Taking a screenshot on computing devices has come a long way in the last decade or so. Besides getting more built-in options in the form of the Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch, you now also have a host of third-party screen-capturing tools. Also, you are not bound to only take screenshots anymore. You can also edit and share them from the same tools.
FireShot is another such third-party screen-capturing tool. However, it stands apart among other similar external screenshots tools we have reviewed so far because it is a browse-exclusive capturing application. FireShot is available in Lite and Pro versions. In this guide, we will discuss and dissect the features of FireShot while using both Lite and Pro versions on Google Chrome.
How to Install FireShot
It is interesting to note that the FireShot Lite version is not available on its own website. You can install it from the Chrome Web Store. If you are opting for the Pro version, you can purchase and install it from the website.
Click on the Add to Chrome button, and the 14.5MB file will be integrated into your web browser. You can use Firefox’s add-on store to get the same extension. You can easily find the free FireShot extension for Internet Explorer or Safari web browsers as well.
The Pro extension will be downloaded as a separate file from the FireShot website. You can then install it for any of your web browsers.
Before the last step of the installation, the installer will ask you to check and remove the browsers on which you want to integrate the Pro extension.
Once installed and enabled, the FireShot extension will start appearing on the top-right panel of your Chrome browser, among other extensions.
Uses of FireShot
If you are using FireShot Pro, you get a list of screen-capturing, editing, annotating, and sharing options that can streamline many tasks in any professional working environment.
Capture Web Pages the Way You Want
FireShot gives you multiple options to take screenshots of webpages. Besides taking the screenshot of the entire page and visible part of it, you can use the FireShot extension to capture scrolling webpages in their scrolling full length. Windows built-in and many third-party screen-capturing tools don’t capture the floating elements of a webpage. FireShot also lets you capture webpages with their floating elements intact.
The PDF capability of FireShot’s capture feature is also worth mentioning. It allows you to take screenshots of all open tabs on the browser and compile them in a PDF file with one click. You can also save long webpages directly to PDF without scrolling through them.
Edit Webpages as You Like
FireShot Pro comes with a built-in editor. When you take a screenshot through Pro extension, you can open the image in the editor before sharing or saving it. Here, you can annotate and edit screenshots with a range of shapes, texts, and other drawing elements. This built-in editing comes in handy when you have to prepare presentations and correspondence sheets in a short time.
Multiple Uploading and Saving Options
The other impressive bit about the FireShot Pro extension is that it comes with multiple uploading and saving options for the captured images. For instance, you can directly upload the taken screenshots to various social media and online image databases, including Twitter, ImageShack, and Flickr.
You can also upload the taken screenshots to FTP and HTTP servers. This feature will be useful for those who work in teams and have to frequently share data with other team members. FireShot also lets you save the captured image in various file formats. You can also export the image files to 3rd party image editors and applications.
How to Use FireShot?
The Use of FireShot Extension is as easier as it gets. The drop-down menu of the FireShot extension entails simple language and easy action selection.
This is the main menu you see when you click on the trial version of the Pro extension. The topmost entry with flash sign indicates the most recently used function. All the options in this drop-down list indicates the main action (e.g., capture the entire screen, capture visible part, etc.) with the sub-options continuing in the adjacent drop-down menu.
This is the adjacent drop-down menu. From there, you can select the type of image capture you want and then select further action. For instance, you can take a screenshot and edit it, or save it as an image file, or save it as a PDF file, or directly send to Microsoft OneNote, or upload it to various platforms. You can also open the taken image in an external editor.
That is how the uploading window of FireShot looks like. As you can see, the screen-capturing extension lets you upload the taken screenshot on Twitter, EasyCaptures, imgBB, Flickr, and ImageShack. You can also upload the images to custom HTTP and FTP servers.
When you select “Capture Selection/Element” from the drop-down menu, the extension lets you select a part of the open webpage with pixel precision.
The above image shows the rectangular selection cursor of FireShot that tells you the resolution of the selected region.
Editing
As mentioned earlier, FireShot Editor is a comprehensive built-in image annotator and editor. This part of FireShot Pro is what makes this screen-capturing extension more valuable.
When you select the “Edit” option from the second(adjacent) drop-down menu while capturing the screen, the rendered image will directly open in the Editor window, as seen in the below image.
You can see that the editor has two main sections.
- Capture list (the vertical bar on the left side)
- Toolbar (the horizontal bar on the top)
The capture list shows the list of screenshots opened in the editor. The selected screenshot is the one you are currently working on. On the other, the toolbar is the place where all the editing magic happens.
This is the first section of the toolbar. It has pretty standard options that you will also find in various other Windows-based applications.
This is the next section of the toolbar. Besides undo, redo, resize, and crop options, you have a Select drop-down menu. From there, you can select the part of the captured image in rectangle and ellipse shapes to perform the following actions.
As you can see, you can introduce various editing elements to the selected part of the image. This rectangular or elliptical selection cursor also indicates the color codes of the part of the image you are maneuvering on.
From this part of the toolbar, you can introduce various shapes, drawings, and pointers to the taken screenshot. You can also type text on the screenshot in different font sizes and styles. In short, it is the part of the toolbar from where you can annotate the taken screenshot.
You can also upload another picture to the editor’s workspace and use it with the existing screenshot from this section of the toolbar.
This is the last section of the toolbar from where you can rate the application and change the settings of its extension and editor.
FireShot Pricing
FireShot Lite version is free for life. However, you can only use them to take screenshots with no editing and uploading features. These add-ons are only available in the Pro version available at $39.95 with the lifetime license and free access to all updates for life.
One licensed Pro version can be used on two desktop and two laptop devices. The Pro version works on all regular (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Brave, Tor, Seamonkey, Vivaldi, Pale Moon, and Opera) and chromium-based (Yandex Browser, Brave, etc.) web browsers.
Conclusion
FireShot is a great tool for all those users who have to regularly take screenshots on webpages and edit them for personal and professional uses. For all those people who have to take screenshots of multiple scrolling websites, this browser extension can save them a lot of time with its one-click capturing option. FireShot is also suitable for all those professionals who share files and folders with colleagues on an intranet server.
| Price | ★★★★★ |
| Ease of Use | ★★★★★ |
| Features | ★★★★ |
| Overall | ★★★★ |
