Greenshot - a free screenshot tool optimized for productivity
Welcome to the source repository for Greenshot.
What is Greenshot?
Greenshot is a light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows with the following key features:
- Quickly create screenshots of a selected region, window or fullscreen.
- Easily annotate, highlight or obfuscate parts of the screenshot.
- Export the screenshot in various ways: save to file, send to printer, copy to clipboard, attach to e-mail, send Office programs or upload to photo sites like Flickr or Picasa, and others.
and a lot more options simplifying creation of and work with screenshots every day.
Being easy to understand and configurable, Greenshot is an efficient tool for project managers, software developers, technical writers, testers and anyone else creating screenshots.
If you find that Greenshot saves you a lot of time and/or money, you are very welcome to support the development of this screenshot software.
Trademark and Logo Usage Policy
The Greenshot logo and trademark are the property of the Greenshot development team. Unauthorized use of the logo and trademark is generally prohibited. However, we allow the use of the Greenshot name and logo in the following contexts:
- In blog posts, articles, or reviews that discuss or promote the Greenshot, provided that the usage is fair and does not imply endorsement by Greenshot.
- In educational materials or presentations that accurately represent the project.
Please refrain from using the Greenshot logo and trademark in any promotional materials, products, or in a manner that may cause confusion or imply endorsement without prior written permission.
If you have any questions or wish to seek permission for other uses, please contact us.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
About this repository
This is the ongoing development branch for future Greenshot releases.
Documentation
The documentation in docs/ describes Greenshot 1.3, the current release. What is new in Greenshot 1.4, which is developed here, is described in docs/vNext.
Releases
You can find a list of all releases (stable and unstable) in the Github releases or in the version history on our website.
The downloads page on our website always links to the latest stable release.
Getting Started for Developers:
These instructions are made to assist developers in getting started with Greenshot so they can contribute to the repository. Please verify system prerequisites are met before trying to build.
IDE System Requirements:
- Windows OS environment
- Visual Studio 2026 (the native projects use the v145 C++ toolset), with the Desktop development with C++ workload, MSVC v145 x64/x86 build tools, and a Windows 10 SDK
- .NET SDK 10.0.114 or newer (Greenshot.Mcp targets .NET 10; older SDKs carry an ILCompiler with the Brotli vulnerability GHSA-p3jp-9v83-76w9)
- .NET Framework 4.8 Developer Pack / targeting pack
Build Instructions:
- Open Visual Studio 2026
- Clone GitHub Repository using Visual Studio, using the link in the green code button above. Alternatively, you can download the repository to your machine and open the solution file located in /src/Greenshot.sln.
- Choose Build->Build Solution in Visual Studio to build binaries.
- Verify all components are built successfully.
- You are ready to start contributing to Greenshot.
Command-line build:
Use Visual Studio's MSBuild with msbuild src\Greenshot.sln /p:Configuration=Debug /t:Build /v:minimal to build the release version. Use MSBuild rather than dotnet build.
Solution configurations:
| Configuration | Builds | Output |
|---|
| Debug (the default) | Everything but the installer project: Greenshot, the plugins, greenshot-cli.exe and greenshot-proxy, greenshot-mcp, the tests | src\Greenshot\bin\Debug |
| Release | Everything, plus the release files: checksum.SHA256, the SBOM, Greenshot Light, the installers and greenshot-mcp | src\Greenshot\bin\Release and installer\ |
| Debug Light | Greenshot Light only: Greenshot, Greenshot.Base, Greenshot.Editor (and the build tasks) | src\Greenshot\bin\Debug-Light |
| Release Light | The same, optimized | src\Greenshot\bin\Release-Light |
Debug never makes checksums, an SBOM or installers; only Release does.
Running tests:
The xUnit test project is src\Greenshot.Tests\Greenshot.Tests.csproj. Build the solution with Visual Studio MSBuild first, then run the tests:
dotnet test src\Greenshot.Tests\Greenshot.Tests.csproj --configuration Debug
Tests that need clipboard or desktop interaction require an active, unlocked Windows session; interactive-desktop tests are skipped when the session is locked or inactive.
Greenshot Light is the basics only: no plugins, no AI tools (greenshot-mcp) and no browser extension. That code is not in its Greenshot.exe at all: it is left out with #if !GREENSHOT_LIGHT and <Compile Remove> in Greenshot.csproj, and the build fails when one of those types is still in the exe. Pick "Debug Light" in the solution configuration dropdown to run it with F5. On the command line, dotnet build src\Greenshot\Greenshot.csproj -c DebugLight (or /p:GreenshotEdition=Light) does the same.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
