More human markup for your screenshots

Hello, it's the first week of the year.

The Christmas break is done. The Inbox is filling up again.

I don't have big “new year goals”, but in 2026 I'm aiming to work on useful habits, like my prototype build momentum.

To ease back in to these emails, I’ll tell you about something useful I've built recently.

I don’t know about you but I keep seeing perfectly annotated screenshots everywhere. Clean arrows, perfect circles, shiny background gradients. They all scream ‘software demo’ and look the same, don’t they? A bit like websites these days.

So I built hndmark.com, a tool to make your markup look hand-drawn… on purpose.

Here's why: when you build in public or share progress, rough annotations actually tell a better story. They show a human made this right now, not that you spent 15 minutes making it pretty.

What works right now? Sketchy arrows pointing at bugs. Wonky circles around metrics. Handwriting explaining what changed.

It’s faster than fighting with polish, and it matches the work-in-progress vibe. It also speaks to your momentum. If your prototype or idea is rough, your annotations should be too.

Yes there are other screenshot tools out there, but I’m focussing on the hand-drawn elements only, as well as speed.

It’s a simple web app, in your browser. Drop a screenshot, mark it up, copy or download. No account, but there is a Pro plan (with a few early users!).

Still fairly rough (because of course it is), but it works. Try it and let me know what breaks, or what you actually use it for.

Talk again soon,

Mark

• Available for client design work

• I’m building lots of side experiments and tools with AI help

• Read more from me on my blog