The most basic way to take screenshots is through the “PrintScreen” key located on your keyboard. This key takes a snapshot of your computer screen and copies it to the clipboard. You can then paste this copied image into any software like Paint and save it. Alternatively you can install one of many available screenshot applications that lets you take, save, and use screenshots in a far more convenient way than the PrintScreen method. One of the most user-friendly of these applications is “Greenshot”.

Introduction

Greenshot is a free to use desktop application compatible with Windows computers. While modern screenshot-capturing software come equipped with a plethora of “bonus” features such screencast recording and automatic uploading, Greenshot focuses on simplicity of usage and effectively taking screenshots the way you want. A tiny program, Greenshot installs quickly and silently runs in the background, operating only when you need it to. You can use it to instantly capture the entire computer screen, specific open app windows, or specific rectangular portions on your screen.

Usage

The first thing you will need to do is download Greenshot’s setup file. The EXE setup file is sized under 600KB and quickly downloads and installs. The app works fine in both Windows Vista and 7.

With the application installed, you will find its icon in your System Tray. Before you can start using Greenshot, you should right-click on its icon and modify a few options. Select the “Preferences” option.

Clicking on Preferences will display a Settings window where you can modify the default settings. Under the General tab, you should check the options to register hotkeys and startup Greenshot when your computer turns on. You can select whether or not to play a camera sound and show flashlight each time a screenshot is taken. The capturing mouse pointer option depends on the type of screenshots you will be taking. Checking the “interactive window capture mode” will ease the task of taking screenshot of individual windows.

The Output tab in the settings window lets you control how your screenshots are treated. You can choose your screenshots to be copied directly to the clipboard, sent to your default image editor such as Paint, saved by prompting you for a name and location, saved using a predefined name and location, attached to an email, or sent to your printer. Greenshot lets you select multiple options thus letting you have full control over your screenshots.

Under this tab, you can also select the file format in which your screenshots are captured: JPEG, GIF, PNG, or BMP. In case you choose JPEG, you can select the quality of the output image; choose lower qualities for smaller file size.

If one of your options included sending your screenshots to the printer, you will want to adjust the default settings of Greenshot’s printing under the Printer tab. Here you can control whether or not print data and time with the image, rotate the screenshot, and similar relevant printing options.

With these controls set according to your needs, you can start taking screenshots. The program’s hotkeys include CTRL+PrintScreen for capturing the entire visible region on the screen, ALT+PrintScreen for capturing a particular open app window, and merely PrintScreen for capturing a specific rectangular region. Most users will be using the last option most.

With Greenshot running, pressing the PrintScreen key transforms the mouse pointer into a crosshair; you can click-and-drag to select the region you want captured. Your captured region has a semi-transparent green shade; a measurement in pixels of your captured region is displayed as you drag your mouse.

Once your screenshot is taken, what happens to it depends on your selected preferences in the previously mentioned Settings window.

Conclusion

Greenshot is a lightweight screenshot capturing application for Windows computer. It is feature-rich and provides you full control over your captured screenshots. Unlike competing apps that try to incorporate non-screenshot features as bonuses, this app focus on its primary objective and excellently serves it. In other words, if you are a Windows user looking for a screenshot capturing software, Greenshot is where your search ends.

Greenshot

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Having realized the importance of them, I had started using screenshots early on. Back then, I used to press the PRINT SCREEN key and then paste the image in Paint. Then I extracted the portion of the image I required and used that in my reviews. Today, that procedure is ancient. With numerous competent screenshot applications to choose from, I no longer need to go through the inconvenient Paint route.

In case you are looking for an effective screenshot app that saves your time and serves its purpose, find below the top 5 tools in this category.

1. Greenshot

Greenshot is my favorite screenshot application. Compatible with Windows, the download file is sized at nearly 600KB. After installation, the app offers 3 separate hotkey shortcuts for capturing the entire screen, a particular open window, or a particular section of the screen. You can choose whether to simply copy the image to clipboard, save it in a specific folder, and the format in which it will be saved. The app can also send your screenshots directly to your default image editor or printer. With all these features and the absence of a price tag, Greenshot is an excellent screenshot-taking tool.

