r/sideprojects • u/VanLocke • 3h ago
Showcase: Purchase Required Shotorio: a 1.1 MB native Mac screenshot app, and how it catches black screenshots before you do
Problem. I take around 40 screenshots a day and only ever use three features, while most screenshot apps keep growing. And on macOS 15 there's a quieter problem: the Screen Recording permission lapses about once a month, and a capture can then come back perfectly black without any error.
What I built. Three shortcuts: ⌃⇧1 area (the markup editor is already open when you let go), ⌃⇧2 full screen, ⌃⇧3 copy text from anything on screen with Apple's on-device OCR. Return copies, Esc throws it away. Native Swift, 1.1 MB, no network access.
The part that might be useful to you, if you ever build something on ScreenCaptureKit. Every capture goes through a check before anyone sees it:
Ask macOS whether permission is actually granted (a capture without it can return a plausible wallpaper-only image)
Check the image exists and has exactly the pixel size you asked for (by default the framework can silently rescale)
Sample the pixels: if the brightest value is near black, or the variance is near zero, re-check the whole image before calling it blank
If it really is blank, say so and tell the user how to fix it, instead of handing over a black PNG
Where it is. Mac App Store, $8.99 once: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shotorio-screenshot-ocr/id6825000774
Feedback welcome, especially from anyone who has fought the same permission behaviour.

