Snagit

Snagit promises a far more comprehensive approach to screen capturing than what you'd find in the tools that come packaged with either Windows or Mac OS. Regardless of what you do, chances are that you'll need a screen capture tool at some point. There's no better choice right now than Snagit. Just bear in mind that it carries a $50 price tag, so it won't be a reasonable choice for everyone. But those that find themselves needing screen capture on a weekly basis will find the cost of entry to be reasonable. And when you consider that each purchase comes with a license for two machines, it's a natural choice for use in smaller offices or creative partnerships.

But the $50 price tag gets you some tools optimized for professional performance. The star of Snagit's feature set is the Combination tool. This allows you to combine together multiple screenshots into a single image and then mark it up with a ton of easy to understand symbols. If you're a teacher or a tech professional looking to put together step by step instructions for something technical, the ability to combine screenshots is an invaluable resource to have.

The markup tools here are extensive too. There are over 2000 stamps to choose from, and they vary from very technical and functional markup features to more whimsical alternatives. Whether you're looking to share with friends or with the rest of your office, you can find something that matches the tone you want to project here. You don't have to spend a lot of time hunting down what you need either. The search function is looped into the markup tools directory so that you can find what you're looking for with just a few simple keystrokes.

But what makes this an invaluable tool for office presentations and other technically oriented work is the ability to create and load some pretty complicated templates. And new styles can be quickly selected for later use by just clicking on the star button on the main navigation bar. You can also use the Simplify tool to strip out much of the clutter on your desktop so you can start with a clean interface whenever you're trying to capture a quick snapshot of your activities.

A good screenshot tool is there when you need it but stays out of the way when you don't, and the rich bench of features that Snagit offers could potentially jeopardize that. Fortunately, it doesn't. Snagit is designed to sit comfortably along the side of your screen until you need it. The control box may be small, but that's a good thing. You can capture a screenshot with a simple click of the red button that hovers at the edge of the screen, or you can expand it to get access to a whole wealth of features and control options. But you can just as easily use the Print Screen button on your keyboard. You can even hold down Print Screen and drag your mouse to select just portions of your screen or to scroll down and still capture everything you need in longer web pages.

Once it comes down to editing down your screenshots, Snagit does an admirable job of providing you with the tools you need. This isn't a dedicated photo editing tool, but all the basics you'd hope to find in something like Adobe Photoshop are here. Whether you're looking to apply text to a screenshot or capture video, the editing tool at work here is very robust, and it also serves as a simple repository for all of the screenshots that you've captured. Once it's time to share your screenshots with others, you'll have a whole lot of choice. Snagit can save screenshots in 19 different formats.

Of course, lining up the perfect screenshot can require some precise timing, but Snagit helps alleviate that frustration too. A delay counter allows you to take precise screenshots spaced out to the length of up to a minute. It's an impressively detail-rich approach that outperforms other screenshot and snipping tools on the market today. The video here is pretty strong too. You can even shift between your screen and your webcam with a press of a button, letting you provide a face to your viewers when you're putting together an instructional.

Ultimately, whether or not Snagit is right for you will depend on how much you use screen sharing. This is a power tool for power users. And while $50 may seem steep for the services provided, Snagit remains one of the best screen capture tools available today. That's unlikely to change any time soon.