GreenShot

2. PicPick

PicPick is a slightly more advanced tool than Greenshot. The image capturing tool within PicPick lets you capture the entire screen, a specific region, an active window, a scrolling window, and freehand capture. The app also includes a built-in image editor that helps you insert those referencing arrows and lines. Protractors and pixel rulers, both built into the app, will help graphic designers better understand the designs of others and use them. The crosshair is another tool graphics designers will find helpful. The app is free for personal use but costs $29.99 for 1 license of commercial use.

PicPick (Personal Use)

3. Gadwin PrintScreen

For people looking for a user-friendly screen capturing tool that has an interface easy on the eyes, Gadwin will be the perfect one. Although it only offers standard options to capture the entire screen or a rectangular region, and the option to save the files, it does serve the basic screen capturing purpose. Gadwin Printscreen offers free 1 month trial period in which users can test the program and if they like it, they can purchase the personal license for $24.99. If you want to use it on more than 1 PC, you can select from the different pricing options given here.

Gadwin PrintScreen | Price: $24.99 (Personal License)

You can get Gadwin Printscreen from here.

4. Jing

Jing helps you take not only screenshots but record screencasts as well. Offering a variety of other features such letting you get video feed from your webcam and showing you pixel dimensions of your images, Jing is a highly competent screenshot plus screencast tool. The app comes in different versions for Mac and Windows. You can get its trial for free but the Pro version costs US$14.95 per year.

Download Jing | Free | Jing Pro Price: $14.94/year

5. SnagIt

SnagIt is a very special image capturing tool and my personal favourite among all the ones listed here. In addition to the features stated in the above mentioned programs, this app lets you capture entire webpages. It automatically scrolls down them and captures it all! With your screenshots taken they are sent to the app’s built-in image editor for you to add arrows, annotations and many image effects. Snagit offers a free trial and can be purchased for US$49.95.

Download Snagit (Trial) | Price: $49.95

Which tool do you use to take screenshots in Windows? Please share with us using the comments section below.

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2. Once your system has re-started, you can go ahead and open your Screenshots Remote software.

3. Go to Preferences. Here you will be able to set your frequency and data storage options for your screenshots. After you have made your selections, do not close this window.

4. Click the Remote Access tab. This will allow you to set up authorization for remote access at a later time. Enter the name of the system, your user name and your remote access password. If you do not have remote access set up on your Mac, you will need to do this before you can set up this feature on the system. You can close this window.

5. Click on the Time Range and you will be able to set a schedule for when shots should be taken.

5. Press the Refresh button.

Now, you should be able to see the screeshots that you want in your system.

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Example: Suppose your friend has messed up her Windows network settings and can’t connect to the internet. She needs your help, but she is unable to understand the textual instructions, articles and the step by step procedure that needs to be done.

In such situations, either you have to go to her home to solve the problem or you can record a step by step screen video, explaining how to fix the issue. That’s when you need screen recording tools and one of the easiest ones out there is IORAD.

IORAD makes it very easy to create step by step instructions on just about anything. If you have developed an application and want to create a visual demonstration, explaining how to use the product amongst other features, IORAD is a tool worth checking out.

How to Create Step by Step Application Instructions Using IORAD

1. First, head over to the IORAD website and sign up for a free account.

2. Once you are in, hit the “Go to application” button, as shown below:

3. Depending upon your browser’s and Windows firewall settings, you may get a prompt as “The application’s digital signature could not be verified”. Choose “Always trust content from this publisher” and hit the “Run” button.

4. This will open the IORAD project application window on a new browser tab. You will see the following interface:

Enter a name and description of the project which you are going to create. This will be useful, when you want to edit or search for the same recording at a later point of time.

4. Once you hit the “Create” button, the application editor will open, which looks like the following:

5. You are ready for the screen recording session. To start recording, hit the “Capture” button on the left and the application will ask whether you want to record the whole screen or just a part of it.

