Screenshots are very useful in all situations. You can use it to show off your latest high scores in the game, share what you find when shopping online, or help others solve problems on your phone or computer.

But sometimes simple screenshots are not enough, you need help with text, tags, graffiti and other comments. Both your phone and laptop have tools to do this, and you can switch to many third-party alternatives.

To review how to capture screenshots first, check out our complete guide on screenshots on any device.

Android

On most Android devices, including Google Pixel and Samsung phones, the recognized screenshot shortcuts are the Power button and the Volume down button . Once you're done, you'll see a small thumbnail in the lower left corner - click the Edit button next to the thumbnail before it disappears to start adjusting and annotating your image.

Your first option is to crop the screenshot, which you can do by dragging the corner handle from the edge. The app also allows you to enlarge the image – just place two fingers on the screen and separate them. You also have four tools at the bottom of the screen: from the left, namely the Pen Tool (written at the top of the image), the Highlighter Tool (highlighting some parts of the image while retaining the visible part below it), and the Undo Tool (backward) One step) and redo tools (going forward).

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Click on the pen or highlighter and you will get a palette with colors to choose from. Once you have selected the color, you can doodle the image itself. When you are satisfied with the screenshot notes, click to finish and Save . You can make more edits through the main Google Photos app, such as adding a text layer – click on the image you want to work on and select Edit .

Due to the nature of the Android system, you may notice some differences in this process depending on your specific phone model. For example, in the case of a Samsung phone, you won't see the Edit button, but you will only see an icon that shows the pen and the square. Click it to draw or crop on the screenshot you just captured.

iOS and iPadOS

It's easy to take screenshots on iOS and iPadOS - if your device uses Touch ID, click the Home buttons and Sleep/Wake buttons at the same time; if using Face ID, Click the volume increase buttons and Sleep/Wake buttons at the same time. The thumbnail of the screenshot will appear in the lower left corner and you need to click on it to start editing.

Drag the handle in the corner or side of the screenshot to crop the captured image, or place two fingers on the image and separate them to enlarge. At the top of the screen, click the small pen icon to bring up several different drawing tools. Click the icon once to select it, and then tap again to set line width and opacity. On the right, there is a palette icon for selecting colors.

You will also find an eraser option for removing pixels or objects (click it to switch between the two modes after selecting the eraser), and a Lasso tool (to the right side of the eraser), using Select and move the object you added. In the upper left corner of the pen icon, you can find the Undo and Redo buttons for a step forward or backward.

Click the icon in the lower right corner to bring up more tools—you can add text layers, change the opacity of the image, add voice bubble shapes, or add signatures. When finished, click to finish and to save to photo . Further editing can be applied in the Photos app by clicking on the image and selecting Edit.

Windows

Among the various options for capturing the screen on Windows, you can press

Win Shift S to bring up the Clips and Sketch toolbar at the top of the display. After using it to capture the window or the entire screen, click the thumbnail that appears in the lower right corner to make changes to the screenshot.

All tools are on top - you have the Pen Tool (drawing on screenshots) and the Pencil and Highlighter Tool (keep some of the underlying screenshots visible when you doodle). Click the arrow below these tools to select your color and line width.

More right, you'll see an eraser tool (used to remove elements you've added to the top of the screenshot) and a crop tool. The latter gives you four handles in the corner where the image is captured, which you can drag inward to crop the image and focus only on a portion of it.

When your screenshot looks exactly as you wish, click the Save button on the right (looks like a floppy disk). You can also use the Copy button to the right of the Save button to send an annotated screenshot to the Windows clipboard to later paste it into another application.

macOS

There are many ways to take screenshots on macOS, but for this guide, the most straightforward way is probably to press

Cmd Shift 3 to capture the entire screen at the same time. You can then click on the thumbnail pop-up in the lower right corner to start editing.

The main annotation tool is located in the upper left corner - you can do hand-draw graffiti on images, create shapes, and add text. The icon on the right allows you to adjust the line size and color of the comments, or format the text according to the tools you use. You can select it by clicking on any element you add, then move or resize it.

More on the right side of the top bar are tools for cropping and rotating screenshots. Click the crop icon (a square with lines extending from the corner), and the screenshot will be surrounded by a frame - drag the corner of this frame inward from the edge to crop the image.

If you want to undo all changes you have made to the screenshot, you can click to restore ; if you are satisfied with the comments and want to save the image to disk and photo app, you can click to finish . If you try to exit the utility before saving the comments, you will see a prompt asking if you want to keep them.

Third-party tools

In addition to the tools built into your phone and laptop, there are many third-party screenshot tools that provide you with similar features—such as the ability to edit screenshots after you take a screenshot. If the native features don't work exactly the way you need it, one of these alternatives might be better for you.

Screen Master for Android is a comprehensive tool for taking and editing screenshots. It allows you to crop them, add text and stickers, highlight certain parts of the screenshot, and even combine multiple images together. You can access many key features for free, but the $5 Pro upgrade will remove ads and enable some extra features such as screenshot resizing.

[Related: The best screenshots and screen recording apps on your phone]

On Apple devices, Picsew for iOS and iPadOS allows you to easily splice multiple screenshots together and provides annotation tools including text overlay and drawing tools. Pay $2 for upgrades to access all features, such as scrollbar removal and the option to add a watermark at the top of the screenshot.

For desktops, Snagit for Windows and macOS is a powerful option with many annotation tools – it will cost you $50, but offers a free trial so you can see if you like it first. You can overlay shapes, images, text, and drawings on the top of the screenshot, and the program is even smart enough to allow you to replace the text inside the screenshot with the original font.

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