What Is Image Annotator?
Image Annotator lets you add arrows, text labels, shapes, highlights, and freehand drawings to any image. It’s built for creating bug reports with screenshots, annotating design feedback, building tutorial visuals, and marking up photos for documentation.
See also: Annotation pairs naturally with subject-isolation and depth-aware masking workflows: AI Background Remover v2 or AI Depth Estimator.
How to Use This Tool
Upload an image, then use the toolbar to add annotations: arrows to point things out, text labels for callouts, rectangles to highlight regions, and freehand drawing for quick marks. Adjust colors, sizes, and opacity. When finished, export the annotated image as a PNG. Everything runs in your browser with no uploads.
Why Use Image Annotator?
Taking a screenshot and emailing it with “see the thing in the top right” wastes everyone’s time. This tool lets you visually mark exactly what you mean, with professional-looking annotations. It’s free, requires no account, and keeps your screenshots private. For a detailed walkthrough, see our step-by-step guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from Skitch or Annotely?+
Skitch was discontinued by Evernote in 2016; its users have been hunting for a replacement ever since. Most replacements (Annotely, Markup.io, Droplr, CloudApp) either require signup, add watermarks, upload your images to a server, or paywall features like numbered pins and magnifier callouts. Image Annotator matches the core Skitch feature set — arrows, pixel blur, text, numbered pins — adds a few things Skitch never had (magnifier callouts, true redaction, keyboard shortcuts on every tool), runs 100% in your browser, and copies straight to clipboard. No signup, no upload, no watermark.
What's the difference between Blur and Redact?+
Blur applies a pixel blur that visually obscures the region but leaves reconstructable data in the output image — someone with forensic tools can sometimes reverse strong blurs, especially if the original image resolution was high. Redact draws an opaque black (or custom color) rectangle that permanently replaces the pixels underneath when you export. For sensitive information — faces, addresses, API keys, credit card numbers — use Redact, not Blur. The visual result is less elegant, but it's the only way to guarantee the information is gone from the exported file.
Does it work offline?+
Yes, after the page loads once. The tool is a single HTML page with all logic in JavaScript, and it never contacts a server for annotation operations — everything runs in your browser. Once loaded, you can disconnect from the internet and keep annotating. The only network request after load is the optional 'Copy to Clipboard' if the browser's Clipboard API needs permission confirmation, which is also client-side.
Can I paste a screenshot directly?+
Yes. With the tool open, press Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V on Mac) to paste any image that's on your clipboard — a screenshot you just took with Win+Shift+S, Cmd+Shift+4, or a screenshot app. The tool reads the image directly from the clipboard and loads it onto the canvas. No file dialog, no saving to disk first. This is the fastest workflow for screenshot annotation.
What are the keyboard shortcuts?+
V for Select, A for Arrow, B for Box, T for Text, P for numbered Pin, H for Highlighter, M for Magnifier callout, L for Blur, R for Redact. Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) redoes. Ctrl/Cmd+C copies the annotated image to clipboard. Delete or Backspace removes the selected object. Esc switches back to Select. These match common graphics-editor conventions so muscle memory transfers.
Are my images uploaded to a server?+
No. Every image is loaded into a browser canvas and processed entirely client-side. There is no upload, no server-side processing, and no record of your images is kept anywhere. This matters especially for screenshots of sensitive information — internal dashboards, customer data, legal documents, credentials — where even transient upload to a third-party service would be a security concern.
What annotation types are supported?+
Rectangles, circles, arrows, freehand pen, text labels, blur regions (for redacting sensitive content), and numbered callouts. Each annotation has color, stroke-width, and font-size controls. You can layer multiple annotations and drag any of them after placement. The undo stack covers 50 operations.
Does the annotated image keep my original quality?+
Yes. The original image bytes are decoded once and rendered to a canvas at the original resolution. Annotations are composited onto a copy at full resolution, then exported. No re-encoding of the original pixels happens unless you choose JPEG output, in which case the JPEG quality slider controls the compression. PNG output is lossless.
Built by Derek Giordano · Part of Ultimate Design Tools
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