There is another drop down menu which will list all the currently open applications. Select the application which you want to record and hit the “Start Capture” button.

6. As soon as you hit the “Start Capture” button, IORAD will load the same application window in it’s recording frame. Hit the “Record” button and the app will record a complete snapshot of the application window you had defined in the “Window” dropdown above.

When you are done with recording the first screen, hit the “Done” button and a snapshot will be loaded in the IORAD app editor. Now you may add other instructions e.g highlight a section with an arrow, adding custom texts, labels, adding rollover texts and so on. Here is how the interface looks like:

7. This is only the first step of your screen recording. To add more steps, simply hit the “Capture” button again and the app will record the application window of your choice and open it in the same editor.

Once you have edited and added custom instructions to the second snapshot, it will be linked with the earlier snapshot. The same procedure continues with any number of slides that is required for your tutorial.

8. When you have finished the entire screen recording procedure, hit the “Deploy” button to save your Project. That’s it, your screen recording is ready to be viewed by anyone.

Now you have three options:

• Share the direct link of the recording with anyone.
• Embed the recording in your blog or website.
• Download a PDF, .DOCX or PPT version of the recording on your computer.

Hence, IORAD makes it really easy to create a step by step application usage recording and supports easy sharing. Agree there are screen recording applications like Camtasia Studio, ScreenToaster etc but then again, you will need to upload the video on YouTube and then share the video with your friend.

Another problem with videos is that you can’t add so many effects that easily and the videos can not be edited at a later point of time.

Apart from providing tech support, IORAD can also be used for a variety of other purposes. If you have a blog and want to show the most important sections of the website to your visitors, it would be a nice idea to create a screenshot tour using IORAD and embed the sideshow on your blog’s “about” page.

The company is fairly new and promises to add more features and improvements in the coming days. Give IORAD a try and let us know your ideas in the comments section.

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Extract the downloaded file to your home folder. You should see a folder with the name “android-sdk-linux_86”.

Open your .bashrc file and add the filepath to the end of the file. In a terminal, type the following:

gedit ~/.bashrc

Add the following line to the end of the file:

export PATH=${PATH}:<your_sdk_dir>/tools

Replace <your_sdk_dir> with the actual filepath of the SDK folder. If you have extracted the file to your home folder, it should be something like /home/your_username/android_sdk_linux_86/

Next you need to install Ecplise. For Ubuntu 9.10 users, the latest version of Eclipse (Eclipse Classic 3.5.1) is already included in the repository, so you can easily install via the command:

sudo apt-get install eclipse

Once the installation is completed, open Eclipse (Application -> Programming -> Eclipse)

On the menubar, click on Help -> Install new software

At the Work with field, enter http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo and click Add.

You will see that there are several software now available for installation. Ignore them.

Next, erase away the entry in the Work With field and add https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/. Click Add.

Check all the entries in the bottom pane and click Next to install.

Once the installation is done, restart Eclipse.

Go to Windows -> Preferences. On the left, select the Android entry.

Enter the Android filepath in the SDK location field. Click Apply follow by OK.

Update: The latest version of Android SDK requires you to install the SDK API before you can create a new Android project.

Go to WIndows -> Android SDK and AVD Manager.

On the left pane, select the “Available Packages” entry. On the right, place a check on the version of the Android SDK that you want to install. Once done, click the Install Selected button.

That’s it. You have install and set up Android SDK in your Ubuntu. To create a new Android project, simply go to File -> New -> Project and choose Android project in the Wizard window.

Taking screenshots of your Android phone

First enable the USB debug mode in Settings ->Applications->Development

Connect your Android phone to your computer via the USB cable.

Make sure that Eclipse is closed, navigate to your Android SDK folder. Go to the Tools folder and open the ddms.bat file. When prompted, select RUN.

Highlight the entry of your phone.

Go to Device -> Screen Capture.

That’s it.

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KSnapshot for KDE stands out as one of the best screen shot tools available and is unquestionably the best one for KDE. It is a standard KDE program and should come packaged with any Linux distributions that offer KDE. It is very easy to learn, but as we always do at MTE, we are about to make it easier.

