Grab

⌃⌥S

Point at what you mean. An area, a window, a screen, or a short video of it.

A grab is how you show fab what you mean. Press ⌃⌥S to grab the way you did last time, or hold it to pick: an area, a window, or a whole screen, in high or low definition, as a picture or a short video.

Grab while you talk and the grab lands in your words where you took it. Grab on its own and it waits in the corner, ready to mark up, talk about, paste, or drag into another app.

Every state

What grab can show you.

Picker

Hold ⌃⌥S. A for area, S for a screen, D for a window. Closes on its own after 10 seconds.

Area

Drag a box, then nudge it with the arrow keys. H J K L grow it; hold ⇧ to shrink.

Window

Hover a window to light it, or ⇥ through them. Arrows jump to the nearest one.

Video

Records what you picked, with the pointer, for up to 2 minutes. The strip shows the time.

In the corner

A grab taken on its own waits in the tray: mark it up, talk about it, copy it.

Keys

What your hands do.

⌃⌥S
Grab the same way as last time.
hold
Hold ⌃⌥S to open the picker.
ASD
Area, screen, window. Switch freely while picking.
H
High or low definition.
T
Include the window’s UI tree as text, next to the picture.
V
Video instead of a picture.
↵
Take it.
esc
Cancel.

Settings

What you can change.

DefinitionHigh
Low is 1× and at most 1280 px on the long side: smaller files to send.
UI treeOff
Saves the window’s accessibility tree next to the picture.
VideoOff
30 fps in high definition, 15 in low. No sound; fab’s own windows stay out.
Selection lookDarkroom
How the picker dims the screen. Themeable.

Behind it

What fab does with it.

  1. Pick

    The picker remembers your last choice, so most grabs are one press.

  2. Save

    A numbered picture or video in the take’s folder, with a poster frame for videos.

  3. Join

    In a take, it lands in your words as [n]. On its own, it waits in the tray.

  4. Hand on

    Mark it up, talk about it, or paste it with ⌃⌥V.

Worth knowing

The small things it gets right.

  • Your very first grab always asks how; after that, a quick press repeats it.
  • A video stops with ⌃⌥S, a click on the strip’s timer, or at 2 minutes. Esc won’t cut it short by accident.
  • Drag a grab out of the preview into any app as a file.

Next in the tour

Mark up →

Draw a box round the problem. The grab, and the demo video, keep your marks.

Guides that use it

Try it on your own Mac.

Download fab0.2.1437 MB · macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon