Like so many other Mac screen recording software tools, there's a premium version of the software available too. However, this basic tool may be enough for some projects. Plus, there are quite a few tutorials right on their website to make learning it easier.
Best Screen Capture Software Tools that would enable you to make your workday much more productive:
A few years ago, screenshots were not that much popular. It was only used to share the error message on the screen.
But, nowadays screenshots are routinely and widely used in our day-to-day life. E.g Taking a snapshot of a funny message or post on social media. Students also take a snapshot of an article for educational purposes.
Snapshot or Screenshot is necessary to prove that you are seeing something weird on the screen. Mockup screen designs are also shared with the clients as a screenshot.
A print screen button is available in all the systems to capture the image or screen but it has certain limitations in it. It is a tedious job to add text, arrows, and highlighters on the captured image using the print-screen option.
Currently, there are several screen capture tools that are available in the market, which in turn will help you to take a screenshot of the entire desktop or screen. These tools may vary in features such as screenshot size, quality, supported operating system, file format types, etc.
This article will give a complete overview of the most popular screen capture tools available in the market along with their key features and download link for your easy understanding.
What You Will Learn:
- Best Screen Capture Software Tool in 2019
Best Screen Capture Software Tool in 2019
Given below is a list of most popular screenshot tools.
#1) Snagit
Snagit is a product of TechSmith Software Company. A user can add comments on the captured screenshot using arrows, shapes, etc. It has built-in advanced image edition options and screen recording facility.
Key Features:
- It has a preview window which shows the zoomed image of the area on which the cursor is hovering,
- Images are editable in terms of size, special effects etc.
- A quick toolbar speeds-up the screen capture process.
- Snagit supports Windows and Mac Operating Systems.
- Snagit is available in various languages like English, Japanese, Korean and German.
- It is also used to record a video of the screen and easily share across web or email.
- It takes a full-page, scrolling screenshot and captures vertical & horizontal scrolls.
Download Free Tial: Snagit
#2) Snipping Tool
Snipping tool is a program which is part of Windows Vista and above versions. Snipping Tool allows you to take a screenshot of your screen. It can be delayed for a few seconds while capturing the screen in case of hover. It allows the user to capture the whole screen or user-specified area in a rectangular form.
Snipping tool allows the user to add notes to the screenshot.
Key Features:
- Snipping Tool is a default tool on Windows PC.
- It is a free and easy to use tool which comes with the Windows Operating System.
- A user can edit these snapshots using a colored pen, highlighter, etc.
- Snipping Tool allows a user to write on the screen capture, save it and share further.
- Captured images can be stored in PNG, GIF, and JPEG format.
- After capturing the screen, it automatically gets copied and it can be further pastes as required.
- It has 4 types of modes to capture the screen – Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip, and Full-screen Snip.
Visit the official site:Snipping Tool
#3) FastStone Capture
FastStone Capture is a screen capture tool, which easily captures the entire screen in various forms such as rectangular, fixed region defined by the user, etc. The captured images can be sent to printer, clipboard, and email. The captured images can be uploaded to social media sites or any other website.
Key Features:
- For lifetime licenses, the cost is only $19.95.
- It is a quick, lightweight, powerful and extremely responsive tool.
- FastStone Capture allows for Resizing, cropping, sharpening and watermarking the captured images.
- It captures multiple windows, multi-level menus, etc.
- It saves captured snapshots in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and PDF formats.
- It can be run from removable drive such as iPod, USB Flash drive, etc.
- It has a built-in screen recorder which saves video files in .WMV format.
- It has built-in color picker for color sampling.
- Screen capture tool can be instantly activated using global hotkeys.
- FastStone Capture allows the user to join or combine images to convert into a single image file.
Visit the official site: FastStone Capture
#4) Jing
Jing is a screen capture tool provided by a software company named TechSmith. The captured images are directly shared on screencast.com and they provide the URL to copy/paste the images as per the user’s choice. It also allows the user to capture video of your screen.
