Most computer users know that they can take a screenshot of the screen with a tap on the print key on their keyboard. And while that’s sometimes all they need, it is often not the most comfortable or practicable solution. This is especially true if you only need a screenshot of a program window or part of the desktop. With print, you’d have to load the screenshot in an image editor to cut, edit and save it before you can add it to your content.
Screen capturing applications like SnagIt improve the process significantly. The program hijacks the print key functionality to provide users with powerful screen taking options. It is still possible to take a screenshot of the whole page, but also of a single window, a region on the screen, free hand, of scrolling windows or menus that are often hard to capture due to their auto closing. But SnagIt’s functionality does not end here. Techsmith have added text and video capturing capabilities and many specialized modes and options to the program as well.
All-in-one is the main screenshot taking mode as it allows you to take all kinds of screenshots without switching to a specific capturing profile. You can use it to capture the whole screen, a window or a region. Sometimes though you may want to switch to another capturing mode which you can do in the main program window.
You can pick a mode from the profiles offered in the main interface, or from the Input dropdown menu presented under Profile Settings. Specialized modes, for instance to capture DirectX, full screen DOS or custom scrolling regions are available for selection. Output settings, effects and options are configured here as well. You can save screenshots directly to the system or on an ftp server, send it to the printer, attach it to an email, save it in the Clipboard or open it in the built-in editor.
Effects let you add borders, edge effects, captions or watermarks, or change the screenshot’s dpi settings.
Options finally can be used to hide or display the mouse cursor on the screen, configure timed captures or preview the image in the editor.
New capturing profiles can be saved in the program. They appear under Profiles for quick selection.
Once configured, you take screenshots as fast as you would with the operating system’s default print key feature.
Snagit Editor can be used to edit screenshots before they are saved to the system. The program supports basic image editing options that include cropping, resizing or cutting images, adding text or lines, but also specialized options that are highly useful in regards to screenshots. These include highlighting screen areas, blurring information, adding watermarks, and effects like shadows or borders.
SnagIt keeps track of all screenshots automatically in a library as long as they are not deleted on the system. This combined with the program’s tagging improves the manageability of past screenshots.
The programs functionality does not end here though. You can install so called accessories that add functionality to the program. Accessories are available to instantly push screenshots to WordPress, Moveable Type or Type Pad blogs, to Skype, Flickr or Microsoft Office documents to optimize the workflow further.
SnagIt supports three additional capturing options. Text capture works like an OCR tool that reads text displayed in images or dialog boxes into text that you can copy and paste.
Web Capture allows you to capture all images that are displayed on a web page. You do however need to input the url directly to use the feature.
Video capture finally can be used to record screen activities. This is more or less a lightweight version of Techsmith’s Camtasia screen recording and production software.
The module can record a single window, a region on the screen, or all of the desktop. It is optionally possible to include audio and the cursor movement in the video. Videos can only be saved as avi files.
Camtasia Studio
Camtasia Studio is to video recording what SnagIt is to screen capturing. The program is an all-in-one solution for all video capturing needs on the desktop. It supports recording video and audio off the screen. Options are provided to create full screen recordings, recordings of individual windows, regions of the screen or directly from a connected web cam.
Camtasia Recorder is the small frontend program that you can use to start captures with a single-click of the mouse.
The most important configuration options are listed in the program window. You can select the video and audio source, and configure the recordings in detail. One interesting option is the lock to application feature. This basically links a window to the recording with the effect that recording dimensions are automatically applied to the window (the window is automatically resized by Camtasia). That’s useful if you want to record in a specific resolution.
Recorded videos are played in a preview window automatically once the capturing is stopped. Here it is possible to delete the video, save it as an avi file directly or send it to Camtasia Studio.
You can change the editing dimensions on the first screen in Camtasia Studio or keep the original size of the recording. Once done you can start editing and producing the video.
This includes adding additional clips to the video, cutting or splitting videos, adding callouts that highlight areas in the video, or making changes to the audio recording (volume leveling, voice optimization).
Additional features allow you to add captions, use the picture in picture option to display a smaller video in the video that you have recorded, record audio, transition effects, and to add title clips to the video.
