Shotlane: Screenshots, PDFs and Visual Checks

What does a visual check find? Shotlane opens the page in a real Chromium browser on each device and reports content wider than the screen (with the element that causes it), a missing viewport tag, text that is too small, cut off, squeezed or overlapping, text below WCAG AA contrast, tap targets under 24×24 px, broken images, uncaught JavaScript errors, console errors, failed requests and error status codes. You also get a screenshot for each device.

Where do screenshots and PDFs go? Into your EmDash media library, named after the page and the date (for example example-com-pricing-desktop-2026-11-01.jpg). Full-page screenshots are JPEG, first-screen screenshots are PNG.

How do monitors tell me about a change? Shotlane emails the address on your Shotlane account, with a before/after for visual changes or the changed text. The Monitors page in EmDash shows each monitor's status and recent checks; the snapshots and diffs are on your Shotlane dashboard.

What does it cost? One Shotlane credit per render: each device in a visual check, each screenshot or PDF, and each monitor check. A phone, tablet and desktop check uses three; a daily monitor about 30 a month. A free account includes 100 credits a month. After that, credit packs never expire and there is no subscription. See pricing.

Can I turn off the check on publish? Yes. Untick "Check entries when they're published" in the settings. You can still check any entry from its editor panel, or any URL from the Visual checks page.

Can I capture or check pages that aren't on my site? Yes. The Visual checks, Screenshots and PDFs, and Monitors pages all take any public URL.

How long are things kept? Visual check screenshots stay viewable for 30 days, and the plugin keeps your 200 most recent checks. Screenshots and PDFs saved to the media library stay until you delete them.

The plugin asks for three capabilities:

• content:read, to find a published entry's public URL and title.
• network:request, limited to shotlane.dev, to call the Shotlane API and load the files it renders.
• media:write, to save screenshots and PDFs to the media library. The plugin only adds files; it never changes or deletes existing media.

Your API key is stored as an encrypted secret setting and is sent only to https://shotlane.dev. The plugin sends Shotlane the URLs of the pages to render and nothing else from your site. Shotlane stores rendered files under unguessable links for up to 30 days, and each monitor's latest snapshots until you delete the monitor. See the privacy policy.

Report security issues to support@shotlane.dev.

0.1.0

• Visual checks: an entry's public page is checked on phone, tablet and desktop when it is published. The Visual checks page lists every check with screenshots and problems per device, and checks any URL by hand. Dashboard widget, and a Visual check panel in the entry editor with Check now.
• Screenshots and PDFs: capture any page (device, full page, dark mode; or paper size and orientation for PDFs) straight into the media library.
• Monitors: watch pages for changes in how they look or what they say, hourly to weekly, with an email from Shotlane on each change. Add, pause, resume and delete monitors from the admin.
• Save & monitor panel in the entry editor: save the published page as a screenshot or PDF, or watch it, in one click.

1. Install Shotlane: Screenshots, PDFs and Visual Checks from the plugin directory in your EmDash admin.
2. Create a free account at shotlane.dev and copy your API key from the dashboard. A free account includes 100 credits a month, and no card is needed.
3. In EmDash, open the plugin's Settings, paste the key, and choose the devices for visual checks.
4. Publish an entry. Its page is checked on each device, and the result appears under Shotlane → Visual checks, on the dashboard widget and in the entry's Visual check panel.
5. To save a page as an image or PDF, use Shotlane → Screenshots and PDFs, or the entry's Save & monitor panel. To watch a page for changes, use Shotlane → Monitors, or Watch this page in the panel.

Shotlane renders public pages only. On a local development server (localhost), the plugin works once the site is online.