Screen Capture Tools

Market overview of recommendable tools for creating screen captures (screenshots, screen dumps). Screen captures are required within all forms of software documentation, such as user manuals, online help files, interactive demos and tutorials, but also for web sites and brochures.

Tip: Also see the checklist in Choosing a Screen Capture Tool.

 

SnagIt

Easy to use, moderately priced, nothing serious is missing.

Advantages: efficient workflow, several useful additional functions like basic video capture and text capture; integration with Microsoft Word and FrameMaker; added texts can be updated and translated

Disadvantages:

Price: approx. $50

FullShot

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 creates 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; good documentation

Disadvantages: comparatively high price; not quite as intuitive to use as SnagIt; in the Standard Edition some of the important functions for comments and post-editing are missing

Price: approx. $90 (Professional Edition) and $50 (Standard Edition)

MadCap Capture

Focuses especially on the requirements of technical documentation and single source publishing. Supports text variables. Users of the authoring system Flare (developed by the same company) can save images automatically in an online version and in a print version. The online version, for example, can be in color, the print version in gray scales. Also the resolution of both versions can be different.

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); rather complex to use for infrequent users

Price: approx. $39

H@rdcopy

Especially powerful if you want to print screen captures directly on paper, but also has many options to save as files.

Price: approx. $15, free for non-commercial use

PicPick

Basic screen capture tool, combined with image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair and whiteboard.

Price: approx. $20; free for personal use

Screenshot Captor

Price: up to you (Donation Ware)

WinSnap

Price: approx. $25

Ashampoo Snap

Price: approx. €20

CaptureXT

Price: approx. $30

HyperSnap

Price: approx. $40

SPX Instant Screen Capture Bundle

Price: approx. $23

FastStone Capture

Price: approx. $20

TNT Screen Capture

Especially helpful if you’ve made individual color settings in Windows. You can reset your custm colors to the Windows default values on command, shoot your image and finally restore the individual settings automatically. The tool also can automatically save a copy of each screen capture as a thumbnail and has an option to render screen captures as 3-dimensional presentation images.

Price: free (Freeware)

SnapDraw

Comes with many editing features.

Price: free (Freeware)

GIMP

The popular image editor also comes with a built-in function to capture the entire screen, or individual windows or areas. Screenshots can then directly be edited within GIMP before saving.

Price: free (Open Source)

Greenshot

Saves screenshots to files.

Price: free (Open Source)

Screenpresso

Provides a basic set of capturing and editing functions.

Price: free (Freeware)

EasyCapture

Supports capture of scrolling windows and adding of annotations.

Price: free (Freeware)

PrtScr

Basic, straight-forward screen capture tool.

Price: free (Freeware)

Scenegrabber.NET

Specialized on creating screenshots from movies.

Price: free (Freeware)

SiteShoter

Specialized on creating screenshots of web sites.

Price: free (Freeware)

SnagIt

The market leader for Windows is also available for the Mac.

Price: approx. $50

Voila

Full-featured screen capture tool.

Price: approx. $30

layers

Captures every item on your screen as a PSD (Photoshop) layered image.

Price: approx. $25

LittleSnapper

Price: approx. $39

SnapNDrag

Price: approx. €5

InstantShot!

Price: free (Freeware)

Skitch

Price: free; note terms of service

Paparazzi!

Price: free (Freeware)

Capture Me

Price: free (Freeware)

Shutter

Feature-rich screenshot program for Linux.

Price: free (Open Source)

KSnapshot

The screen capture tool of KDE.

Price: free (Open Source)

GIMP

The popular image editor also comes with a built-in function to capture the entire screen, or individual windows or areas. Screenshots can then directly be edited within GIMP before saving.

Price: free (Open Source)

Finally, if you only need to take a limited number of screen captures, there’s also the option to capture them manually. On Windows: Using the [PrintScreen] key, you can copy the currently displayed screen contents to the clipboard. Using the key-combination [Alt]+[PrintScreen], you can copy the contents of the active window. Then, you can directly paste the clipboard contents into any document or graphics editor.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 make the procedure even simpler. The build-in Snipping Tool (usually located within the Accessories group) allows you to instantly save basic screen captures as a file. However, if you want to apply any special effects such as a torn edge, or if you want to add some callouts, for example, you’ll have to use some general-purpose graphics software to do so manually.

 

On the Mac, OS X also provides a number of build-in options to capture both entire screens and specific regions. [CMD]+[Shift]+[3] saves the whole screen, [CMD]+[Shift]+[4] saves a selected region, and [CMD]+[Shift]+[4] then [Spacebar] saves a selected item to the desktop. Note: Holding down the [CTRL] key in addition saves to the clipboard instead of to the desktop.

OS X also comes with a basic Grab utility located in Applications > Utilities.

Do you miss anything that we ought to mention? Did you find any information that’s incorrect or obsolete? Please help us to keep this page up to date and let us know. Thank you.

This page was last updated 12/2011.

Keywords relating to this page: tools - software - programs - utilities - screen capture tools - screen capture - screen captures - screen dump - screen dumps - screenshot - screenshots - screen grabber - creation - creating - recommendation - recommend - recommendable - good - survey - overview - market overview - review - comparison - study - commercial - open source.

 

Imprint | Copyright | Terms of Use | Linking to Us | Acknowledgements

Subscribe to newsfeed Newsfeed

Bookmark and Share
Any questions?

We can give you expert advice and individual training on creating and optimizing technical documentation, especially software documentation.

For information, see: Services

No time?

We can create user manuals, online help files, screencasts and all other forms of software user assistance for you.

Top-quality, on time, at reasonable costs.

For information, see: Services