FAQ - Snipdeck Docs

Quick answers to the questions people ask most often about Snipdeck, each linking to the full guide. If you are just getting started, the Quick start covers the basics in a couple of minutes.

Is Snipdeck free and open source?

Yes. Snipdeck is free and open source under the MIT license, made by ReviseTouch. You can read the source, build it yourself, and use it for any purpose the MIT license allows.

Note: The single portable snipdeck.exe and the build-from-source instructions both live in Installation.

Does it work offline?

Mostly, yes. The features that matter most run fully local with no network at all:

Feature	Needs the network?
Capture (region, freeze-first)	No
OCR (text indexing and OCR + Clipboard)	No
The gallery and search	No
OCR + Translate	Yes
Upload to an image host	Yes

OCR uses the built-in Windows.Media.Ocr engine — there is no model to download and nothing leaves your machine for capture or indexing. The only features that reach the network are OCR + Translate, which sends the recognized text to a translation endpoint, and uploads, which are always opt-in.

Is Snipdeck Windows only?

Today, yes. Snipdeck targets Windows 10 and 11, because capture, OCR, the system tray, and sharing all use Windows-specific APIs. The UI (Slint) and most of the core are already cross-platform, so macOS and Linux builds are on the way. See Installation for current platform support.

Where are my snips stored?

In your user profile. Snipdeck keeps its database and image cache under %LOCALAPPDATA%, your settings under %APPDATA%, and writes any explicit Save into your Pictures folder by default.

Path	Contents
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Snipdeck\`	`snips.db`, `state.json`, and the `cache\` of images and thumbnails
`%APPDATA%\Snipdeck\settings.json`	Your user settings
`Pictures\Snipdeck\`	Default folder for Save

See Settings for the full list of files and keys, and Gallery and search for how snips are indexed.

Is any of my data sent anywhere?

No — unless you explicitly trigger a feature that uses the network. Capture, OCR, and indexing are entirely local. Two actions do leave your machine, and both are clearly initiated by you:

OCR + Translate sends only the OCR’d text of a snip to a public translation endpoint so it can be translated. It is not used anywhere else.
Upload sends the image to an image host, and only after an explicit consent dialog that names the destination.

Warning: Anonymous uploads are public-by-link and are not encrypted, so don’t upload sensitive content. Read Privacy and security before sharing.

How do I change the language?

Snipdeck ships in 23 languages and auto-detects yours from the OS locale on first launch. To override it, open the globe menu in the toolbar and pick a language. For the full list and how translations work, see Languages.

How do I make a collage?

Open the collage editor from the Collage button in the gallery toolbar. The editor has its own thumbnail picker, so you choose which snips to combine from inside it, pick a layout (Grid, Rows, or Masonry), and save the result as a brand-new snip — your originals are left untouched.

Where is the exe, and how do I remove Snipdeck?

Snipdeck is a single portable executable with no installer. If you downloaded a release, snipdeck.exe is wherever you saved it; a source build lands at target\release\snipdeck.exe.

To remove Snipdeck:

Quit it from the system tray.
Delete snipdeck.exe.
If you enabled launch-at-login, delete the Snipdeck shortcut from your shell:Startup folder (Snipdeck never writes a registry Run key).
Optionally delete the data folders listed in Where are my snips stored? to remove your snips and settings.

Tip: Because there is no installer and no registry footprint, removing the .exe and the data folders leaves nothing behind. See Privacy and security for why launch-at-login is registry-free.