Give your screenshot enough room to explain itself
The edges of an image matter. Keep the context someone needs, and leave the rest outside the crop.
Two screenshots can show the same button and tell very different stories. One contains the entire desktop, with the button somewhere in the middle. The other is so tightly cropped that you cannot tell which app it belongs to. Somewhere between them is a picture that gives the reader just enough room to understand.
Keep a landmark
A page title, a sidebar item, or a familiar piece of navigation helps someone recognize the screen. It is often worth keeping one of these landmarks even when it makes the image a little larger.
This matters especially in support instructions. A reader who has never visited a settings page needs to know they have reached the right place before following the next step. An isolated toggle may be readable, but it gives them little confidence about where to find it.
Keep the relationship you are discussing
If your question is about spacing, keep both elements and the gap between them. If you are explaining a dropdown, show the field it belongs to. If an error follows an action, include the control and the result when they fit together naturally.
Cropping is a decision about what the reader gets to compare. Leave out the comparison and even a perfectly placed arrow can make the explanation harder to follow.
Let the annotation breathe
An arrow needs a little space to point. A numbered pin needs a place beside the target, without covering the label that makes it recognisable. Leave room for the marks while you choose the capture area, then trim the result when the explanation is finished.
The same idea applies to magnifiers and highlights. A magnifier can rescue a small detail, but it should not obscure the rest of the story. A highlight should leave the original content comfortable to read.
Look at the finished edges
Before sharing, inspect the exported image from corner to corner. Look for clipped words, unrelated messages, and private details near the edge. It is easy to focus on the annotation and miss something in the surrounding screen.
In Framio, capture a useful area first, annotate it, and adjust the crop at the end. You do not have to get the framing right on the first try. The goal is a picture someone can understand without asking you to send a wider one.