Freeware Screen Capture Programs

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I’m looking at two freeware screen capture programs and want to know if anyone has tried them. (I know this subject has been discussed before.)
One is http://www.faststone.org/%5B/url%5D FastStone Capture.
The other is http://www.ntwind.com/%5B/url%5D WinSnap.

I’ve been using http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html%5B/url%5D MW Snap. No complaints; I like it.

I saw both of these programs at http://webattack.com/%5B/url%5D SnapFiles.

I’ve been reading the rave reviews of http://www.techsmith.com/%5B/url%5D SnagIt 8.1, a shareware program, but my screen capture needs are fairly basic.

Any opinions on WinSnap or FastStone Capture? Thank you. J. Till

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I haven’t tried WinSnap, but I do have FastStone Capture. It’s probably not the smallest screen capture program, but not very big either (it takes about 1.2 MB of disk space).

I like it – it has a clean, uncluttered interface, is easy to learn and use, and many actions can be performed both with the mouse and using keyboard shortcuts.

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My own experience is that the best capture program depends on the task at hand. For this reason I have several at my disposal, and it’s possible to run more than one simultaneously. The features I’m often after include:
– Hotkey capability
– Save directly to (automatically named) file
– Basic or more advanced editing capability, including annotations, overlaying, crop, cut/copy/paste

I’ll use different programs, for instance, for taking screenshots to post here, and for authoring program documentation. If your needs become more complex, you might consider a program for capturing screen “actions” for a presentation. Just make sure you try to find a one first, to satisfy your needs. There might be one or two here to start you off!

HTH
Alan

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I haven’t had the need for anyscreen capture for some time, but when I was using it frequently, a program cal “Snag it” always seemed to have the best features.

Not freeware, however http://www.techsmith.com/%5B/url%5D

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See also these threads: post 489,137 & post 395,098.

If your needs are VERY basic, you can use native Windows capabilities – the problem is that you can’t capture menus and cursors. I capture dialogs for Lounge posting with just Alt-PrintScreen and Paint, edited and saved as a PNG file.

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Alt Print Screen does not capture Menus, but plain Print Screen does.

I use one of these methods for most screen captures. I paste into Irfanview then crop etc.

This was done with Print Screen.

If I need Cursors I use Paint Shop Pro

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I tend to favour MWSnap fo expanded menus, since it lets you easily overlay client areas, to build up the picture without the parent window in the background.

Alan

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I’m a cheapskate and a fan of freeware. I don’t do much screen capturing, either. But I got SnagIt some time ago, and now I wouldn’t be without it. It’s inexpensive and it has LOTS of features that transcend mere screen capturing. One I like is putting arrows, etc. on the screens or partial screens you capture. Another is getting lists in text form of all the files in a folder. It scrolls down the folder, picks up the filenames and extensions, and puts ’em into a text file (or maybe .DOC, I don’t remember). You usually have to go through and clean up line spacing, but the bottom line is that it’s VERY easy to get your list of files.

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Alt Print Screen does not capture Menus, but plain Print Screen does.

I use one of these methods for most screen captures. I paste into Irfanview then crop etc.
[…]
If I need Cursors I use Paint Shop Pro

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[/indent]You might use Irfan View to do the capturing as well as the cropping. Just fire up a new instance of IView and type “c”. The Capture Setup dialog box displays. The rest is pretty straightforward, and lets you include/exclude the cursor. See the attached (obviously captured with IView ).

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Thanks for that. IView is one of the many programmes that I use, but have not explored the real capability of.
I will use that.

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I’ve used SnagIt for 6+ years and as others have mentioned it’s incredibly flexible and low priced (for such great features) but for quick tasks that I just need to go to the clipboard, I use a free program called Gadwin PrintScreen. It ties into the PrtSc button and you can configure it to send it to a file or printer as well.

From the web site:
“Gadwin PrintScreen captures the contents of the screen with a single keystroke. The captured screen can then be sent to the printer, or saved to disk as a file in 6 different graphics file formats. Gadwin PrintScreen can capture the entire Windows screen, the active window, or a specified area, when the hot key is pressed. The hot key defaults to the PrintScreen key, but users may also define other keys to initiate a capture. Gadwin PrintScreen allows you to e-mail the captured images to recipients of your choice. ”

http://www.gadwin.com/products.htm?prnscro%5B/url%5D

Deb

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I have been using Gadwin as mentioned by Deb for…a long time and find it very easy to use, not that I need much from a screencapture.

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Apparently, there was a copytight issue with some of the icons used in FastStone Capture. A new version is available: see FastStone Image Viewer – Powerful and Intuitive Photo Viewer, Editor and Batch Converter.

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Thanks, Hans, for the update info. And thanks to all for the suggestions, comments, and criteria evaluation. Both WinSnap and FastStone Capture seem like well-crafted programs with clear interfaces. In the end I went with SnagIt, even though I said in my initial post that I was not going in that direction. What can I say? The reason I went with SnagIt–no laughing here–is that it has a lot of different types of arrows included in the program to clearly point to the problem. Even call-out arrows so you can point and say “Here’s the freakin’ problem, buddy”.
J. Till

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You won’t regret going with SnagIt. It is the most full-featured program of its kind that I have used and which is quite easy to configure, given the myriad options/features it has. I’m sue you are going to have fun playing with it….. but don’t forget to eat dinner.

Jeff

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Hi guys. I have some fairly sophisticated requirements for screen shots/screen capture. Can anyone advise me if there is something out there which will capture the Windows Security Screen (CTRL+ALT+DEL), and the Change password screen etc

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The simplest way is to use ALT + PrintScreen to capture such windows (when active) to the clipboard, then paste into any graphics app. Any of the capture utilities mentioned in this thread will also capture the active window. Or do you need something more complex, like capturing the actual text (as text)?

Alan

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I recall when this issue has come up in the past, it has been suggested that it is easier to simply borrow a suitable image from the web – there are quite a few out there to choose from!

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Do a remote desktop session and capture the CAD screens from the remote computer (or even a virtual PC session).

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Hi guys, many thanks for the tips on my getting hold of the Win 2000 Security Screen and the Change password screen – all fixed, but I will also get hold of Snagit and take it a few steps further.

Cheers

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Again, SnagIt can capture both of those items easily. You would simply open SnagIt, click on “Window”, minimize SnagIt and then open the dialog box you want to capture. Press the “PrtScn” key on the keyboard and you can then mouseover the dialog and click. DONE. Or, in SnagIt you can select “Region” for the type of capture you want, open the dialog box desired and again use the “PrtScn” key. You can then trace around the dialog box with your mouse cursor and release it. The captured dialog box will then appear in SnagIt where you can edit it to your liking if you so desire.

Jeff

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