What is Greenshot?
Are you looking for a screen capture tool that offers more value than the built-in screen-capturing function of Windows but is not a heavy third-party application either? Greenshot might be that screen capture application that you are looking for.
It is a small, lightweight screen-capturing application with the setup file not bigger than 2 MB. Also, it doesn’t eat into your processing speed while in use. This open-source screen-capturing program has been developed by Jens Klingen, Thomas Braun, and Robin Krom. The application is hosted by GitHub and published under General Public License.
Besides offering regular screen capturing, Greenshot also lets you capture entire scrolling pages, active windows. Moreover, you can directly transport the captured shot to a host of applications including Office Suite and cloud-based programs. You can also move the captured files to the image-sharing files such as Imgur.
The last Windows version of Greenshot was released in August 2017 and you can download it for free here.
How to Install Greenshot?
Since it is an open-source gig, the installation of Greenshot is pretty simple. Just go to the home page of its website and click on the Downloads tab. You will see the below window.
If you are installing it on a Windows-operated device, click on Latest Stable. It will download an executable file (.exe) of around 1,700 KB on your computer.
You will see the above file in your Download folder, click on it.
Click on Run.
Select language, you can select from more than six languages.
Accept the License Agreement and copyright details and click Next.
Proceed with Next.
Select the Location you want to download the application and click Next.
Here you can select the components and plug-ins you want to get with Greenshot. You can also select multiple languages here.
Select the folder you want to install the Greenshot application in.
Check the box if you want Greenshot to automatically start as you open your device.
Click on Install.
If you don’t want to open Greenshot right after the installation, uncheck the box.
As you have noticed, Greenshot developers have kept the installation process as simple as possible. They have used the classical installation interface that has been around for many years and the majority of users are familiar with it.
It is also important to mention here that you don’t need any license or serial key for using Greenshot. It is an open-source application and a community project. So, all you need to use Greenshot is to install it and execute it.
Uses of Greenshot
This 2.7 MB file offers a lot of utility to any Windows user who has to take, move and integrate a lot of snapshots among different applications and interfaces. If we categorize Greenshot in terms of its uses, then these are the three areas where it serves.
1. Screen Capturing
The primary and most used feature of Greenshot is its screen-capturing. You can capture full, active, selected or even a complete scrolling page with the help of Greenshot.
2. Image Sharing
This is a feature that makes Greenshot a better screen-capturing option than the Windows’ built-in program. Besides saving the file on the clipboard or in a disk, you can send it directly to the printer. More importantly, you can upload the captured shot directly to Office programs or photo-sharing websites like Imgur.
3. Image Editing
Greenshot comes with its image editor that lets you highlight, add text and annotate and blur the part of the captured image.
How to Use Greenshot? (Quick Tutorial)
If you have used integrated applications on your Windows before, you won’t find using Greenshot any difficult. Once you install Greenshot, it starts appearing in the status/notification area (the bottom right corner of the window) of the device.
Right Click on its Icon and the below menu will unfold.
Let’s start at the top. As you can see, Greenshot takes over the default hotkey shortcuts of Windows. In other words, if you press the Print Screen button after the installation of Greenshot, it will open and activate the application instead of capturing the screen and copying it on the clipboard.
Let’s have a look at the salient features of Greenshot and how to use them.
Screen Capturing
Capture Region
When you click on the Capture Region, Greenshot opens a precision cursor. Just as you select files and folder with the left-click of the mouse through a translucent blue window, you can select the region to be captured with a green translucent window with this tool. Greenshot also gives you the dimensional details of the capture.
Capture Last Region
This option allows you to capture anything that you have last selected with Greenshot but didn’t capture it then. The application allows you to directly capture it without going over the selection step again.
Capture Window
This option allows you to capture the active window on your device.
Capture Full Screen
It works like a regular Print Screen function that captures the entire screen.
Capture Internet Explorer
Want to take the snapshot of an entire webpage that is longer than the window? Open it in the Internet Explorer and use the “Capture Internet Explorer” option from the Greenshot menu to have the screenshot of the entire webpage.
Capture Window from List
We personally like this screen-capturing option of Greenshot. It lets you capture any of the currently open windows without clicking on them. All you need to do is to select the window from the menu and it will be captured.
The Greenshot shows the six windows that are open on the device at the moment. Just click on the window you want to capture and use it.
