Yoink
What it is
Yoink is a free, open-source Windows screenshot tool for capturing, annotating, recording, and sharing with a hotkey. Capture modes include a selected region, full screen, active window, and scrolling content. Built-in annotations provide arrows, text, shapes, blur, and freehand drawing. Tesseract OCR extracts text from screen regions; translation can use offline Argos Translate or the Google Translate API, with language packs available for more than 100 OCR languages. Yoink records GIF, MP4, WebM, and MKV video with microphone and desktop audio. Local image history can be searched by filename, OCR text, or semantic similarity. Background removal can use remove.bg or Photoroom cloud services, or local U2Netp and BRIA RMBG models. Upload destinations include Imgur, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Azure Blob, S3-compatible storage, GitHub, Immich, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and Custom HTTP. Uploads are explicit, and availability depends on credentials. The project uses GPL-3.0.
For and against
For
- Free GPL-3.0 open-source project
- Multiple screenshot and scrolling modes
- OCR with offline translation option
- Records several video formats
- Many upload destinations
Against
- Windows only
- Uploads require destination credentials
- Imgur allowance is shared across users
- Automatic uploads were removed
The verdict
Yoink combines screenshot capture, annotation, OCR, translation, recording, local search, and explicit uploads in a free Windows application. Its open-source license and broad destination list are useful, while upload availability depends on each service and credentials.
Who it suits
It suits Windows users who want a free, open-source capture tool with annotation, OCR, translation, recording, and configurable uploads. Developers can build the optional x86 or ARM64 versions in addition to the self-contained x64 build.
Plans and prices
Free, open-source
Free screenshot tool; no paid tiers or usage limits stated
Read 11 Oct 2026 · github.com
On the record
- Annotations
- Built-in annotation tools include arrows, text, shapes, blur, and freehand drawing.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Capture
- Capture modes include region, fullscreen, active window, and scrolling capture.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Image search
- Yoink saves local image history and supports searching by filename, OCR text, and semantic similarity.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Imgur limit
- The repository says Yoink's built-in public Imgur Client-ID has a shared allowance of about 1,250 uploads per day across Yoink users.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Language packs
- The app can automatically download language packs for more than 100 OCR languages.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- License and support
- The project identifies itself as a free, open-source fork licensed under GPL-3.0; the page gives no paid support terms.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Measurement tools
- Yesgithub.com · read 20 Sep 2026
- OCR and translation
- Yoink extracts text from screen regions with Tesseract OCR and supports offline Argos Translate or the Google Translate API.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Redaction tools
- Yesgithub.com · read 20 Sep 2026
- Screen recording
- Yoink records GIF, MP4, WebM, and MKV video with microphone and desktop audio.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Sticker creation
- Yoink can remove image backgrounds using cloud providers remove.bg or Photoroom, or local U2Netp and BRIA RMBG models.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Upload availability
- Upload availability depends on the target service and the user's credentials.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Upload control
- Uploads are triggered explicitly from the preview toast; automatic uploads were removed because they could send sensitive content unintentionally.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Upload integrations
- Upload destinations include Imgur, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Azure Blob, S3-compatible storage, GitHub, Immich, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and Custom HTTP.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- What it does
- Yoink is an open-source screenshot tool for capturing, annotating, and sharing with a hotkey.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
- Windows builds
- The source build instructions publish a self-contained Windows x64 app and mention optional Windows x86 and ARM64 builds.github.com · read 11 Oct 2026
