SnapNote Studio

SnapNote Studio is a screen capture and annotation tool for Windows. Capture any area of your screen, annotate it with arrows, shapes, text, and visual effects, extract text with Windows OCR, and translate OCR results with Ollama.

日本語版 README

Features

Capture

• Region selection: Click and drag to select any area of your screen
• Window selection: Click a window to capture the visible window bounds
• Previous region capture: Press Space before dragging to show the previous capture region, then press Enter to capture it again
• Capture timer: Press 1–9 before selecting an area or window to capture it after a visible 1–9 second countdown
• Multi-monitor support: Works seamlessly across multiple displays
• High DPI support: Crisp captures on high-resolution displays

Annotation Tools

Tool	Shortcut	Description
Move	Space	Move the image viewport by dragging
Select	V	Select and move annotations
Arrow	A	Draw arrows to point at things
Line	L	Draw straight lines
Rectangle	R	Draw rectangles
Ellipse	E	Draw ellipses/circles
Text	T	Add text with customizable font size
Number	N	Add numbered steps (①②③...)
Highlighter	H	Semi-transparent highlight pen

Effect Tools

Tool	Shortcut	Description
Fill	F	Draw filled rectangles
Mosaic	M	Pixelate sensitive information
Blur	B	Blur sensitive areas
Spotlight	S	Darken everything except selected area
Magnifier	G	Zoom in on a specific area

Image Operations

• Crop: Trim the image to a selected area
• Rotate: Rotate the image 90° clockwise
• Resize: Scale the image with aspect ratio preservation
• Sharpen: Apply a gentle sharpen filter to the image

OCR and Translation

• Windows OCR: Extract text from the current image with the Windows OCR engine
• Multiple OCR languages: Select one or more installed Windows OCR languages; the best recognition result is used automatically
• Structured text: Preserve paragraphs and consecutive bullet or numbered list items in OCR output
• Integrated result pane: Review, edit, copy, and resize the OCR result pane without leaving the editor; use Ctrl + mouse wheel to change its text size
• Ollama translation: Translate OCR results through a configured Ollama endpoint and model, with a selectable or custom target language
• Quick and automatic processing: Run OCR, OCR plus translation, Auto OCR, or Auto Translate directly from the editor

Additional Features

• Editor zoom and pan: Use the mouse wheel to zoom up to 1200%, then drag in Move mode or use the middle/right mouse button to pan
• Undo/Redo: Full history support (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y)
• Copy to clipboard: Quick sharing (Ctrl+C)
• Save to file: Automatically saves PNG files with timestamp-based names (Ctrl+S)
• Save location setting: Choose the folder used for automatic saves
• Customizable hotkey: Choose your preferred capture shortcut
• Elevated-app hotkeys: The signed installer keeps capture hotkeys available while administrator applications such as Rufus are active
• Customizable editor shortcuts: Configure Copy, Save, OCR, Translate, and Close key combinations
• Reuse editor window: Use "New Here" to load the next capture into the current editor instead of opening another window
• Remembered workspace: Editor size, position, maximized state, automatic OCR/translation toggles, and the reuse-window toggle are retained
• System tray: Runs quietly in the background
• Multi-language: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Korean support

System Requirements

• Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
• An installed Windows OCR language pack for each language you want to recognize
• Ollama and an installed model are required only for translation

Release builds are self-contained; the .NET runtime does not need to be installed separately.

Installation

Option 1: Download Installer

1. Download the installer (SnapNoteStudio_Setup_x.x.x.exe) from the Latest Release page
2. Run the installer as administrator and follow the on-screen instructions

The signed release is installed under Program Files and uses Windows uiAccess so capture hotkeys can be received while elevated applications are active. UAC secure-desktop prompts cannot be captured.

Option 2: Build from Source

Prerequisites

• .NET 8.0 SDK
• Inno Setup (only required for creating the installer)
• Visual Studio 2022 or VS Code (optional)

Build Steps

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/fukuyori/snapnote.git
cd snapnote

# Restore dependencies
dotnet restore

# Build
dotnet build -c Release

# Run
dotnet run -c Release

Publish as Single Executable

.\scripts\build-release.ps1

# Output: bin/Release/net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win-x64/publish/SnapNoteStudio.exe

# Plain unsigned build for local testing
.\scripts\build-release.ps1 -NoUiAccess

The default release executable contains uiAccess="true" and only starts after it is Authenticode-signed with a machine-trusted certificate and installed under Program Files. Use -NoUiAccess when running directly from the publish directory.