Especially the option to record audio directly from within the editor is useful for users who like to create screencasts or tutorial videos. Instead of having to talk and demonstrate at the same time, it is now possible to capture the video first, and add the audio later on in the processing phase.
Feature Overview
- Record – Create video recordings of the screen, or part of it.
- Save videos in different formats and for different platforms (YouTube, Screencast.com, MP4, FLV, SWF, M4V, Avi, Silverlight comaptible WMV, Mov, RM, Animated Gif or MP3 audio only)
- PowerPoint plug-in
- SmartFocus – Keeps track of the action on the screen.
- Import media – import video clips, music animations into a project
- Speech to text feature to add captioning automatically. Option to import or export captioning files.
- Effects like transitions, title clips, cursor effects or callouts
Videos can be saved in various formats. Camtasia Studio supports saving videos for Blogs, YouTube, HD and DVD and mobile devices such as iPhones. Presets can be edited or created, which works similar to SnagIts profile feature.
Camtasia MenuMaker can be used to create menus to launch created videos automatically. This can be handy for video DVDs for instance.
Camtasia Theater finally allows you to combine multiple Camtasia Studio produced Flash files into a single web menu.
Verdict
SnagIt is a professional screen capturing software that leaves little to be desired. Workflows can be automated and optimized to an extend that the majority of comparable tools do not support.
Camtasia Studio can be used to create professional video screencasts, tutorials and demonstrations, and handles everything from the first second of recording to editing and production.
Both programs, despite their professional grade functionality, are easy to use and handle. Techsmith offers video instructions on their website for both programs.
Unrestricted 30-day trial versions are available for both programs on the developer website.
Giveaway
We have 4 SnagIt licenses and 2 Camtasia Studio licenses for this giveaway. Leave a comment below and let us know what you like to do with the programs if you win a license. Winners are then drawn from all comments.
Related Articles:
Download and Register Camtasia Studio for freeFree Camtasia Studio 2
Register SnagIt 7.25 for free
How To Download Camtasia Videos
Screen Capture Software Webinaria
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I use an older version of snagit v.7,
thx for the giveaway of v.10, with so many new Features.
greeting
Trelas
I am a blogger who writes articles about software, SnagIt is the most useful program that really helps me to take scrrenshot and make notes on them.
I do video processing and repairing computers. I dream of making your video course entirely dedicated to work with computer.
I use the various free software and demo versions.Of course I would like to work with professional software. Such as Camtasia. Thank you for this another really great giveaway and for the chance to win a license!!!
https://twitter.com/#!/Alex77toy/status/149475166282461184
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=315262181827980&id=100003055787962
I use SnagIt (an older version) all. the. time. at work. Having a personal license would help me out in my freelance stuff.
Hi,
Both are great software from techsmith.I haven’t yet used camtasia studio but since i have got a net connection at my home,would definitely try to make some tutorial and share with friends.As far as snag it is concerned i have used it and find it very useful with lot of feature but had some problem when capturing a long scroll windows.It fails sometimes with long scroll windows and also during scrolling both horizontal and vertical scroll.I do regular visit their home site to check new version.They haven’t released new one since long time.Would love to win license.
Great software and great contest everyday.
Thank you.
SORRY …FORGOT TO ENTER THE DETAILS
Both are great software from techsmith.I haven’t yet used camtasia studio but since i have got a net connection at my home,would definitely try to make some tutorial and share with friends.As far as snag it is concerned i have used it and find it very useful with lot of feature but had some problem when capturing a long scroll windows.It fails sometimes with long scroll windows and also during scrolling both horizontal and vertical scroll.I do regular visit their home site to check new version.They haven’t released new one since long time.Would love to win license.
Great software and great contest everyday.
I think Snagit would be really good for helping me with presentations and tutorials for my computer user groups.
I usually use some freeware or open source utilities to accomplish these tasks, but think Snagit should be better.
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Camtasia Studio would be nice also, maybe I can start recording some presentations or tutorials, rather than just using slide shows.
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I would appreciate either, should I be a winner, and would write a review for computer user group newsletters also.
