Layers

Everything you add on top of a capture is a separate layer: an arrow, a text box, a blur, a spotlight or a glass panel. Layers stay editable, so you can move, restyle, hide or delete any of them later without touching the screenshot underneath.

The layers panel

The layers panel lists the layers in your project in stacking order. You can select a layer there or by clicking it on the canvas. The panel is collapsible, so you can tuck it away when you need more room.

Select and transform

• Select a layer by clicking it on the canvas or in the layers panel. Its options appear in the inspector on the right.
• Multi-select several layers to move, align or restyle them together.
• Move a layer by dragging it.
• Resize it by dragging its handles.
• Rotate it to the angle you need.

As you move or resize, smart guides show when a layer lines up with other layers, which makes neat layouts quick. Grid and snapping preferences are in Settings.

Arrange layers

Action	Use it to
Align	Line up the selected layers with each other
Group	Combine several layers so they move and transform together
Duplicate	Make a copy, for example a second arrow with the same style
Lock	Protect a layer from accidental moves and edits
Hide	See the screenshot without a layer, then show it again
Reorder	Bring a layer forward or send it backward in the stack

Effect layers and annotation layers

Layers come in two kinds, and they behave differently at the edge of the screenshot.

Effect layers stay on the screenshot

Blur, pixelate, redaction, spotlight, glass and magnifier layers work on the pixels of the screenshot itself. They are clipped to the screenshot, so they never spill onto the background, padding or frame around it, even if you drag them partly outside.

Annotations can extend onto the background

Arrows, lines, shapes, text, callouts, speech bubbles and numbered markers are not clipped. When you place a capture on a background, an arrow can start in the empty space around the screenshot and point into it, and a label can sit in the margin beside the image.

Effect layers are drawn as part of the screenshot and annotations are drawn above them, so an arrow stays visible even where it crosses a blurred area. Reordering changes which layer sits on top within each kind.

Good to know

• Each move, resize or rotation is a single undo step.
• Redaction layers are always fully opaque. Their opacity cannot be lowered, because a see-through redaction would not hide anything.
• When you export, you can export just the selected layers instead of the whole image.

Related

• The editor and its tools
• Text and annotations
• Blur, pixelate and redact
• Spotlight