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Labels

Organize your timeline with custom color-coded labels. Create tags to categorize moments that matter, then filter to find exactly what you need.

Updated August 2026

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What Are Labels?

Labels let you tag and categorize moments in your visual history. Create custom-named, color-coded labels like "Meeting Notes", "Design Inspiration", or "Bug Reports", then apply them to any screenshot in your timeline. Later, filter by one or multiple labels to quickly find exactly what you're looking for.

Note
Labels are perfect for organizing ongoing projects, marking important references, or creating curated collections from your screen history.

Opening the Label Filter

  1. Open the Retrace timeline
  2. Click the tag button in the top-right filter controls
  3. Or press ⌘ + L

A popover will appear showing labels available in your current timeline view and options to create new ones.

Creating Labels

  1. Open the Label Filter popover (⌘ + L)
  2. Click New Label... at the bottom
  3. Enter a name for your label
  4. Select a color from the palette
  5. Click Create or press Enter
Tip
Labels save instantly. There's no need to manually save your changes.

Applying Labels to Screenshots

Once you've created labels, you can apply them to any screenshot:

  1. Right-click a screenshot in your timeline
  2. Open the Add Label submenu
  3. Click a label to apply or remove it

Screenshots can have multiple labels. When you apply a label, a small colored tag icon appears in the corner of the thumbnail, giving you visual confirmation at a glance.

Label Badges

Labeled screenshots display small tag icons in the top-right corner of their thumbnails. Each tag matches the color of its label, and multiple labels appear together.

Filtering by Label

Labels become powerful when you use them to filter your timeline:

  1. Open the Label Filter popover (⌘ + L)
  2. Click a label to filter to screenshots with that label
  3. Your timeline immediately shows only matching screenshots

Selected labels display a checkmark. The tag button in the top-right filter controls highlights purple when any label filter is active.

Filtering by Multiple Labels

Need to see screenshots from several categories? Retrace supports multi-select filtering with labels.

  1. Open the Label Filter popover
  2. Click your first label
  3. Click additional labels to add them to your filter
  4. All selected labels show checkmarks

When multiple labels are selected, Retrace shows any screenshot that has any of those labels (union logic). This makes it easy to browse across related categories, like filtering to both "Work" and "Design" to see all professional creative content.

Note
Labels use OR logic when filtering. If you select "Meeting Notes" and "Design Inspiration", you'll see screenshots that have either label (or both).

Searching for Labels

If you have many labels, use the search bar at the top of the popover:

  1. Open the Label Filter popover
  2. Start typing in the search field
  3. The list filters to show matching labels
  4. Click a label or use keyboard navigation to select

Keyboard Navigation

The Label Filter fully supports keyboard navigation for efficient power-user workflows:

KeyAction
↑ / ↓Move through the label list
EnterToggle the highlighted label
Type any letterSearch for labels by name
EscClose the popover

Editing Labels

You can change a label's name or color at any time:

  1. Open the Label Filter popover
  2. Click the pencil icon beside the label you want to edit
  3. Or right-click the label and select Edit Label
  4. Update the name or color
  5. Click Save

Changes apply immediately to all screenshots with that label.

Deleting Labels

To remove a label entirely:

  1. Open the Label Filter popover
  2. Right-click the label you want to delete
  3. Select Delete Label

Alternatively, when editing a label, click the Delete button. Deleting a label removes it from all screenshots that had it applied. Your screenshots themselves are not affected.

Important
Deleting a label is permanent. The label will be removed from all screenshots where it was applied.

Clearing Label Filters

To remove label filtering:

  • Click Clear in the Label Filter popover header
  • Press ⌘ + U to clear all filters at once

Clear removes the label filter while keeping your other filters active. ⌘U clears every filter.

Combining with Other Filters

Labels work alongside other filters for powerful navigation:

  1. Filter to the "Project Alpha" label to see only that project
  2. Use App Filtering to narrow to just Figma screenshots
  3. Use Time Filtering to focus on last week
  4. Use Text Search to find specific content

All filters work together. Filtering to "Project Alpha" + "Figma" + "last week" will show only Figma screenshots from last week that have the Project Alpha label.

Tip
Labels combine with other filters using AND logic. If you filter to "Work" label and "Safari" app, you'll only see screenshots that have the Work label AND were captured in Safari.

Label Color Palette

Retrace provides 10 carefully selected colors for your labels:

  • Red-Orange, Orange, Gold for attention and urgency
  • Green for completed items or approvals
  • Blue, Cyan for information and references
  • Purple, Pink for creative and design content
  • Brown, Blue-Gray for neutral categories

Choose colors that create meaningful distinctions between your different categories.

Tips for Effective Labeling

  • Keep it simple: Start with a few broad categories. You can always add more specific labels later.
  • Use projects: Create labels for ongoing projects to quickly access all related screenshots.
  • Mark references: Label screenshots you want to return to, like design inspiration or important documentation.
  • Combine with search: Use labels for broad categories, then text search to find specific content within.

Next Steps