The great free screen capture shootout for Windows!

Finding a decent screen capture utility is one of the holy grails of freeware junkies, and there are quite a few available - - but, many have their limitations, whether it be a lack of functionality, licensing, or just shoddy programming.

Here, I've taken a few of the top-rated freeware (in some form or another) screen capture programs and pitted them against each other for a shootout!

The contenders:

• Donation Coder ScreenShot Captor
• EasyCapture
• FastStone Capture
• Gadwin PrintScreen
• GreenShot
• MWSnap
  

Donation Coder Screenshot Captor v2.37.03

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/screenshotcaptor/index.html

Freeware for personal and SOHO use (thanks mouser!)

User level: advanced

Quick features:

• Output formats JPG, Windows & OS/2 BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, PCX, PDF, PGM, PXM, PPM, PBM, TGA, JP2, J2K, DCX
• Captures workspace, screen, active window, selected region, fixed region and scrolling window to clipboard, file and/or editor
• Blur, edge and other special effects available
• External tool configuration (send your images from Screenshot Captor to Gimp, for example)

Pros:

• LOTS of options, perhaps too many for novice users
• Image annotations
• Advanced image effects (blur outside of captured window!? - NICE!)
• Can plug into any external application
• Ability to capture complete scrollable windows
• 3.6Mb memory footprint

Cons:

• LOTS of options, perhaps too many for novice users(!)
• Sidebar tools aren't entirely intuitive
• Somewhat dated interface
• No option to send to printer on capture

Whew! Here's a tip from Mouser on the output to printer (I apologize for not finding this - I should have emailed you first ;) ):

As for auto print on capture setting:
Go to Preferences -> On Capture tab, and in middle near bottom is "Auto Print". There are other settings too for things you want SC to do after every capture.

EasyCapture 1.0.0

http://www.xydownload.com/easycapture/

Freeware for commercial AND personal use

User level: basic to intermediate

Quick features:

• Output formats: BMP, PCX, PNG, JPG, TIFF
• Capture active window, region, full screen, windows (multiple windows on screen), scrolling window and fixed rectangle to clipboard, file or editor
• Image effects/filters
• Rotation, resize, cropping tools available
• Capture files to folder location, autonaming available

Pros:

• Image annotation
• Modern and attractive interface
• Decent set of image filters/effects
• Tabbed interface for multiple captures
• 6Mb memory footprint
• Ability to capture complete scrollable windows

Cons:

• Does not capture mouse cursor
• Does not handle rounded/non-standard window edges properly
• No edge effects such as drop-shadow
• Does not output directly to printer

FastStone Capture 5.3

http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm (company website, current download is for latest NON-FREEWARE version. For 5.3, use the link below)

http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html

Freeware for personal use only

User level: basic to intermediate

Quick features:

• Autosave output formats: BMP, PCX, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, PDF
• Capture active window, region, freehand region, full screen, scrolling window, fixed rectangle to editor, clipboard, file, email and printer
• Basic image effects/filters
• Rotation, resize, cropping tools available
• Capture files to folder location, autonaming available
• Basic edge effects: drop-shadow and torn page

Pros:

• Image annotation
• Editor can output to 12 formats, including PDF
• Can capture mouse cursor
• 1.8Mb memory footprint
• Captures scrolling windows
• Decent image effects including drop shadow & torn edges
• Rotation, resize, cropping tools available
• Modern and attractive interface

Cons:

• Does not handle rounded/non-standard window edges properly
• Last freeware version was 5.3

Gadwin PrintScreen 4.3

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

Commercial freeware, commercial and personal use

User level: beginner

Quick features:

• Output formats: BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG and GIF
• Captures client window, active window, region and fullscreen to clipboard, file, email and printer
• Image shadow and grayscale feature
• Image preview

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Attractive and modern GUI
• Multi-language localization (thanks roby!)
  

Cons:

• No image annotations
• 11Mb memory footprint - somewhat big, considering the lack of features
  
• Does not handle rounded/non-standard window edges properly
• Capture types are not clearly described (Current window vs. Client window, for example)
• Cannot completely capture scrolled windows
• No image effects

Greenshot 0.6.002 (beta)*

http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/

Open-Source Freeware for commercial AND personal use

User level: basic to intermediate

Quick features:

• Output formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG
• Captures windows, screen and region to image editor, printer, file or clipboard
• Add shapes and text to the captured image
• Capture files to folder location, basic autonaming available

Pros:

• Image annotation
• Modern and attractive interface
• Handles rounded/non-standard windows edges
• Open source
  

Cons:

• No basic image editing tools or edge effects
• 25+Mb memory footprint!
• Limited tool selection
• Cannot completely capture scrolled windows
• No ability to customize autonaming other than basic filename

*this is beta, so perhaps some features will be added later on!

MWSnap 3.0

http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

Freeware for commercial AND personal use

User level: basic to intermediate

Quick features:

• Output formats: BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG, and GIF
• Captures to fixed/variable region, window, desktop to file, clipboard and/or editor
  
• Zoom object
• Screen ruler
• Add mouse pointers

Pros:

• User customizable capture regions
• Screen ruler (pixel)
• Highly configurable options
• 6Mb memory footprint

Cons:

• No image annotation
• No way to resize images
• Cannot capture mouse cursor, you must add cursor images later
• Does not handle rounded/non-standard window edges properly
• Limited file output types, but should be adequate for most situations(BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG, TIFF)
• Dated interface
• Project dead for 6 years
• Limited effects
• Cannot completely capture scrolled windows

The verdict

Image annotations for me are king, so they played big in my review - also, some basic image effects like drop shadow/torn edges were important. If the tool did not have any kind of editor (Gadwin) or if the application was not being currently developed (MWSnap), then it lost huge points.

So, without further ado, here are my picks:

Personal use for advanced users: Screenshot Captor - the number of features included in SS Captor is just too much to deny. I'm loving the blur effect and the thumbnail browser of previous captures.

Personal use for basic users: Faststone Capture - FastStone excels with the ability to capture to a printer, and the simplified de-cluttered interface. Also, the small memory footprint makes it pretty unobtrusive to other system processes.

Commercial use for basic and advanced users*: Easy Capture was probably the only choice here, since it allows image annotations, a decent set of filters/effects and it is free for commercial and personal use. If the developers could add the ability to capture the mouse cursor in the image and add some edge/shadow effects they'd have a really top-notch program on their hands.

Previously, my choice for commercial use was MWSnap, but come on folks, we have to move on to something that actually is actively being developed...at least within the last couple of years.

So there you have it - my take on some of the popular freeware screen capture programs out there. If you think I'm way off base, let me know - or even better, submit your favorite screen capture picks in the comments!

*note that Screenshot Captor can be used for free in small-office/home-office setups!

Alternatives not tested:

• BugShooting: annotate, crop, resize screen captures (added 07/16/08)
• Cropper: grab cropped areas of your screen (added 07/16/08)
• Screen Hunter Free: capture areas and save to file via hotkey (added 07/16/08)