Kempt
In short
macOS saves every screenshot to the Desktop as “Screenshot 2026-10-30 at 14.05.12.png”, and has no setting to name it by what it shows.You can send screenshots to another folder (Shift-Command-5 › Options › Save to) and change the word “Screenshot” in Terminal, but describing them stays manual. Kempt reads each screenshot on your Mac and names it after the app or website and what it shows, plus the day it was taken, for example “iCloud+ Storage Plan 30 October 2026”, then files it in your Screenshots folder, with Undo.
Without any app
Choose where screenshots go
Press Shift-Command-5, click Options and pick a place under Save to: Desktop, Documents, Clipboard or Other Location. A folder of their own, such as Pictures › Screenshots, keeps the Desktop clear.
Gather the ones already on the Desktop
Control-click the Desktop and choose Use Stacks: every screenshot collapses into one Screenshots stack you can open and sort.
Change the name prefix in Terminal
defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "Capture", then killall SystemUIServer, replaces the word “Screenshot”. The date and time stay, and the name still says nothing about what’s on the screen.
Rename the few you keep
Select a screenshot, press Return and type what it shows: “2026-08 Hotel booking Lisbon.png”. Move the rest to the Trash: most screenshots are useful for a day.
With Kempt
- 1
Named from the screen
Kempt reads the words on each screenshot and names it after the app or website and what it shows, with the day it was taken: “Weather Forecast Météo-France 3 June 2026”, “Booking.com Hotel Reservation 14 August 2026”. On macOS 27 it also looks at the picture itself with Apple’s on-device model, and keeps only what the text on the screen backs up.
- 2
Filed apart from your photos
Screenshots go to the Screenshots folder (Pictures › Screenshots on a new Mac), not among your photos or documents. On 65 real phone screenshots, vague names such as “Screenshot” went from 23 to 3 or fewer, and screenshots filed as photos from 9 to 0.
- 3
No collisions, and Undo
Each name carries the capture day, so ten captures of one page don’t pile up under one name, and Kempt never overwrites a file. Every rename and move is listed in Activity and can be undone; names you type or confirm are kept.
$27 once, 14 days freeRuns on every Apple silicon MacA question? Ask a person
Questions people ask
Where do screenshots go on a Mac?
To the Desktop by default, named “Screenshot” with the date and time. If you picked another place in Shift-Command-5 › Options, they go there. iPhone screenshots stay in the iPhone’s Photos library, or land in Downloads when you AirDrop them.
Can macOS name screenshots by what they show?
No. You can change the folder and the prefix, not make the name describe the screen. Kempt does that on your Mac.
How do I stop screenshots cluttering my Desktop?
Send them to a folder with Shift-Command-5 › Options › Other Location, or turn on Stacks. Kempt watches the Desktop and files new screenshots into the Screenshots folder for you.
Why do screenshots take so much space on a Mac?
macOS saves them as PNG, and a full-screen capture on a Retina display can weigh several megabytes. defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg, then killall SystemUIServer, saves smaller JPEG files.
Are my screenshots uploaded to be read?
No. Kempt reads them on your Mac with Vision and Apple’s on-device model. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account.
Does it work on macOS 26?
Yes, from the text on the screen. On macOS 27 Kempt also looks at the picture itself, which names screens with little text more precisely.