Starting Ksnapshot

There are a few ways to start KSnapshot:

1. Click the K menu -> Graphics -> KSnapshot.
2. Press Alt-F2 and then type “ksnapshot” into Krunner.
3. Press the shortcut key(s). Mine is set to start after pressing the “Print Screen” key.

Types of Screen Shots

While taking a full screen screen shot might suffice when all you want to do is brag about your desktop organization skills, more involved tasks require more options. With KSnapshot, there are 5 different capture modes:

1. Full Screen

By default KSnapshot will take a screen shot of the entire screen, including the desktop and any present windows. To take a shot, click “New Snapshot” and then click once, anywhere on the screen.

2. Window Under Cursor

With this mode, only the window your mouse pointer is hovering over will be in the screen shot. For this option, you may check “include window decorations” if you want them in the shot. Click “New Snapshot” and then click the window you want to capture.

3. Region

Sometimes you only need a small part of the desktop or window. You always have the option of editing a full screen image, but KSnapshot makes it easier. Click “New Shapshot” and then select the area you want to capture by clicking and dragging the selection box.  The portion of the screen(s) not selected will dim.

4. Section of Window

Windows are typically divided into sections. For example, a web browser will have the menu bar, toolbars, browser viewing area, and status. KSnapshot will detect these sections and allow you to click on the one you want to capture. It will then highlight it with a red rectangle. Click it again to finalize your choice.

5. Current Screen

I love my dual screen setup and found KSnapshot’s “current screen” option to be crucial.  When selected, it will only capture the screen with the focused window or the mouse cursor (depending on your setup).

Snapshot Delay

The snapshot delay setting is perfect when you want to catch something in the act. It may be a rotating desktop cube or a moment in a Flash video. To activate it, set the timer by pressing the up arrow. The time will be counted in seconds. You can always go back and adjust the time if, for example, you find 5 seconds too short. Unlike the “no delay” setting, there is no need to click. Once the countdown expires, the program will automatically take the screen shot. This is the most effective way to take a screen shot while you are doing something else.

Export Options

KSnapshot supports numerous image file formats, including PNG, JPEG, and TIFF. I have found the JPEG default setting to be too lossy and usually opt for a lossless format, later creating an optimized JPEG in Gimp. Once you name and save the first image, KSnapshot will pickup a numerical naming scheme, adding sequential numbers to your name for each shot.

If you prefer, you can send your screen shots straight to the image editor of your choice, including Gimp. If you choose “Copy to Clipboard” you can paste the image into virtually anything that will support image pasting.

KSnapshot is easy to use, free, and works with KDE, GNOME, and other desktops. Best of all, with KSnapshot, you can start multiple instances and take snapshots of KSnapshot, as I did for this article. Enjoy!

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After reading my recent article about screen-capture utilities for Windows, my friend asked my recommendation of the similar tool(s) in Mac and where can he download it/them. As unbelievable as it might sound, there are many Mac users who do not know that, unlike Windows, Mac OS X comes with built in screen capture utilities.

Here’s how to use them.

Shortcuts to Screenshots

To utilize the first set of screen capture utility, Mac users need to know some shortcuts – key combinations. They are:

1. To capture the entire desktop, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a file on your desktop.
2. To capture a specific area of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor (with x and y pixel values to help you measure the area) will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.
3. To capture a specific application window, press Command-Shift-4, and then press the Spacebar. The cross-hair cursor will change to a camera, and you can move it around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and the screen shot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

Note: You can add Control key to the shortcuts above to place the screen shot on the clipboard instead of saving it to the desktop. For example, the key combination to capture the entire desktop become Control-Command-Shift-3. Then you can paste the shot into another program (such as Photoshop).

Give Way to Grab

Mac OS X also gives you another method for capturing screen shots; using the (often overlooked and forgotten) utility called Grab, located in the Applications > Utilities folder. Grab is useful if you need to include a cursor or a menu in your screen shot, or if you want to save your screen shot to TIFF format.