Due to the ease of use and free software, it is a favorite tool in the market.
Key Features:
- Jing is a free software to install on your PC.
- It is available for Windows and Mac Operating Systems.
- Jing allows a user to share screen capture images very quickly.
- It is easy to use and has a user-friendly user interface.
- It allows uploading images and URL to the social media sites like YouTube, Flickr etc.
- Jing Pro software removes the brand name from the images and provides additional features.
Visit the official site:Jing
#5) Skitch
Skitch is a screen capture tool developed by EverNote for Mac and Windows. It is a quick image capture and annotation tool. This freehand tool helps to mark areas while Pixelate tool blurs any user-specified area such as special number, cost, license number, etc.
Key Features:
- Skitch is a free tool available for both Mac and Windows.
- Using Skitch tool a user can highlight any particular section or area and can also add comments on the captured image.
- Its simple to use with a user-friendly interface.
- It is also available on mobile platforms such as Android and iOS.
- A user can also use Skitch for annotating photograph directly from the camera using arrows, colored pen highlighters, etc.
- The captured image can be directly uploaded or attached to an email message.
- All editing options are available under one menu which helps to find the tool easily.
Visit the official site: Skitch
#6) Greenshot
Greenshot captures a snapshot very quickly and easily. It captures the images of a full-screen window by scrolling a web page, or any user-selected area on the screen. The captured screen can be easily annotated, highlighted. The captured image can be saved in various formats for editing at a later stage.
Key Features:
- Greenshot is a free and open-source program.
- It is a light-weight tool that is available for Windows OS.
- Built-in image edit is available to edit the image.
- Captured images can be directly sent to the printer, email, clipboard, etc.
- Greenshot is easy to understand and easy to configure as well.
- Greenshot has memory utility which remembers the region which was lastly captured.
- It is available in 26 languages.
- It offers various capture modes such as “Capture region”, “Capture the last region”, “Capture fullscreen”, “Capture Window”.
Visit the official site: Greenshot
#7) TinyTake
TinyTake is a screen capture program developed by MangoApps. Any screen is captured quickly as per user-specified area or region. These images can be highlighted using a colored pen and images can be edited using arrow, textbox or picture caption.
Key Features:
- TinyTake is a free screen capturing and video recording tool.
- TinyTake capture image of the entire screen or selected region.
- Images are also captured using a webcam.
- Local images are edited using drag & drop facility and shared further on the web.
- A specific part of the screenshot can be blurred to hide sensitive data.
- It also records your activity on the screen.
- Captured images are shared across via email, web, print or local drive.
- Inbuilt file viewer helps to view various types of files/documents, play audio or video.
- It is used by 7500+ companies across the world.
Visit the official site: TinyTake
#8) Lightshot
Best Free Screencast Software For Mac
Lightshot is a simple to use and convenient screen capture tool. It takes a screenshot quickly and the screenshot is customizable as well. Lightshot tool allows the user to take a screenshot of a selected area and the selected area can be resized or moved without any hassle.
Key Features:
- Lightshot is a free screenshot program.
- It captures the screen with just 2 button clicks.
- Its user-friendly interface makes your work get done faster.
- While capturing the screen, the user can edit the same screenshot.
- The editor allows adding text, arrows, effects, and various other functions.
- Lightshot supports Windows, Mac, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
- It automatically uploads captured images online for sharing.
- Images captured using Lightshot are of high quality.
- It uses few system resources while running in the background.
Visit the official site: Lightshot
#9) Screenpresso
Screenpresso is a screen capture tool which is helpful for training document, evidence etc. It is a standard and simple screen capture tool. It captures the image in various modes such as full screen, user-defined area, scrolling window capture, etc.
Screenpresso allows the user to save captured images in various formats and also save all recent capture history.
Key Features:
- Screenpresso is available in the free version as well as a premium version at a cost of €89 per user.
- Screenpresso is a light-weight screen capture tool with a built-in image editor.
