Screen Capture Tools

Today, there are hundreds of tools on the market for creating screen captures (screen dumps, screenshots). However, not many of them meet the requirements of technical documentation and can match the market leaders in their price to performance ratio. The following programs are among the few that can be recommended for frequent professional use.

Tip:
For a checklist of criteria on how to choose the tool that fits your individual requirement best, please refer to Checklist: Choosing a Screen Capture Tool.

SnagIt

A true masterpiece of ease of use and usability. This alone should be a reason to try out the software. Although moderately priced, nothing serious is missing.

Advantages: excellent price to performance ratio; several useful additional functions like basic video capture and text capture; very easy and efficient to use; integration with Microsoft Word and FrameMaker; added texts can be updated and translated

Disadvantages: only a single image can be processed at a time (single document interface), which means that each image must be saved or discarded immediately; it is not possible to first collect a number of images and then to choose the best one before saving, or to copy some contents between two images

Price: approx. $40

http://www.techsmith.com

FullShot

FullShot is available in different versions. In the Standard Edition some of the important functions for comments and post-editing are missing. A special feature of FullShot is the additional buttons that the tool adds to each window in runtime. Instead of a shortcut key you can simply activate the relevant button, for example, "W" for "Window" or "R" for "Region", and Fullshot will create the desired image. On the final Screen Captures FullShot of course automatically removes the additional buttons.

Advantages: images can be updated later, added texts are retained and can be edited; highly efficient functions for capturing menus and command bars; wide range of settings for effects in detail; good documentation

Disadvantages: comparatively high price; not quite as intuitive to use as SnagIt

Price: approx. $80 (Professional Edition)

http://www.inbit.com

MadCap Capture

In contrast to the other screen capture tools, MadCap Capture focuses especially on the requirements of technical documentation and single source publishing. For example, it is the only tool that supports text variables. Users of the authoring system Flare (developed by the same company) can save images automatically in an online variant and in a print variant (for example in color online, in gray scales and at a higher resolution for print).

Advantages: images remain fully editable, irrespective of their format; elements can be saved to palettes and reused; the design of several elements can be standardized comfortably; stepwise undo list.

Disadvantages: takes very long to load (requires Microsoft .NET Framework); too complex for infrequent users; comparatively high price

Price: approx. $90

http://www.madcapsoftware.com

TNT Screen Capture

Very simple to use. A unique feature: If you have made individual color settings in Windows, you can reset them to Windows default values on command, shoot your image and finally restore the individual settings automatically.

Advantages: optionally saves images also as thumbnails of a defined size in a single step; can also produce excellent 3-dimensional images; good documentation; simple and efficient operation

Disadvantages: insertion of vector-based comments not possible, therefore images are not translatable; edge effects like torn edge can be applied only to the whole image, not on selected areas

Price: approx. $40

http://www.ec-software.com

CaptureXT

The operational approach very closely resembles SnagIt, but the range of functions is clearly less. However, the most important ones are all present. Ideal for occasional users: the operation so simple that you can start using it right away without having to read any documentation.

Advantages: very easy to use

Disadvantages: hardly any possibilities for configuring shortcut keys; insertion of vector-based comments elements and texts not possible, so later modifications and translations can not be done

Price: approx. $30

http://www.capturext.com

More screen capture tools