Creating the Installer

With Inno Setup installed, run the following:

# Signed per-machine installer with uiAccess support
$env:CODESIGN_CERT = "<thumbprint | subject name | path\to\certificate.pfx>"
.\scripts\build-installer.ps1 -Sign

# Output: installer_output/SnapNoteStudio_Setup_4.1.0.exe

# Unsigned per-user installer without elevated-app hotkey support
.\scripts\build-installer.ps1 -NoUiAccess

Usage

Starting a Capture

1. Hotkey: Press Ctrl+Shift+S (default) to start capture mode
2. System Tray: Double-click the tray icon, or right-click and select "Capture"

Capture Mode

1. Optionally press 1–9 to set a capture delay of 1–9 seconds
2. Click and drag to select the area you want to capture
3. Click a window without dragging to capture that window
4. With a timer set, the countdown starts after selection and a fresh screenshot is taken when it reaches zero
5. Press Space before dragging to show the previous capture region, then press Enter to capture it
6. Press Escape to cancel

If no number key is pressed, capture remains immediate.

Editor

1. Use the left sidebar to select Move mode or annotation tools
2. Adjust color, thickness, and opacity in the top toolbar
3. Draw annotations on the image
4. Use the mouse wheel to zoom, then drag in Move mode or drag with the middle/right mouse button to pan
5. Use Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Y to redo
6. Click "Copy" or press Ctrl+C to copy to clipboard
7. Click "Save" or press Ctrl+S to save to the configured folder
8. Use Ctrl+X, Ctrl+W, or Ctrl+Q for quick close workflows

OCR and Translation

1. In Settings, select the installed Windows languages that OCR should try. If none are selected, the Windows profile languages are used
2. Click "OCR" or press Ctrl+Shift+O to extract text into the resizable result pane
3. Edit the recognized text if needed, then copy it with the pane's "Copy" button
4. For translation, start Ollama and configure its endpoint and model in Settings. The default endpoint is http://localhost:11434
5. Choose a target language and click "Translate", or use "Trans" / Ctrl+Shift+T to run OCR and translation together
6. Enable "Auto OCR" or "Auto Trans" to process every newly loaded capture automatically

Settings

Right-click the system tray icon and select "Settings" to open the settings dialog.

Setting	Description	Default
Language	Switch the display language. Supports English / 日本語 / 简体中文 / Español / 한국어	English
Capture hotkey	Select the shortcut key to start screen capture. Available options: PrintScreen / Ctrl+PrintScreen / Alt+PrintScreen / Ctrl+Shift+S / Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Alt+S / F12 / Ctrl+F12	Ctrl+Shift+S
Start with Windows	When checked, SnapNote Studio will automatically start when Windows starts. Registered via registry (HKCU)	OFF
Save location	Folder used by automatic PNG saves. The folder is created when needed	Pictures\SnapNote Studio
Thickness	Set the default stroke thickness for drawing tools (1–10)	3
Opacity	Set the default opacity for drawing tools (10%–100%)	100%
OCR languages	Select one or more installed Windows OCR languages. With no selection, Windows profile languages are used	None selected
Ollama endpoint	Ollama server used to translate OCR results	http://localhost:11434
Ollama model	Model used for translation; "Refresh" lists models available from the configured endpoint	Not set
Editor shortcuts	Configure Copy, Save, OCR, Translate, and Close shortcuts; each must include Ctrl, Alt, or Win	See defaults below

Keyboard Shortcuts

Global

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+S	Start capture (default, configurable)

Editor (defaults)

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+C	Copy to clipboard (configurable)
Ctrl+X	Copy to clipboard and close
Ctrl+S	Save to file (configurable)
Ctrl+W	Save to file and close
Ctrl+Shift+O	Run OCR (configurable)
Ctrl+Shift+T	Run OCR and translate (configurable)
Ctrl+Q	Close without saving (configurable)
Delete	Delete selected annotation
Escape	Deselect / Cancel crop mode
Space	Switch to Move mode
Mouse wheel	Zoom in/out
Middle/right button drag	Move the image viewport
V, A, L, R, E, T, N, H, F, M, B, S, G	Tool shortcuts

Capture Overlay

Shortcut	Action
1–9	Set a 1–9 second delay that starts after selecting an area or window
Space	Show the previous capture region before dragging
Enter	Capture the displayed previous region
Escape	Cancel capture

Configuration

Settings are stored in:

%APPDATA%\SnapNoteStudio\settings.json

Window-selection diagnostics are appended to:

%APPDATA%\SnapNoteStudio\logs\window-selection.log

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Acknowledgments

• Hardcodet.NotifyIcon.Wpf for system tray functionality
• Built with .NET 8.0 and WPF