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Effects

Spotlight

Use Spotlight in InnoShot to keep one or more areas of a screenshot clear while dimming, blurring or desaturating everything around them.

Updated

Spotlight draws attention to the part of a screenshot that matters. You mark one or more regions, and InnoShot applies an effect such as dimming or blur to everything outside them, so the reader's eye goes straight to the button, field or message you are talking about.

Add a spotlight

  1. Open your capture in the editor.
  2. Pick the spotlight tool from the tool rail on the left.
  3. Choose a shape, then draw it over the area you want to keep clear.
  4. Adjust the outside effect and the styling in the inspector on the right.

A spotlight is a layer like any other. You can select it later to move, resize, hide or lock it, and every change can be undone.

Shapes and regions

You can draw a spotlight region as a:

  • rectangle or rounded rectangle
  • ellipse or circle
  • freehand shape, for irregular areas
  • polygon, for angled outlines

Add more regions when you need to point at more than one thing at once, such as a label and the field it describes.

The invert option flips the effect. The regions you draw receive the effect and the rest of the screenshot stays untouched. This is useful when you want to play down one distracting area rather than highlight another.

Outside effects

The outside effect decides what happens to everything beyond your regions:

Effect What it does
Dim Darkens or tints the surroundings, with a color and opacity you choose
Blur Softens the surroundings so details recede
Desaturate Removes color outside the regions, leaving the spotlighted area in full color
Dark glass A darker, glass-like treatment of the surroundings
Frosted glass A lighter, frosted treatment of the surroundings
Vignette Darkens gradually toward the edges of the image
Feather Softens the edge between the clear region and its surroundings

Start gently. A strong effect can make the rest of the screenshot unreadable, and that context is often what helps people find their way in the real interface.

Styling the regions

Each spotlight can carry its own outline and depth:

  • Border: solid or gradient, with an adjustable width.
  • Radius: rounds the corners of rectangular regions.
  • Glow: an outer glow, an inner glow, or both.
  • Shadow: lifts the region off its surroundings.
  • Padding: adds breathing room around the highlighted content.
  • Scale emphasis: enlarges the content inside the region slightly so it stands out.

Presets

InnoShot includes editable spotlight presets that combine an outside effect with styling. Apply one as a starting point, adjust it, and save your own version so a whole series of screenshots shares the same look.

Typical uses

  • Step-by-step guides, where each screenshot highlights the next control to click.
  • Bug reports, to show exactly where a problem appears.
  • Release notes that point to a new feature.
  • Slides and social posts, where a dimmed surrounding keeps a busy interface readable at a glance.

Good to know

  • Spotlight effects apply to the screenshot itself, not to the background or frame around it.
  • Arrows, text and other annotations always sit above the spotlight, so labels stay crisp.
  • Blur in a spotlight is a visual effect, not a privacy tool. To hide passwords, tokens or personal data, use redaction.
  • Scale emphasis never shows pixels you have redacted.

Still stuck? See troubleshooting or contact us.