As a web designer, developer or webmaster, there comes a time when you need a screenshot. It could be a screenshot of a website, software program screen or the making of a video. Whatever it’s for, you might be stumped for how to take a great screenshot, edit it or annotate it and even resize it while keeping the image sharp. How can you do it?
Actually, there are plenty of easy options. If you use firefox as your bowser, you have an advantage. You can use fireshot, which is a firefox add-on. It’s free, easy to download, install and use, and comes highly recommended. It even provides editing and annotation tools. Or, you could also use screengrab, another firefox add-on, and a more basic version of fireshot.
But I think my personal favourite is snagit, from Techsmith. With snagit taking screenshots and editing them is as easy as pie. You can choose the size of the area you want to capture, so build a detailed graphic using mutiple screenshots. And you can store them in a library with sensible titles. With 7 million customers, you know it’s a good product. However, it’s not free but only costs around $50. Today’s video is an overview of snagit.
If you want a free soultion and you don’t use firefox, try the PrtSc SysRq key on your keyboard. It will save a copy of what’s on your screen. You can then edit the image using photoshop or gimp. Gimp is an open source alternative to photoshop. And as it’s open source, it’s free. But how do you resize your image without it going blurry? Jennifer Farley has written an excellent post on how to resize an image in photoshop and keep it sharp.
Taking good screenshots is easy once you know how.