Keep up the good work, have Ghacks in Google Reader and Google+ to keep track of posts.
Very nice… I’d like to win a license for Camtasia Studio so I could start making some tutorials for my mom. Thanks!
Would love Camtasia Studio to make tutorials and guides for software. Constantly trying to tell people how to use software and I could just show them with this!
My friends and colleagues considere I’m an advanced PC user; so every time an issue occurs – they just call me to give some help. Unfortunatelly, there are large distances between my home and any of theirs. Delivering short tutorials showing how to fix the problems should save some of my precious time (and money for gasoline as well :) ). Camtasia/SnagIt made tutorials.
Good luck to everyone!
I have been a longtime user of Snagit, but haven’t been able to upgrade since version 7. I would love a new version. It is invaluable when it comes to creating user documentation.
Thanks to Ghacks for the opportunity to win this great software.
Count me in for Snagit, please.
I would help my wife to make Photoshop tutorials for her paper crafting business. She uses Photoshop to make different sentiments for her cards and would like to share the steps with her followers.
Definitely a nice Christmas gift!
Count me in Martin! :)
I’m still using old versions of SnagIt and HyperSnap DX and not in a position to upgrade due to financial reasons. I would really love to have a license of either of one software. With new features, these will help me improve my productivity. Please count me in.
Snagit is an amazing product. I have an older version and it makes my computing life so much easier. I “grab the screen” to create product documentation, to snag interesting photos, to save screen shots when I purchase a product on-line… etc… I have not had a chance to use Camtasia Studio, but I am sure it is an equally amazing product. Thanks for the opportunity to win one of these fine products !
Wow, amazing giveaway
For Snagit I’ll use for creating screenshot some software review for my blog, making user manual etc and I would have used Camtasia to make video tutorial about programming and web design
I could really use Snagit as I lost my last screen capture program (Screen Presso) to a computer crash and the free program I downloaded last week is not very capable.
I wouldn’t mind winning SnagIt. It’s really useful for me at work, so it would be nice to have at home for quick screenshots.
Camtasia is GREAT software for video editing.
and also for recording, for tutorials ,etc.
with alot features on camtasia studio also. I can do anything for great result.
I Love it, i’d love to get one license for camtasia.
Count me in for Camtasia studio ,please.
thanks gHacks for giveaway ,also GREAT review with great software.
I would give the Camtasia license to my friend in Florida that teaches high school Math. He wants to make video lessons to put on school website. The educational pricing is still too much for them to afford.
It would be great to use Camtasia for creating some videos showing how to navigate our cloud portal…
I am also using a older version of Snagit. I would love to get the update. I manage to use it throughout my work week on various projects. Cheers.
Camtasia Studio is one of the best applications for recording what happens on the computer screen, built-in editor helps you to easily create high-quality video. This is ideal program for my YouTube channel. Thanks for the great Giveaway!
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=111848505601130&id=100001832763969
http://twitter.com/#!/tzpc/status/149498618192211968
looking forward to win this one…
i love snagit very much as it’s very intuitive and have a lot of functionalities. Do wish me luck in getting this one. Thanks
Camtasia is really an awesome tool, just a little pricy for my budget :(
I train X-ray service engineers and am continuously developing training materials using screen captures and videos. I’ve yet to find software within my budget that is easy to use and produces professional-looking results.
I’m currently using a combination of Greenshot and iPhotoDraw for screen capturing and editing. It would be wonderful to use Snagit and have both functions integrated into one package.
I’ve tried CamStudio and really couldn’t get the hang of it. I’m using Microsoft Expression now but that really isn’t working out for me either. I could really use Camtasia Studio.
Please enter me in the drawing for both Snagit and Camtasia Studio!
thanks,
I will be using for snapshots and video making if i win.
Hope I will end my loosing spree here with this giveaway.
count me in.
john d
Salvete! I have commented in these contests before but I never win anything. I guess that means I am a loser! Anyway, I use Screenshot captor, and really like it, but I am commenting in hopes of winning the Camtasia Studio, for part of my work has to do with creating video tutorials. I have been using wink, but it is rather limited, and doesn’t seem to have much hope for improvement. Anyway, I hope I win!