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macOS · Desktop

Polaroid

Turns a Mac screenshot into an instant-film Polaroid — paper grain, a develop animation, a handwritten caption, one-click export

Source onlyFree · Open source
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Screenshots

  • Three Polaroids made by the app's own renderer from screenshots of ARES, Plectrum and Zero-Point Energy, on aged cream, clean white and cool gray paper with handwritten captions
  • A single Polaroid of ARES on aged cream paper, captioned 'a second home, 2140' in Marker Felt, with a red-brown date stamp
  • A Polaroid of Plectrum's piano roll on clean white paper, captioned 'suite in e minor' in navy Bradley Hand
  • A Polaroid of Zero-Point Energy on cool gray paper, captioned 'the vacuum is not empty' in red Chalkduster

About Polaroid

Polaroid watches the Desktop for new screenshots and turns each one into an instant-film print. You can also drag an image in, pick one, or paste it. The frame keeps the real Polaroid proportions — a square photo well over a thick bottom border — and the paper is drawn by the app itself in Core Graphics: clean white, aged cream, worn or cool gray, each with its own grain and scuffs. A new print drops in and develops from sepia to full color. Tap the border to write a caption of up to 60 characters in Marker Felt, Bradley Hand or Chalkduster, in one of six inks, with an optional date stamp taken from when the screenshot was made. Export saves a PNG, copies it or its path, or opens the share sheet, as a full Polaroid or just the photo. Recent prints live in the menu bar. It makes no network calls and has no accounts or analytics.

Who it's for

Anyone who posts screenshots and wants them to look like something you'd pin to a wall.

What it does

  • Watches the Desktop and turns new screenshots into prints
  • Four paper textures drawn in Core Graphics, each with grain and scuffs
  • A develop animation from sepia to full color
  • Handwritten captions in three fonts and six inks, up to 60 characters
  • Optional date stamp from when the screenshot was taken
  • Save, copy, copy the path or share — as a full Polaroid or just the photo
  • Recent prints in the menu bar; no network calls, no accounts

Behind the build

The screenshots here were not drawn: they are PNGs produced by Polaroid's own PolaroidRenderer and PaperTextureGenerator, called from a small harness on screenshots of other NoSleepLab apps, then laid out side by side.

The wide screenshots sit letterboxed inside the square photo well, because that is what the app does with them.

Information

Runs on
macOS · Desktop
Status
Source only
Price
Free · Open source
Requires
macOS 14+
Source
Public on GitHub
Telemetry
None
Built with
Swift & SwiftUI
Stack
Swift 6SwiftUIAppKitCore GraphicsXcodeGen

Polaroid is source only, for now.

The code is public, but there's no packaged release yet. Build it from the repository today, or leave an email and hear when there's one you can double-click.

Tell me when it shipsView source

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