TechSmith today released SnagIt 9 – the best screen capture program for Windows. SnagIt 9 is available for download on Windows XP and Vista systems though the Mac version is still in the works.
The screen capture features in SnagIt 9 are more or less the same as in previous versions but they have completely revamped the user interface on the lines of Office 2007 Ribbon.
The image editor included in SnagIt 9 is more powerful than ever before and offers a plethora of tools / images effects to make your screenshot images look more professional. Here’s a list of some favorite features included in SnagIt 9:
1. Office 2007 Ribbon Interface – If you are already using an Office 2007 program like PowerPoint or Word, you would have no trouble getting “fluent” with the new SnagIt 9 interface. Others may take some time to master the new layout but once you are comfortable, you’re going to love it.
2. Crop Screenshot Images Quickly – You can now remove the white space areas around screen captures in a click using the trim command that you may have seen in Photoshop as well. SnagIt 9 will crop everything surrounding the actual image like in the above case of Google logo.
3. Screenshot Manager with Instant Search – With SnagIt 9, you will never have to worry about saving or losing your screen capture images because everything gets saved on your hard drive automatically the moment you hit the print screen key.
What’s more interesting is that SnagIt 9 even remembers the name of the application where that screenshot was taken. For instance, if you search for Firefox, you will see all images that were captured inside the Firefox window. This is awesome.
4. Flags and Keywords – You can tag your screenshots with Flags and / or keywords. May sound a bit confusing but Flags are like categories – you could have one for Website screenshots, one for Bank Transactions, etc. You can further describe these images via keywords like amazon, bank, yahoo, etc.
Since I am an Office 2007 user for a long time, getting used to the new Ribbon interface of SnagIt 9 didn’t take much effort though I wish there was an option to change the color theme like in Office 2007. The new release of SnagIt is highly recommended for power users since it makes it very easy to manage your large collection of screenshot images.
To get a 30 day trial of SnagIt, go to SnagIt.com. Explore the software and let us know here what you like about SnagIt 9. One of you will get a licensed copy of SnagIt 9 for free. Thanks Betsy Weber.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/snagit-9-screen-capture-review-download-free-license/3520/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
I LOVE Snagit - thanks to Amit (and the free version offer for a prior release), I’ve been able to use this daily.
The new version looks amazing, I guess I am going to have to try it out…
Written by Rob Dunn on 06.10.08
I have never used a third party application just to capture a screenshot…it always intrigues me what makes one to use a ’separate’ application just to do what the good ol’ ‘PrntScrn’ key does! Though I assume SnagIt has a cooler approach of doing the same task, I’m still not drawn towards it.
Written by DWiner on 06.10.08
DWiner, the best thing about such applications is that you have the option to choose how much of your screen you want to capture. You can choose a small rectangle or a small circle shaped screen capture too if you so desire. The PrntScrn key does not let you do that. You can either capture the entire screen or the entire window and then go into a photo editing software to crop the image.
I use Screen Hunter and it is amazing (and it is just the free version, haven’t found the need to upgrade it because the free version has enough features.
Written by Vikas Sharma on 06.11.08
@ Vikas Sharma: Hhhmm..truly. ‘Prnt Scrn’ does not have the utility to capture only a part of the screen; whereas SnagIt does. If I ever run into the need of cropping, I immediately pop open MSPaint. Looks like I need to consider SnagIt, at least to check how useful it would be for my tasks. Thanks!
Written by DWiner on 06.11.08
WOW..The new interface looks awesome, I have been working on the trial version so far. Also I like the interconnectivity and the ability to do much on a simple screenshot for various purposes. I would defintly love to have this for my future tutorials, especially with the professional looking annotations.
Written by Joel on 06.11.08
@DWiner:
Not only that (with regards to screen cropping), but when you hit [PrtSc], you are capturing an image at the color depth that Windows is set to. So, if you (like most people are nowadays) have Windows set to 32bit color, a screenshot of a desktop could be as 2Mb or more.
A dedicated screen capture utility such as Snagit allows you to modify this and reduce your image sizes, capture your mouse cursor, easily annotate your captures, add effects and highlights (and much more).
I suppose a good screen capture utility is nothing more than a decent graphics editor with some hotkeys assigned, but for people who are constantly documenting and reviewing software, programs like Snagit are a must.
Hope this helps explain things a bit!
Written by Rob Dunn on 06.12.08
New does not equal better.
The Ribbon-like interface for the editor is unnecessary and unwieldly. The whole concept of the Ribbon is flawed and a major step backwards from customizable menus and toolbars. We users should not be swayed by poorly designed but flashy “new” UI’s. I use SnagIt a lot but have to give version 9 demerits for adopting the ribbon-type UI. I also notice that it loads much more slowly than version 8.
It is a great utility but 9 is a questionable upgrade. I see no reason for users to spend the money if they are satisfied with 8.
Written by Richard on 06.19.08
The best part of snag it software that i like is:
1) Capturing scrolling windows. - for my blogging purpose
2) Keyboard key supportive - easy to open and capture.
3) Print screen supportive - i like taking screen shots of what ever i see on the internet, and sometimes also used for blogging purpose.
4) Capturing only a small part of the window - The best of all features, we can capture only a small portions of window.
5) Timer setup- can set up time.
6) Even it can capture webpage links. Great feature, i dint see this feature any where other than snag it. Really The creatores, developers of this software are great.
7) And for protecting our content, we can easily watermark the images that we capture.
8) Scrolling window to pdf- lot more sophisticated feature.
9) Record screen video- now i can upload my own tutorials, how to videos to youtube.
Thank you for the great software techsmith- it will no doubt become the best software in the world.
Written by Dinesh on 07.09.08
The interface in version 9 is awful. 8 was easy to use, 9 is cluttered, hard to use, and not an improvement at all. I regret having paid for the upgrade. Should have done a little more research. I use version 8 most of the time, though both are installed on my computer.
Written by Russell on 07.09.08
SnagIT is simply an awesome screen capture software, by far the best I have used.
Written by Jon Ong on 07.27.08