- It highlights and edits the captured images with arrows, colorful bubbles, text boxes, ellipses etc.
- It maintains the history of all captured images.
- Captured images can be converted into PDF, Microsoft Word or HTML document using a document generator.
- It also imports media files from other devices like iPhones etc.
- Automatically publishes the images and videos to 13 online services.
- Screenpresso is available in 19 languages.
- It supports all 64-bit Windows versions such as Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Visit the official site: Screenpresso
#10) Screenshot Captor
Screenshot Captor is a simple screenshot program. It captures images in full-screen mode, selected area, scrolling window, fixed-size window etc. The captured images can be zoom up-to 999% and every single pixel is visible to the user. It is simple to use and requires minimal resources.
Key Features:
- Screenshot Captor is a free tool available for Windows
- Screenshot captor is flexible screenshot tool for PC
- It is available in an installable and portable version for Windows XP and later versions
- It also captures images from webcam
- It easily captures the screenshot of multiple monitors
- It automatically trims the extra margins of captured images
- It automatically generates thumbnails of captured images
- It has a built-in editor and it applies special effects such as borders, shadow effects, frames, blur effects on the captured images
- It imports images from scanner directly into Screenshots Captor’s image editor
- It supports 3rd party configurable tools such as file browsers, image editors
Visit the official site: Screenshot Captor
#11) SnapDraw
SnapDraw is a screen capture tool with effective editing tools. It applies excellent effects such as background, borders, fading reflections on the captured images. It does not require separate image editor as it crops, edit images captured directly from the user’s screen.
SnapDraw also captures images from the webcam. SnapDraw automatically uploads images to the FTP servers and emails. It is useful for users who require high-quality images, special effects, and 3D rotation.
Visit the official site: SnapDraw
#12) Gadwin PrintScreen
Gadwin PrintScreen is a simple and convenient screen capture tool. Once it is installed and assigned with hotkey on the keyboard, the user can capture screen with various modes like full screen, specifically selected area etc.
The captured images can be saved to a local drive or can be sent to email as an attachment. The images can be saved in six various formats and the images can be resized easily. It supports Windows XP, Vista 7 and Windows 8.
Visit the official site: Gadwin PrintScreen
#13) Steam
Game screenshot can be easily captured using Steam screenshot capture tool. While playing games a user can capture the screenshot of the game. It automatically saves the screenshot of each game in a separate folder on the local drive.
Steam supports Windows, Mac and Linux game platform. The captured images of the game can be uploaded while the user is playing the game.
Visit the official site: Steam
#14) PicPick
PicPick is a free and user-friendly screen capturing and editing tool. It has editing features such as a color picker, protractor, brightness, color contrasts and pixel ruler. It has a built-in editor which allows adding comments, text boxes, different shapes, arrows, etc.
It does not require installation, hence the user can store on a flash drive.
Visit the official site: PicPick
#15) SnapCrab
SnapCrab is a free screen capture tool available for the Windows platform. It captures images as per the user-defined area, full screen and saves the images in JPEG, PNG and GIF format. It has various customization options such as defining your own hotkey, modifying how to take a snapshot of the screen, etc.
It has a self-timer feature so that user can set the time and SnapCrab automatically captures an image on the screen.
Visit the official site: SnapCrab
Conclusion
Through this article, we came to know about the most popular screen capture tools available in the market along with their key features.
But the list is not exhaustive and it’s not possible to provide the complete detail of each tool in one article. However, I have tried to include some of the basic as well as advanced tools in this article for your reference.
Recommended Reading
Interested in creating video tutorials to teach others how to use software? Or perhaps you need to communicate a computer problem you’re experiencing. Screen recording software is one of the most effective ways of presenting this information.
Fortunately, you’ll find an excellent selection for macOS at your disposal. Whether you need something simple and free or the advanced features of a paid solution, we’ve rounded up the best screen recorders for Mac to help you decide.
1. ScreenFlow
The first aspect you’ll notice about ScreenFlow is the price tag. Is it justified?
