Snagit 3

Share Image and Video Screen Captures

TechSmith has recently overhauled its screen-capture utility, Snagit, and I tested Snagit 3 on the Mac. (The software key will unlock both Mac and Windows versions.)

You start by pressing Command (PC: Ctrl)-Shift-C, which launches orange crosshairs. They're typically drawn to objects such as windows and parts of a webpage, but if you drag them, they'll act like any selection tool with a pixel size and color-under-cursor loupe to guide you. When you release your mouse, the crosshairs change into a resizable, movable selection rectangle, under which are icons to select what you want to do: camera for static-screen capture; videocam for simple video-screen capture; size of the selected area; start over; and X (delete).

Say you want to trim the resulting clip when capturing to video, simply change the In/Out points in the Snagit Editor. (Note: Double-clicking the playhead with incorporated In/Out icons will launch a Help video.) After you click the video-capture icon and drag the selection area, it seems a little confusing because the capture area stays put in the end result. Videos can only be saved as MP4 files (no other output), but output quality was perfect.

Snagit 3's Editor has also been refreshed to include the following: The Tools and Effects Inspector looks better integrated with Mac OS X; a nice new addition lets you resize a captured image by removing a vertical or horizontal part; and if you forget to check the option not to capture the cursor, no problem because now it's a movable object.

With Snagit 3 you can also capture menus, hidden windows, webcam images, and scrolling pages. It's better than any other screen-capture software I've tried.

Company: TechSmith Corporation
Price: $49.95 (Upgrade: $24.95)
Web: www.techsmith.com
Rating: 4.5
Hot: Scrolling pages capability; video trimming
Not: Video capture area should stay put