Home  My Programs  Freeware  Game Maker  Articles  Links  Misc  Contact

Freeware Menu >> Screen capture tools.


FastStone capture version 5.3 (last freeware version)

To capture the images of various games, programs etc, for my web site, I usually press the "Print Screen" key on the keyboard and then paste the captured image into MS Paint for editing, I then save the image as a .bmp and convert the image format and alter the quality using the FastStone Image Viewer.
But since trying FastStone Capture, I have been converted. FastStone Capture can capture full or partial screen/window shots and send them to a file, email, clipboard, printer, or its own built in editor.
FastStone Capture can start with Windows and can be used with hot keys, from the system tray, or from its capture window. The program is very configurable, allowing you to choose where you save the screenshots, in what format and which hot keys to use, etc.

One of the best features, is the image editor, which although simple has enough features to crop, resize and edit images for my web site, although I would have liked a few more drawing tools. The image editor can also add a few effects, with a useful highlight feature, a watermark to safeguard your images and a nifty torn edge effect.
After editing your image, you can then choose the format and quality you wish to save your image to.

A sample from the FastStone editor, showing the magnifier (set on small), which I have highlighted, a watermark (bottom right) and the torn edge effect.

If you regularly save web pages, you will know that some web pages don't save very well, the layout can change and items can be missing. Well with FastStone Capture you can save complete scrolling windows as an image (It's quite a novelty to watch the program scrolling through the web page as it saves it).
FastStone Capture also has one of the best screen magnifiers that I have tried and a handy colour picker.
There is a very good help file and a downloadable (800k) pdf tutorial on the web site:
http://www.faststone.org/FSCTutorial.htm
FastStone Capture comes in several forms, I tested the portable version.

I was very impressed by FastStone Capture, it works brilliantly and is easy to customise. The best freeware tool I have tried for some time, I give it a big thumbs up.

Free for home use -- Download size 1.3Mb -- Win 98SE,ME,NT,2000,XP,Vista

Version 5.3 is the last freeware version: FastStone Capture v5.3 portable version.

Snippy.

Snippy is designed to allow you to easily capture part of a web page and email it to a friend. But it also works very well as a simple screen capture utility.
Snippy runs in the taskbar, click on its icon and the cursor will change to a pen. Anything you circle with the pen, while pressing the mouse button, will then be saved to the clipboard as an image, which can be pasted into an email, or paint, etc. Pressing the shift key allows you to make a rectangular selection.

Snippy works best with Internet Explorer, where it will save the web address of the page you take the snippet from and paste it into your email. But Snippy will take a snippet from just about anything, you can even take snippets from full screen applications, by using the hot key.
If you wish to save your selection, without pasting, right click on the taskbar icon and select "save as", you will be given a choice of popular image formats.
Note: When saving, as well as choosing a file name, you will also need to add the file extension, ie: picture.jpg

Snippy doesn't require installing, just click and run. There is no help file, so I would advise saving the programs web page for future reference.

Freeware -- Download size 88k -- Win XP ( But will work with 98, 2000, or ME, if you have GDI+ installed, see the web site for details)

http://www.bhelpuri.net/snippy/

Home