That depends on how many of the extensive features you’ll actually use. Calling ScreenFlow a screen recorder is like referring to Mount Everest as a sandcastle.
Not only can you record from multiple monitors, but you can choose to record from your webcam and connected iOS device simultaneously. Combine that with the ability to record audio, and you have the perfect setup for creating video tutorialsHow to Make a Screencast Tutorial for YouTubeHow to Make a Screencast Tutorial for YouTubeOne of the most popular types of YouTube video is the screencast. Here's how to easily make your own.Read More.
Recorded media from all sources then saves to a single timeline where you can turn the raw footage into a professional-grade video quickly and easily. Annotations, callouts, and video motions are at your fingertips in an easy-to-use interface.
One particularly interesting feature is the touch callouts, which can demonstrate screen touches and gestures if you’re recording the screen on an iOS device.
ScreenFlow also has a variety of exporting options depending on where you’d like to view your finished video. You’ll find presets from lossless ProRes codecs to ones specifically for the Apple TV.
If you’re considering making many screen recordings that involve multiple sources, and you’d like to add some embellishments in post-production, ScreenFlow might be what you’re looking for.
Download:ScreenFlow (Free trial)
Download:ScreenFlow ($129)
2. Snagit
Perhaps having a fully fledged video editor is overkill for your use case. Maybe you’re looking to create mostly disposable videos quickly without needing many of the post-production enhancements that come with ScreenFlow. Snagit combines some of the best screen recording features in a simple interface.
It allows simultaneous recording from screens and webcams, but you can’t overlay the videos, and you will need to toggle between which one is recorded. Snagit also allows you to record audio; you can view your past recordings and tag them for finding them quickly in the future.
Snagit features a powerful image editor with a vast library of assets to annotate your images on the fly. One handy feature is the ability to export a video as a GIF with a single click from the preview screen.
Snagit is perfect if your focus is getting good-enough screen recordings that will probably have a short shelf life.
Download:Snagit (Free trial)
Download:Snagit ($50)
3. Camtasia
Camtasia has been around since 2002, which makes it a screen recording veteran. Like Snagit, it’s developed by Techsmith.
While Snagit focuses on quickly recording and exporting, Camtasia is a beefier screen recorder with a fully featured video editor.
Camtasia’s interface may seem busy, but it becomes comfortable quickly. The first time you start Camtasia, it loads a sample project with a handy video tutorial. This extends to Camtasia’s numerous other video tutorials on its website to help you start churning out professional screen recordings as quickly as possible.
The app offers screen recordings from multiple sources, and records audio from both a mic or the system. You can also send recordings from your mobile device directly, but admittedly, this mobile device integration isn’t as smooth as ScreenFlow’s.
Camtasia’s trump card is in the plethora of assets that are available to enhance your videos. It includes beautifully designed annotations, callouts, transitions, and visual effects.
Since these are all drag-and-drop, you can apply and customize them in a matter of seconds. Camtasia also makes quick work of adding clicks, keystrokes, spotlights, and zooms so viewers can easily follow along with the instructor.
Like ScreenFlow, this app does come with a significant cost. But if you’re after a polished interface and looking to create videos that are stick around for some time, it might be worth the investment.
Download:Camtasia (Free trial)
Download:Camtasia ($249)
If you’re in the market for an app to capture scrolling screenshots on your mobile deviceThe 7 Best Apps for Scrolling Screenshots on Android and iOSThe 7 Best Apps for Scrolling Screenshots on Android and iOSNeed to capture scrolling screenshots on your iPhone or Android device? Here are 7 apps to make long screenshots easily.Read More too, take a peek at this list:
4. Movavi Screen Capture Studio
Movavi’s Screen Capture Studio is one of the highest-rated screen recorders. It has all the ingredients of a fantastic screen recorder, with the full range of editing tools to suit both casual and professional users.
