Sharing and export

Once you have a snip, Snipdeck gives you several ways to get it out of the app: copy it to the clipboard, save it as a file, hand it to another app through the Windows share sheet, attach it to a new email, open it in the system image editor, or upload it to an image host and get a link back. This page covers each route, which platform it works on, where the image goes, and what an upload means for your privacy.

None of these actions changes the snip in your gallery.

Where the actions live

Right-click a floating snip or a gallery card to open its context menu. Copy sits at the top; under Share is a row of icon buttons whose tooltips say what each does. Save is one of the buttons that appear when you hover over a gallery card.

Copy to the clipboard

Copy puts the snip on the clipboard as an image at full resolution, ready to paste into a chat, a document or an image editor.

Two other actions also copy something: OCR + Clipboard copies the recognized text (see OCR), and a finished upload copies the link.

Save to a file

Save opens a file dialog: the native Windows dialog on Windows, your desktop’s file dialog on Linux. On Linux the dialog runs alongside Snipdeck, so its windows stay responsive while you browse.

• Folder. The dialog opens in your save folder, Pictures/Snipdeck by default. Change it with the save_dir setting.
• Name. The suggested name is the capture time and the snip’s size:

2026-06-02_14-08-31 (1280x720).png

• Format. The extension you type decides the format. A name typed without an extension gets the one from default_format ("png" by default).

Snipdeck keeps the snips in its gallery as lossless WebP. Save writes a separate copy in the format you choose. PNG and WebP keep every pixel; JPEG is smaller but lossy, and it blurs small type and sharp edges.

Share with the Windows share sheet

Share via the Windows share sheet opens the Windows share flyout with the snip attached as an image, so Mail, WhatsApp, Telegram, Teams and every other share target receive the picture itself, not a file path.

The flyout needs an ordinary window to anchor on, so Snipdeck brings the main window to the front first.

This button appears only on Windows. Linux has no counterpart that Snipdeck uses; use email, Save or Copy there.

Email a snip

New email with the snip attached opens a new message in your mail client with the snip attached as a PNG.

• Windows uses Simple MAPI, the same route as Windows’ own “Send to → Mail recipient”. It works with desktop clients such as classic Outlook and Thunderbird. The new Outlook and web mail apps do not accept an attachment this way; when no such client is registered, Snipdeck copies the snip to the clipboard, opens an empty message, and tells you to paste the image with Ctrl+V. For those apps, the share sheet attaches the image directly.
• Linux hands the image to xdg-email, which opens your default mail client. This needs the xdg-utils package; without it Snipdeck says so.

Open in the system image editor

Open in the system image editor opens the snip in another program for a quick edit.

• Windows: the registered image editor, usually Paint. If none is registered for PNG files, Snipdeck starts mspaint.exe.
• Linux: whatever program your desktop opens PNG files with, through xdg-open (part of xdg-utils).

For Snipdeck’s own markup tools, use the annotation editor.

Where the hand-over copy goes

Email and the image editor need a file to open, so Snipdeck writes a copy for them into a folder only you can read: %TEMP%\Snipdeck on Windows, a private folder under $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR on Linux. Old copies are deleted at the next hand-over (after a day on Windows, after an hour on Linux), and on Linux the runtime folder is also cleared when you log out.

Upload to an image host

Upload sends the snip to an image host on the internet and gives you a link. It is the only action that sends your image to a third party on its own, so every upload goes through Snipdeck’s own upload window first.

Choosing a host

Pick the host from the gallery’s ⋯ → Upload to menu:

Snipdeck remembers your choice in settings.json as upload_service.

The upload window

When you click the upload button, the upload window opens with the title Upload this snip?. It names the host and the address the image goes to, and explains what the upload means:

• Anyone with the link can open the image.
• For catbox.moe and Imgur: it is not listed or searchable anywhere. Snipdeck does not promise this for a server you added yourself.
• For catbox.moe: uploaded anonymously, it cannot be deleted later.
• For a server whose address starts with http://: the connection is not encrypted, and others on the network can see the image.
• Don’t upload IDs, passwords or private messages.

Nothing is sent until you press Upload. Cancel closes the window and sends nothing.

While the upload runs, the window says Uploading…. You can hide it with Hide; that does not cancel the upload. When it finishes, the window comes back:

• Uploaded: the link is shown and already on the clipboard. Copy link copies it again; Open link opens it in your browser (on Linux through xdg-open).
• Upload failed: the window shows the reason the host gave, with Try again and Close.

One upload runs at a time. Starting another while one is running brings the window back instead.

Setting up Imgur

Imgur’s anonymous uploads need a free Client-ID. If you choose Imgur without one, the window titled Imgur needs a Client-ID explains the steps and shows where your settings file is, with an Open settings file button:

1. At imgur.com, go to Settings → Applications and register an application with “OAuth 2 authorization without a callback URL”. You need only the Client-ID, not a Client-Secret.
2. Quit Snipdeck, then add the Client-ID to settings.json:

{
  "upload_service": "imgur",
  "imgur_client_id": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
}

3. Start Snipdeck again.

If Imgur rejects the Client-ID, the upload window says so; a quota error from Imgur tells you to try again later.

Your own server from a .sxcu file

Snipdeck can upload to any host that offers a ShareX custom uploader file (.sxcu). Zipline, XBackBone, Chevereto and many other self-hosted image servers already provide one, so there is nothing to write by hand.

1. Open ⋯ → Upload to → Add from a .sxcu file….
2. Pick the file. Snipdeck checks it right away; if it is accepted, the host joins the list under its own name and becomes the one Upload uses.
3. To go back, pick catbox.moe or Imgur in the same menu. Remove this host removes the imported host that is currently selected.

A file with the same name as a host you already imported replaces it.

What Snipdeck supports from a .sxcu file:

A file that needs more is refused when you import it, with the reason, so it never fails later on your first upload. That includes files that ask you for a value ({prompt:…}), make one up ({random:…}), read an XML answer, use GET, send a JSON body, or upload text or shorten links instead of uploading images.

The image is sent as a PNG.

Privacy notes

Most routes keep the snip on your machine. Upload sends it to a third party, and only after you press Upload. Before you do:

• The link is the key. catbox.moe and Imgur do not list uploads anywhere, but anyone who gets the link can open the image.
• catbox.moe uploads are permanent. You cannot delete an anonymous upload later.
• Check the address. An http:// server sends the image unencrypted; the upload window warns you when that is the case.
• Leave out sensitive content: IDs, passwords, banking details, private messages.

For how capture, OCR and translation handle your data, see Privacy and security.

See also

• Privacy and security: what stays local and what leaves your machine
• Settings: upload_service, upload_hosts, imgur_client_id, default_format and save_dir
• The gallery and search: find a snip before you share it
• OCR: copy a snip’s text instead of its image