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Screen-capture posts

Filed under: Utilities, Video, Windows

Free Screen to Video for Windows does free screen captures

Windowsby Brad Linder Aug 28th 2009

Free Screen to Video
Free Screen to Video is a free screen capture utility for Windows. You can capture video of an entire display, just a window, or a selected area. The program can handle audio and video or just video. And you can save your files in a variety of formats including FLV, AVI, WMV, and SWF.

You don't get a ton of bells and whistles like the ability to edit or even resize videos within the application. But really, what were you expecting from a free screen capture utility? Just use VirtualDub or your editor of choice if you need to edit your screen capture.

The developer of Free Screen to Video also has a number of other apps including a CD ripper and several tools for editing and converting audio and video files. You can find them all at the developer's home page.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: free-screen-to-video, screen-capture

Filed under: Web services, Web

Record screencasts from your web browser with ScreenCastle

by Brad Linder Apr 9th 2009

ScreenCastle
ScreenCastle is a Java-based tool for recording screencasts from your web browser. If you've got Java installed on your computer all you have to do is visit ScreenCastle and click the big red record button. A window will pop up asking you to select the area of your desktop that you want to record and decide whether you want to capture audio from your microphone.

That's pretty much it for the settings. Click OK and you can start capturing a video of anything happening on your desktop. Scroll your mouse over the red line around the border of your screen to pause or finish the recording.

The image quality is pretty good, but the video frame rate wasn't that impressive in my tests. What is impressive was the number of options that ScreenCastle gives you once your recording is over. The service automatically generates a download link where you can grab an FLV file, a web site where you can watch the screencast online, and HDML or BBCode that you can use to embed the file on various web sites. There are even links to large and small thumbnail previews.

While ScreenCastle isn't going to replace full features screencast software like Camtasia Studio, it definitely gets the job done if you just need to make a simple recording in a hurry.

[via WebWare]

Tags: java, screen-capture, screencast, screencastle

Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Linux, Open Source

Linux screenshot app GScrot reborn as Shutter

Linuxby Lee Mathews Mar 6th 2009


With my triple-boot setup finally somewhat set in stone (or very firm clay, at any rate) I've finally been able to start installing Linux apps that I need to use it as an everyday operating system. Due in no small part to my duties here at DS, the first item on my list was a good screenshot application.

Serendipitously, we just received a tip that GScrot (which should have appeared on my list of badly-named applications) has been re-launched with new features and a less anatomical-sounding name: Shutter.

Shutter supports a good array of features including basic editing and annotation and it's extensible through the use of plugins, a number of which come pre-installed to add effects to your images. There's also a censor tool to quickly obscure private information like email addresses from your images. Captures can be full screen, windows, regions, and full web pages, and can be directly saved in multiple format or uploaded to a number of image hosts with minimal fuss.

Thanks, Vadim!

Tags: linux, screen-capture, screenshot

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Two utilities for taking simple screenshots in Windows

Windowsby Brad Linder Dec 29th 2008

Screen Capturer and Greenshot image editor
As a software blogger, I probably take more screenshots of programs running on my computer in a week than most people will take in a year. So I'm always on the lookout for a good screen capture utility. This morning I ran across two.

Greenshot is a light weight screen capture utility for Windows that comes as a small executable file (no installation required). Just fire up the program and a little green frog icon will show up in your system tray. Right click on the icon and you'll see options to capture a window, the full screen, or a region. Once you capture an image, the Greenshot Image Editor will open up, allowing you to annotate the image with text and drawings.

Screen Capturer is a somewhat heavier duty utility which does require an installation. But you can choose to capture images to the Windows clipboard or save images as BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, or TIFF formats. You can also capture videos as Windows Media Video animations.

Both programs are free, although Screen Capturer does require you to submit your email address for a registration code. And both applications let you use keyboard shortcuts to grab screenshots.

[via Lifehacker and Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: greenshot, screen-capture, screen-capturer, screenshot

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Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

PicPick is a powerful, free way to take and edit screenshots

Windowsby Lee Mathews Oct 19th 2008


I've been using Faststone Capture portable for ages to handle my screenshot tasks, but PicPick is a very capable alternative.

PicPick provides the usual capture functionality and Windows hot key replacements (print screen and the control + and alt + variations), but it doesn't stop there. The integrated editor is packed with features, and can easily handle any quick edits I need for creating documentation or blog posts.

The editor's tabbed interface makes working with multiple images easy, especially when working with the repeat function to re-capture the same region for, say, a step-by-step installer tutorial.

Since most of my screen captures have to fit into a 500 pixel <div> tag, I was eager to test PicPick's ability to scale images. Resizing is very good, producing reductions that are on par with those created by CS4.

Read more →

Tags: capture, portable, screen-capture, screencap, screenshot

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Web services, web 2.0

Super Screenshot: Web based tool for creating an image of any site

by Brad Linder Apr 18th 2008

Super Screenshot
Want to take a screen capture of a web site? Not just the part you can see on your screen, but the whole page, even the parts you have to scroll for 20 minutes to find? Super Screenshot is a web based tool that will let you capture any page and save the output as a JPG or PNG image file.

You get a few options with Super Screenshot, like the ability to capture a whole page or just the top of the screen. You can also select the size of the final picture, but you don't get to set pixel heights and widths. Instead you get some rather unhelpful options like X-Small, Small, Medium, Large, and Full. So you might need a little trial and error time to find the right size.

If you want more control over your screenshots, you can always use a desktop application like Snagit. But if you're using a friend or coworker's computer and need to make a quick screenshot, Super Screenshot could come in handy.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: screen-capture, screencap, screenshot, super-screenshot

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Get SnagIt 7.25 from TechSmith for free

Windowsby Brad Linder Nov 26th 2007

SnagIt
Last week we told you that TechSmith was offering a free version of the Camtasia Studio screencasting software for free. As luck would have it, TechSmith is also giving away free licenses for SnagIt, the company's popular screen capture utility.

The only catch is that just like with the Camtasia Studio offer, TechSmith is offering an older version of SnagIt for free. If you want all the latest features, you'll have to upgrade to SnagIt 8.2, which will set you back $20. But SnagIt 7.2.5 (the free version) is still quite a few steps up from the Windows print screen button. Here are a few of the features you get with SnagIt:
  • Capture a region
  • Capture a file
  • Capture a scrolling window (like an entire web page)
  • Capture a freehand region (draw a shape around the portion of the screen you want to capture
SnagIt 8.2 adds Vista compatibility, the ability to save a file to an application like Word, Excel, or even Flickr, and new printing options.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Tags: Screen-capture, SnagIt, TechSmith

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