Even if you’re not in the design industry, there will likely come a time when you need to grab an image of your computer screen to share. For example, you may need to compare notes with a client who is seeing something odd in the Word document you just sent them. You may need to grab an example of a software issue to send to support. Or, you may want to quickly share an idea with a colleague.
Of course you can use the screenshot functionality included in your operating system (Apple Grab on a Mac, and the print screen function or Snipping Tool on Windows), but if you want a little more functionality, here are some really cool (and free) tools to check out.
Screenshot Tools for Windows
Cropper: A simple screenshot tool that lets you take screen grabs and crop out sections you don’t need.
MWSnap: An installation-free screenshot tool that can capture your entire desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen.
Snippy: An installation-free tool for Windows XP that allows you to take screenshots of a page, even if you have a dual monitor setup.
Webshot: A tool that allows you to take screenshots in Internet Explorer and save them in JPG, GIF, PNG, or BMP formats.
Screenshot Tools for Macs
Paparazzi!: A small utility for Mac OS X that takes screenshots of web pages.
Skitch: Take screenshots, do some light modifications, and annotate with text, graphics and more.
SnapNDrag: A tool that lets you take a screenshot by just clicking a button and dragging the window. Supports PNG, TIFF and JPEG.
Cross-Platform Screenshot Tools
Jing: A powerful program that not only lets you take screenshots, but record screencasts and audio. From TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia.
Screengrab: A Firefox add-on that captures a full window, the entire page, just a selection, or a particular frame and lets you save the images either to a file, or to the clipboard.
Tiny Grab: A tool that instantly uploads your screenshots to easily share online. Free version is limited to 10 uploads per day.
What’s your favorite tools for capturing screenshots?
Written by Alyssa Gregory
EMAIL Alyssa.
Owner of avertua, LLC, author of VA Secrets Revealed, founder of the Virtual Assistant Hub, blogger at the Small Business Idea Generator, and a whole bunch of other stuff!
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My favorite is Jing – a lot can be shown & said in 5 minutes. Windows Snipping Tool also gets a workout in my world.
Maybe some good additions to this list are the checklist of criteria for selecting a screen capture tool at http://www.indoition.com/screen-capture-tool-choosing.htm, as well as the list of screen capture tools at http://www.indoition.com/screen-capture-tools-survey.htm.