Movavi sits in the sweet spot between price and functionality. It combines a broad set of tools with an easy-to-use interface, and has the benefit of being both a quick capture tool and full-featured editor.
Once you’re done capturing, you can make some quick edits before either saving or sharing directly to YouTube. If you need more advanced edits, you can open your capture in the video editor.
This editor is your typical timeline with an excellent set of editing tools, including a chroma key (used if you have a green screen). There’s also a good selection of filters, transitions, and titles. And the editor even offers two modes, one of which is an easy mode for creating a quick montage. Movavi also has a store containing a catalog of effects and transitions depending on the video you’re producing.
Movavi really shines when it comes to the exporting options available. You’re able to tweak the resolution, frames per second (FPS), and choose a specific format. You can also choose from a wide range of presets like exporting for specific mobile devices or 4K TVs. Movavi also allows you to upload directly to your YouTube channelEverything You Need To Know About Uploading Videos To YouTubeEverything You Need To Know About Uploading Videos To YouTubeCurrently, there are three ways to upload videos to YouTube. Here's an in-depth look at how to use your computer, phone, or games console.Read More from within the editor.
Download:Movavi Screen Capture Studio (Free trial)
Download:Movavi Screen Capture Studio ($60)
5. QuickTime
If you use case doesn’t involve complex editing, annotations, and filters, Apple has a screen recorder baked into macOSHow to Screen Record on a MacHow to Screen Record on a MacWondering how to screen record on Mac? We've got you covered with several methods to record video of what's on your screen.Read More. QuickTime is a reliable video player, but it’s also a quick and easy screen recorder that you don’t have to pay for.
Just open QuickTime Player, then go to File > New Screen Recording. You’ll see a popup screen capture menu where you can choose the area of the screen you want to capture. Select the dropdown icon next to the record button to select a microphone for adding audio.
Screencast Tool For Mac
QuickTime features some essential editing tools like rotation, splitting, and trimming. You can also add clips to the end of a sequence if you’d like to combine your screen capture with something that you’re referencing. You will, however, need a video converter if you’re looking to export in anything other than MOV format.
QuickTime is perfect if you need to record your screen in a pinch and you don’t require any annotations, filters, or effects. It’s also one of the best video converter apps for macOSThe 7 Best Video Converter Apps for macOSThe 7 Best Video Converter Apps for macOSNeed a Mac video converter app? Here are the best options for easily converting any kind of video on macOS.Read More. Pair QuickTime with a free Mac video editorThe 8 Best Free Video Editors for MacThe 8 Best Free Video Editors for MacNeed to edit video on a budget? These free Mac video editors let you perform essential video editing tasks at no cost.Read More if you need more options.
Which Mac Screen Recorder Is Best?
Ultimately, choosing any piece of software is driven by both your requirements and budget. If you’re looking to record your iPhone or iPad along with your Mac screen frequently, ScreenFlow makes an excellent choice.
Snagit offers a good set of essential tools and makes it easy to share with other apps. The other paid options do come with a slight learning curve, but offer flexibility when making changes. They also have a good selection of assets to add that professional touch to your videos.
Aside from QuickTime, each of the screen recording apps mentioned above have trial versions. Make sure to test out the software before spending the money. And for more Mac tips, check out where screenshots and videos go on a MacWhere Do Screenshots and Photos Go on a Mac?Where Do Screenshots and Photos Go on a Mac?Where do screenshots go on Mac? Here's how to take, find, and manage macOS screenshots and video recordings.Read More, along with helpful ways to stay organized with built-in apps like Apple Notes7 Ways to Organize Apple Notes for Smarter Productivity7 Ways to Organize Apple Notes for Smarter ProductivityLove Apple Notes but struggle to keep everything organized? Here's some advice on ways to keep your Apple Notes straight.Read More.
Explore more about: Record Video, Screen Capture, Screencast.
Best Screencast App For Mac
QuickTime can do screen recordings and it's free and comes with your Mac.
iShowU HD is another robust app capable of recording your screen