Another additional feature that make Grab better than Mac’s basic screenshot feature is that Grab will open the result image in a window and let you choose where to save it and under what name you want the saved file to be. This will save time spent on renaming the files later.

1. To capture the screen with Grab, open the app. Then you can choose one of the capture modes from the “Capture” menu: Selection, Window, Screen, Timed Screen.

2. To include a cursor, first go to Grab Preferences and select the cursor icon you wish to have in your screen shot.

3. If you choose the Selection (Command-Shift-A) mode, you can capture a specific area of the screen by dragging your mouse around it. Just like the basic screenshot function in Mac, Grab will display a tooltip showing the size of the region you have selected. No cursor will be shown in this mode.

4. If you choose the Window (Command-Shift-W) mode, an instruction window will appear asking you to select the window you wish to capture. Click the “Choose Window” button then the instructions will disappear and the window you click will be captured, including the mouse cursor at the position where you click (if a cursor was selected in Preferences).

5. If you choose the Screen (Command-Z) mode, an instruction window will appear asking you to click the screen when you are ready to capture. The mouse cursor will be included in your screen shot at the position where you click (if a cursor was selected in Preferences).

6. If you choose the Timed Screen (Command-Shift-W) mode, an instruction window will appear, allowing you to prepare your screen for capture. When you are ready, press the “Start Timer” button and you will have ten seconds before the screen is captured. This allows you to open menus and sub-menus, if necessary. After ten seconds the entire screen will be captured. The mouse cursor will be included in your screen shot if a cursor was selected in Preferences.

I personally prefer the basic screenshot feature of Mac since it’s faster and simpler. But at times when I need advanced screenshot feature, Grab is always there to help.

Do you have other alternatives to capture screenshots in Mac? Share your opinion using the comment below.

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So we need pictures. Where can we get them? We can:

- go around the neighborhood with our digital camera.

- snatch a picture or two from image sharing community sites like Flickr or Picasa Web Album.
- capture the picture from our computer screen.

Geeky bloggers like me prefer the last. The method fits my blog theme and I don’t have to stand too long under the sun nor face legal threats for ‘stealing’ copyrighted images.

Shoot the screen

Almost everybody I know agrees and recommends Gadwin Print Screen as one of the best tools out there, and I am sure that this simple tool will be very useful you.

It is a small application that resides on the taskbar after it is installed in your Windows.

The first thing you would want to do is adjust the settings. Right click on the icon and choose “Properties”.

Here users can choose:

• the hot key to use – default is “Print Screen” key.
• what area to be captured – current window, client window, full screen, or rectangular area
• where to save the image file
• what application to open the file
• what is the default image file type and – if wanted – the default size
• and so many other options

Manage the Image

If you choose an application to open the captured screen image, you can do further editing to the file. A free alternative application you can use for this purpose is Fast Stone Image Viewer.

This one is a very reliable image editing application for daily use – rotate, resize, crop, adjust color, and such (but please do not compare it to Photoshop); more than enough for common blogging activity. All the images in a folder will be shown in one pane, ready to be manipulated. Use the Edit menu to access many of the commands.

It also has screen capturing feature, but less comfortable compare to Gadwin. Fast Stone doesn’t reside in the taskbar – so you’ll need to open the main window first, and there’s no shortcut key to do the capturing.

One little neat trick

Here’s something that anybody could try to make their screenshot unordinary and catchy.

• After taking the screenshot, open the image with Fast Stone
• Go to “Edit –> Rotate –> Rotate by any degree” menu
• Move the rotation slider slightly to the left to rotate the image counter clockwise (or the opposite to rotate it clockwise). I think about 15 degrees is enough. Click OK afterwards.
• Go to “Edit -> Cropboard” menu and crop the image to your preference. But I’d suggest somewhere in the middle.
• Click “Crop To File” and “Save” then “Close”.

And you’ll have something like this:

Not very professional, but… neat, huh?

If you have other favorite screen capturing application, share in the comment below.

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