). The screencapture command-line tool takes an explicit filename and ignores these settings.

🚀 Releasing

Tagging is all that's required — CI computes the checksum, bumps the Homebrew formula in sleipner01/homebrew-tap, and cuts the GitHub release:

git tag v1.1.0 && git push origin v1.1.0

The VERSION constant in bin/shotctl stays "dev" in git — the formula rewrites it at install time from the tag, so it can never drift.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to:

• Report bugs or suggest features via Issues
• Submit pull requests for improvements
• Share feedback or use cases

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.