How to export Freeform shapes as an image file on a Mac

Photo by Richard Horvath on Unsplash

With the release of iOS 16 and macOS 13, Apple also released the app Freeform, in which you have an endless whiteboard to easily create all sorts of things, like diagrams, charts, mind maps, etc.

I really love using this app, but sometimes I simply would like to export some grouped shapes or just parts of my board as an image instead of exporting the whole board. With a simple screenshot, I would also capture the background of the whiteboard and exporting the board as a PDF would only export the whole board — both are not what I want…

⚠️ NOTE: This tip only works on a Mac not on iPhone or iPad.

How to export shapes as an image

Usually, you can’t directly export shapes from Freeform on your Mac. Even if you copy a shape inside the app, you cannot paste it into the finder or on the desktop directly.

Fortunately, we can use a little trick to do the job for us.

Step by step explanation

1. Select the shapes you want to export in Freeform
2. Right click the selected shapes and select Copy in the context menu or select Copy from the Edit menu in the menu bar
3. Open Preview
4. Create a new file by pressing CMD+N or select New from clipboard in the File menu

After that, Preview will open the copied shapes on a transparent background, and you can simply save the content as an image.

You can use this trick with single shapes, grouped shapes or even multiple shapes from different locations on your board. Just keep in mind that you also copy the distances between elements. If you want to layout items separately later, you need to copy and save them as single items.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to export Sticky Notes or inserted Files items from the board.