<-- Top -->

HOME
TOPICS
ABOUT ME
MAIL

Get ScreenSeize no matter what, but get SnagIt if you need to do a lot of fancy screen captures./

technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

3 programs for creating fancy screen shots in Windows

Sept. 24, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Making a screen shot in Windows is easy. All you have to do is press the Print Screen key. Windows creates an image of whatever is on the screen and stores it in the clipboard.
   But there will be times when you need to make a screen shot that's fancier than Windows can handle. That's when you'll need a separate program that specializes in capturing images of what's on the screen. This week I'll tell you about three good ones -- including one that's free.
   First, let's see how Windows handles this kind of task by itself.
   When you press the Print Screen key, Windows creates an image of the display and stores it in the clipboard. To see it, use any program that can display images and paste the contents of the clipboard into a blank document. If this sounds like geek speak, try this simple technique: Press Print Screen, then run WordPad (under Accessories) and click inside the blank WordPad window. Then hold down the Ctrl key and press V. That pastes the image from the clipboard. (Didn't I say this was easy?)
   Used by itself, Print Screen captures the entire display. If all you want to capture is a program window, hold down the Alt key when you press Print Screen. That way you'll get just the foreground window.
   Print Screen and Alt-Print Screen do a fine job most of the time. Despite what you might read in advertising hype from companies that make screen-capture programs, you don't need a separate program to capture all or part of the screen. (If you end up with more than you want, edit the resulting image in an image editor -- Windows has a free one, the simple but hard-to-use Paint program, but there are many others.)
   (If you have Office 97, you already have a very good image editor. It's called Microsoft Photo Editor. Get out the Office installation CD and add it to your system if you have Office 97 but can't find the Photo Editor. And, no, it's not a "photo editor," it's an image editor. Microsoft apparently has no clue how badly named this product is.)
   But the Print Screen method falls down when you need to include the mouse pointer in your screen shots or when you need to capture an open menu. The Print Screen method isn't suited to automated screen shots, either.
   That's why you should consider adding a screen-capture program to your collection of utilities. If you need to do fancy screen shots, you need a program suited to the task.
   You don't have to read any further to know what's best. There's no competition. It's SnagIt from TechSmith, at http://www.snagit.com. SnagIt costs $40, and you can download it to buy it online or to try it out for free.
   I've used SnagIt for a couple of years. It has never failed to do what I wanted it to do. It will capture menus, dialog boxes, animated actions and anything else. The captured images can be put onto the clipboard, stored as image files (manually or automatically) or printed out on a laser or ink jet printer. It will even turn a screen shot of text into actual text, something that seems amazing when you see it in action. (Screen shots are images, plain and simple. Turning an image of text into real text is extremely handy.)
   Two other Windows screen-capture utilities are worth mentioning. They're Print Screen Works and ScreenSeize.
   Print Screen Works shows a lot of promise. It's from Silver Lake at http://www.silverlaketech.com/. It costs $30. You can buy it online or download a free trial copy.
   Print Screen Works shows an easy-launch icon in the Windows System Tray when it's running. I like that. And right-clicking that icon shows some handy options, and that's good, too. But capturing an open menu was tedious, because Print Screen Works needs to capture the entire screen first. You then have to edit the big image down to just the menu in an image editor.
   Snag-It, however, knows how to capture menus without messing around with a huge image file. Another minus: There's no way to create a timed capture in Print Screen Works (one that goes off a few seconds after you press a key).
   The third capture utility, ScreenSeize, is a freeware utility from PC Magazine. The best place to get it is the Web site run by the program's author, programing expert Charles Petzold, at http://www.charlespetzold.com/. You'll see it somewhere near the middle of the page.
   ScreenSeize will do just about everything related to capturing images from a Windows screen. It's free, so be sure to download it and try it out. It seems clunky compared to either of the other programs, but spending nothing on a program sure beats spending $30 or $40.
   My advice: Get ScreenSeize no matter what, but get SnagIt if you need to do a lot of fancy screen captures. Print Screen Works will surely improve over the next few months, so check the Silver Lake Web site now and then to see if you can try a better version. The one available now isn't ready for prime time.