A screenshot can hold a password, an invoice, a private message.
It should not need an account or a server to get annotated and saved.

How it actually works

Not marketing language — this is the literal capture and save path, because a screenshot tool's promise is only as good as its mechanism.

1. Three ways to capture, one permission to see anything

   Region, visible page, or full page — full page scrolls the tab and stitches each frame itself, hiding fixed headers after the first one so they don't repeat down the image. Darkroom asks for activeTab, not access to every site you visit. It only ever sees the tab you deliberately told it to capture.

2. Annotation is a real edit, not a sticker on top

   Arrow, box, ellipse, text, highlight, crop — all free. Pro's blur and redact rewrite the actual pixels in the exported image, so the sensitive area is genuinely gone from the file. It is not a translucent layer sitting over the original that someone could peel back.

3. A save is only reported once it's verified

   After a screenshot is written to the local library, Darkroom reads it back and recomputes its checksum before telling you the save succeeded. If the readback doesn't match, the record is discarded and you're told — never silently handed a screenshot that looks saved but isn't.

4. Pruning happens last, and pinned shots are untouchable

   Once your library passes its tier's limit, the oldest unpinned screenshot is removed only after the new one has been durably written and verified — never before. Anything you pin stays, no matter how full the library gets.

5. A full library is reported, not "fixed"

   If browser storage runs out mid-save, Darkroom surfaces the error and stops. It will not free space by quietly deleting screenshots you already kept — that would defeat the entire point.

What we can honestly say instead of "trusted by thousands"

Darkroom is pre-launch. There are no users yet, so there are no reviews, no install counts, and nothing here is going to pretend otherwise. Here is what we can state precisely, because it's true of the code today:

• Every screenshot Darkroom captures lives in IndexedDB, on your machine, inside your Chrome profile. There is no Darkroom server that screenshots are sent to — because there is no Darkroom server, full stop.
• The extension has no host permissions — it cannot read any page you haven't deliberately captured. It requests only activeTab, scripting, storage and unlimitedStorage, and scripting is only ever used to inject the region-selection overlay or the full-page scroll driver at the moment you start a capture.
• There is no analytics SDK, no telemetry, no crash reporter, no tracking pixel, and no network request Darkroom makes with your screenshots — there's nowhere for one to go.
• We — the people who make Darkroom — cannot see your screenshots. Not "we don't look." There is nowhere for them to arrive.
• The one thing that does leave your machine is a Pro purchase, handled entirely by Paddle as the seller of record. See the privacy policy for exactly what that involves.

FAQ

Why build another screenshot tool?

Because the popular ones stopped earning that popularity. One of the most widely installed screenshot extensions has had a broken capture button for over a year with no fix. Another uploads every screenshot to a public URL that's guessable, not private. Several have forced account walls and subscriptions onto a feature that used to be a single click, and at least one well-known annotation tool was sold and turned into something closer to adware. And screenshots routinely contain the kind of thing — a password field, an invoice, a private message — that shouldn't touch a server at all. Darkroom exists so none of that is a trade-off you have to accept just to mark up a screenshot.

Does this upload my screenshots anywhere?

No. Everything is stored locally, in your browser's own IndexedDB. Darkroom has no cloud component at all. If you want a copy off your machine, save it as a PNG or copy it to your clipboard and put it wherever you like.

Can Darkroom read the pages I visit?

No. It requests activeTab, not host permissions, so it has no standing access to any page. It only sees a tab's content for the moment you invoke a capture on it — nothing before, nothing after, nothing on tabs you never captured.

What happens to my library when I uninstall the extension?

Chrome deletes an extension's local storage when you uninstall it — that's standard Chrome behavior, not something Darkroom can override. Export or copy the screenshots you want to keep before you uninstall, switch machines, or reset your Chrome profile.

What does "real pixel destruction" mean for blur and redact?

It means the covered pixels are actually overwritten in the exported image. Once you blur or redact a region and save or export it, that data is gone from the file — not sitting underneath a shape someone could nudge aside or delete to reveal it again.

Does buying Pro create an account somewhere?

No account with us. Paddle handles the purchase and delivery of your licence key. The extension verifies that key's signature locally and never checks in with a server afterward — so we don't know when, where, or how often you activate it.

What Chrome version do I need?

Chrome 116 or newer, on the standard Manifest V3 extension platform.

Is the Pro price final?

Yes. $12, one-time, sold through Paddle. No subscription, no early-bird games, no countdown timers.