Whenever you take a screenshot by using any of the options we have discussed above, the application promptly opens the below window after taking the screenshot. You can download the file to the desired location, copy it to the clipboard, upload it to Imgur, transport it to the MS Paint and Office Applications, send it directly to Printer and can also open it in Greenshot’s Image Editor. Next, we are going to discuss how to use Greenshot Image Editor.
Image Editing
We have captured a part of the Greenshot website and opened it in its image editor.
The two bars (one on the top and one on the left) have all the features that you can use from the Greenshot Image Editor. Let’s dissect these horizontal and vertical functional bars one by one.
The Top Horizontal Bar
This bar has the entire list of options you get in the menu that automatically opens right after you capture the screen. From here, you can save the file or transport it to other Windows programs as well as upload it to Imgur.
The Left Vertical Bar
This is the main editing panel of Greenshot. You can also use some of its features from the drop-down menu of Object (given on the top). Let’s have a rundown of the editing features available here.
Starting from the top, you have the options to draw rectangle, ellipse, line and arrow. All these figures can be used to highlight and underline the content on the given screenshot.
The editing panel also gives you the option to have freehand drawing, text box and speech bubble on the captured image.
The other interesting feature of the Greenshot editor is its counter. It lets you add numbers to the image in the circular boxes of your choice of color and size.
You can also highlight any text or image content on the snapshot on the editor. You can use the color of your choice to highlight.
The most interesting feature of the Greenshot Image Editor is obfuscation. If you don’t want to show any part of the screenshot, you can simply pixelate it by using this feature. Click on obfuscate and select the part you want to blur.
We have pixelated the “Greenshot” in the above example.
In this sidebar, you also have the option to add effects to the screenshot. You can draw the border and torn edges of the captured image from there. Also, it can be used to drop a shadow and to convert the color scheme of the image into grayscale.
You can also use Greenshot Image Editor to rotate, crop and resize the snapshot.
Greenshot vs. Snagit
It is virtually impossible for any application to not have a competitor and an alternative similar application. Greenshot is no exception. Snagit, a third-party screen-capturing software, is considered a close competitor of Greenshot. Let’s have a comparative look at both of them.
How Greenshot Is Better than Snagit?
There are some areas where Greenshot outshines Snagit.
- It is a free and open-source application
- Its classic and the easy-to-use interface offers better work agility
- Also available in a portable format, useful for those who work across multiple computers.
Areas Where Snagit Excels Better
Since Snagit is also offered in a paid premium version, it offers some features that are not available in Greenshot.
- It can also capture video
- It offers integration with Twitter, Facebook and Google Drive
- It offers delayed capturing
- You can also use it to capture editable text
You can find more about this screen capture tool in our Snagit Review.
Limitation of Greenshot
- Its open-source, free version is only available for Windows users.
- You can only capture the entire webpage on Internet Explorer.
- Missing delayed capture feature might make it an underwhelming option for Windows 10 users.
- For Greenshot OCR (Optical Character Recognition) plug-in to work, it depends on a component from Microsoft called MODI (Microsoft Office Document Imaging) which has been discontinued.
Final Verdict
If you are using Windows and looking for a free screen-capturing application that has a simple UI and offers a list of features that are not available in the Snipping Tool or Snip and Sketch, then Greenshot is a perfect option for you. Those are the exact reasons why the majority of users who have used both these application rate Greenshot higher than Snagit for Windows.
Cost of Greenshot
As a Windows user, you can use Greenshot for free. There are no trial periods, no fine print conditions to use the free Greenshot application. However, the Mac users have to pay the nominal fee of $1.99 to use Greenshot. You can, however, support the Greenshot developers’ team with donations. The donations start from as low as one dollar.
Greenshot is currently offering its application in one format that we have discussed here. We don’t know if they have any plans to introduce a browser extension or a mobile application with the same features.
Download Greenshot for Free: https://getgreenshot.org/downloads/
Summary
Greenshot is a useful free-of-cost application for all those users who have to take a lot of screenshots and also need to give them a slight editing and transport them between Office files. The lightweight application size, uncomplicated user interface and unique features like obfuscating certainly make Greenshot one of the best screen capture tools for Windows.
| Price | ★★★★★ |
| Ease of Use | ★★★★★ |
| Features | ★★★★ |
| Overall | ★★★★ |
