Screen Capture Software

Looking for good freeware programs which capture screen graphics and works with all versions of Windows.

Any recommendations?

I saw snagit, post, but not free.

I ran across the following:

ScreenPrint Gold 3.5

and

ScreenHunter 4.0

If you have tried either of the above programs, post your review.

 

HI peekaboo..

Irfanview seems to be the most popular [i use HyperSnap, excellent, but not free]

Irfanview: http://www.irfanview.com/

Just don't give it JPEG and GIF rights [opening up, especially in XP if you like to view your JPEGS and GIFs in XP's Picture and Fax Viewer program.

Good tutorial to get you started here: http://www.larry-bolch.com/save-for-web/irfanview.htm

Cheers TAS

 

To capture your screen you can press the printscreen or alt+printscreen, then open Paint and in Edit Paste the image in it, you can work some with it and save as .. in some format;
with Tassie's mentioned Irfan View you can work further on it.

I've always heard one tip: if you are still working on an image, don't save it as jpg yet, as each time you save a jpg it gets some extra info which makes it larger then necessary. So i was told to keep it in bmp till ready and in the end save it as jpg.

Or go ahead and use an editer/stripper to get all that extra unnecessary info away. Don't think IrfanView does this for us, wished it did as i really love the program and use it for many things.

Another nice free screen grabber is Screen Grab Pro from Traction Software.

 

With Irfan View you can capture as well
Dolf

 

I use MW Snap. http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/index.html

 

For the average user (ME!) you cant go wrong with Screenhunter!

 

Hi again...

Some programs when saving files as JPEG embed a lot of data inside the file so that information can be retained if opening up again.

Photoshop is one of the main proggies that embeds such data, and can make a jpeg bigger than necessary.

Now Jooske [hi mate] mentioned to use a "cleaner/stripper" of some sort.

OK, here is the perfect app.... Called JPEG Cleaner... it strips all of the unnecessary data [WITHOUT quality loss].

It's only a 285Kb zip file and does NOT need installing, simply unzip and put the folder into some directory. Readme txt file, easy to understand.. different .exe's for different useages. Simply use the largest .exe ... JPGCLN95.exe

Attached pic show a relatively small file I created in Photoshop, which is 56Kb in size, but I stripped out 14Kb of unnecessary info without qualit loss. There is also a Preview pane so you see what pic is what. You can strip multiple pics at once....

Go here: http://rnbw.tsx.org/

 

I appreciate all the great suggestions for screen capture.

Jooske, I tried alt+prnt screen and pasted using paint brush, saved as a .bmp file. Worked great. Only concern was size of file.

I'll try some of the other software suggestions, maybe even stripping software as suggested. I'll monitor this thread for a few days to see if there is any consensus.

Does the format saved make a difference in the size of the file? Example: saving something as .bmp file vs. .jpg file does this affect the size as a general rule.

To post a screen print here I think I see how it is done. Just select file to attach, Is the best format for screen print a .gif looks like 100KB is max file size for posting.

Note: as mentioned my first .bmp file screen capture was something like 1.3 MB

TIA

 

Hi peakaboo,

A screen shot I saved as a .bmp is 1.407 kB where the same screenshot saved as a .jpg is 128 kB and the .gif is 70 kB

So there is a big difefrence in size, where the difference in quality is hardly noticeable when they are used as attachments.

HTH,

Pieter

 

I finally settled in on mwsnap.

Thanks root, and all who replied.

Reasons for selecting mwsnap:

1) no entries to my registry, just unzip program files to folder and start using.
2)Simple to use, yet flexible. Allows you to save in .bmp, jpg, .gif, .png & .tif formats.

I'll try attaching a .gif (22kb) file created with mwsnap.

Also note as Pieter posted, the .gif format requires less space.

Example the 1.3MB .bmp file I created earlier using screen print and paint brush, I was able to create with mwsnap using .gif format and the size was 10Kb wow!

Final note: I tried jpeg cleaner and found it to be a wonderful little utility (thanks Tassie_D). Anyone creating jpeg's using photo shop or other software may benefit.

Don't need for mwsnap. I tried it on a jpeg I created and nothing there to clean.

 

Hi peekaboo...

Glad you found one to YOUR liking, that's the main thing.

The file extensions are the main reasons for file sizes that differ vastly.
Reason being is what use the file is for.

When uploading for a Website like this, in posts, "quality" is of no importance, as long as you can read it.
Gifs are the lowest file size generally, and are the most common.

Reasons for large bmp's is for detail quality.
A Gif prints lousy, jpeg's are not too bad, but depends on at what resolution it was saved at, usually 72 DPI is the setting.
Printing quality needs a minimum of 150 DPI to 300 DPI.
EPS format is also the most common for printing quality. [Newspapers, magazines, etc.]

eg: I Captured a pic different formats, all at 3200 dpi: bmp 1.5Mb; jpeg 347Kb; gif 37Kb; wmf 1.5Mb; eps [print quality] a whopping 13.7Mb [this goes down once file worked on and resaved]; png 42Kb.

Also I capture a lot of large windows, so using a Pro screen capture program like HyperSnap, whereby I can capture a huge screen where you may have to scroll several pages long. It starts on the first page and then autoscrolls itself and captures as it going along. Verrry handy, save a lot of editing [pasting several pages together].

Have fun.

Cheers, TAS

 

I love to have a few tools on my desktop.
F.e. i recommended a bmp if you intend to work on the image, which does as Tassie described, add lots of extra info, once you're satisfied with the image save as gif or jpg , strip out all the garbadge --with Irfanview lot of cleansing and optimalisation is possible as well.
At the moment i use it as a music player, taking far less resources then WMP and no spy/calling home stuff.
See the image i posted here which original fullscreen is over 1,3mb, and i stripped it down from around 60 to 6 kb in this size posted.

 

Hey peekaboo,

Good of you to start this thread. I was just asking my son yesterday about this very same topic. We talked about the best way to go and capture screenshots. This thread takes all the guess work out of it.
Think I'll try the same one you picked. Just cause of the small package it comes in and what it does.
Take care, Ray.

 

Just for the record, mwsnap does add to your registry. I found about 15 new registry entries under HKCU.

No big deal. Just setting the record straight when I erroneously stated:

Reasons for selecting mwsnap:

1) no entries to my registry...

RJ100 glad you found this thread useful. Thanks again to all who participated.

 

Hi guys

Nice topic ! I've been looking for this type of solution for a long time.

Thanks to all.

Rgds, Crockett

 

That's why i have several: the very quick screen grab pro thingy, Irfan, this one and a few more. Picture Grabber
from Indy Jones picgrab.tsk.org is a very handy one to just get the images only, f.e. just in case!
Each has nice things, reason to have several and they are free anyway.