What is Snagit?
Snagit is among the many third-party screen-capturing tools that you can use as an alternative to Windows’ built-in tools. However, Snagit has branded itself as a more serious, commercially orientated software in the last couple of years. It is a software for screen capturing and audio/video recording that gives businesses and individuals an easy way to communicate via image-based content instead of long, wordy emails and presentations.
Snagit is developed by TechSmith and had its initial release in 1990. TechSmith is a software company centered on screen capturing and video editing programs and offers its propriety products to educational institutes, businesses, and governments. Snagit was initially introduced for Windows operating systems, but now it also comes compatible with macOS.
Snagit’s many features and its long-established reputation make it one of the most used third-party screen-capture tools, even though it doesn’t offer any free and open-source version. You can, however, have a free trial of Snagit for 15 days to make up your mind for its full-time use.
How to Install Snagit?
Go to the TechSmith website and click on either of the options: Free Trial and Buy Now.
You will end up on the above window. Click on Windows Download, which will download an executable file on your computer.
Unlike other screen-capturing tools, Snagit’s executable file is big. You must have enough space and uninterrupted internet speed to download its installation file of over 300 MBs.
When you double-click on the executable file, the above window will appear. Click on Run.
Check off the “I accept the License Terms” box. From Options, choose the features that you want to install with the program and click Install.
Snagit will start getting installed on your device. It is worth mentioning that the installation process of Snagit is similar to Windows installation. Once this installation preparation completes, Snagit will ask you to restart the computer to resume the installation.
After restarting the computer, you have to open the executable file again and click through the above window to resume the installation.
After the completion of the installation, the above window will appear. Click on “Continue,” and the window shown below will appear.
If you are using the free trial, click on the blue tab, and you will be transported to a webpage where you have to sign-in with an email address to start the free trial of 15 days. All you need for free trial sign-up is to answer a question regarding your Snagit use from the options given. For those using the paid version, they need to enter the software serial/license key provided by TechSmith.
After selecting your answer, submitting it, and closing the sign-up page, the small active window of Snagit will open on your screen.
You need to have a working internet connection throughout the process of installation. Otherwise, the installation can abruptly stop at any stage.
Uses of Snagit
Snagit offers more utility and function than an average screen-capturing tool. Therefore, there can be many useful uses of Snagit.
- Take screenshots, capture audio/video snippets for making interactive presentations
- Create motion picture/GIF files with a sequence of screenshots for online tutorials and how-to guides
- Edit the captured shots and trim down the taken audio/video snippets to create customized files
- Convert file formats of the images and videos to suit your use
In short, you can use Snippet for all the screen-capturing, editing, and sharing features for all personal, professional, and educational requirements. Whether it is still images, scanned text files, or videos, anything that is present on your screen can be captured by Snagit.
How to Use Snagit? (Quick Tutorial)
Given the number of features, the UI of Snagit is quite easy to understand for a first-time user. Its floating widget that appears when you open the application is uncomplicated. This default window is an all-in-one working panel.
The big red Capture button offers you the basic full screen and regional capturing. You can click the button or press the Print Screen key to use it. In the middle of the window, you can see some settings given in toggle-style selection. You can use these settings when you want to preview the captured shot on the Editor, open it in the clipboard, want to use the capture cursor, and take a 5-second capture delay.
The left sidebar on the window also allows you to configure image and video settings separately. Let’s have a look at them one by one.
Image
When you click on Image, the default Snagit window expands into the window below. Three options are given there, with selection being the primary one.
1. Selection
From the selection menu, you can pick the style of screen-capture you want. You have the following options.
- Region: Captures a region of the screen
- Window (Active window): Captures the active window you are using
- Full-screen: Delivers the standard function of the Print Screen Key
- Panoramic: Gets a panoramic shot of an image
- Scrolling window: You can capture horizontally and vertically scrolling windows
- Grab Text: You can use Snagit as an OCR converter via this feature. Select an image or its part and get all its text in an editable form.
- Advanced: Use other useful image-capturing features that are not part of your built-in Windows tools and many other third-party screen-capture tools. These features include:
- Object: Snagit detects a geometrical shape or pattern automatically on the screen and captures it.
- Multiple Areas: You can select multiple regions on a single screen in one go
- Free Hand: You can capture a part of the screen or window with freehand using capturing cursor.
- Camera/Scanner: You can export the image files from the connected scanner and camera to Snagit Editor.
- File: You can directly open any image file from your device on Snagit
2. Effects
Usually, screen-capturing tools let you edit any image after you capture it. In Snagit, you can have your screenshot captured with the added effects, thus saving you editing time, especially if you are taking many shots at once. Using the Effects tab, you can pre-add borders, edges, shadows, watermarks to the captured shot.
3. Share
If you are working on a project with a team where you have to instantly share the captured shots with them, this option will come in handy. From Office Suite to project dashboards like Slack and cloud services like Google Drive and OneDrive to your local workplace server, you can share the captured file across various platforms. You can also share the captured screenshots on a social media website like Twitter.
Video
When you click on Video, the default Snagit window expands into the below Window.
This interface is rather simple due to few options available with video capture. From the Selection menu, you can select the entire window or a region to be captured in video format. Then, the toggle given on the right allows you to capture/record the microphone and the system audio. These audio recording options are quite valuable while making an interactive presentation or a tutorial/guide.
You can also connect a webcam and capture its visuals via Snagit. After selecting the settings you want to work with, press the Capture button and select the window and region you want to capture. You will get three seconds to set and play the video/screen you want to capture. Once you stop recording, the video output will open on the Editor directly.
You can also take the screenshot and make GIF animations from the captured video. Like images, you can also share the captured videos to all different platforms.
Snagit Editor
Snagit editor offers a range of editing tools. Some standard options include color fills, stamps (a large library of symbols and icons), text boxes, and shapes. You can also add the Effects (discussed earlier) from the editor. However, the best feature of Snagit Editor is the Create option given in the top menu.
It allows you to use readymade templates for your captured images and presentations. Then, you can use it to create videos. You can create a video reel with a voice-over while using screenshots to create instructive presentations and guides.
Snagit Comparison
Snagit can be compared with a host of other screen-capturing applications with its features. However, we would like to give a comparative overview of Snagit, Greenshot, and Windows’ own Snipping Tool.
Snagit vs. Greenshot vs. Snipping Tool
| Snagit | Greenshot | Snipping Tool |
| Captures still images as well as record videos with system audio and microphone input | Only captures still shots | Only capture still shots |
| You can edit and annotate the captured shots and share it across a host of platforms | Editing and annotation is possible and sharing too but with some limitations | Can highlight and use a free-hand marking on the still images and can only share captured through an email |
| Paid application with a free trial version | Free and open-source application | Windows built-in tool |
| Can grab the text in an editable form | – | – |
| Can capture both horizontally and vertically scrolling windows | Can only capture vertically scrolling windows on the Internet Explorer | – |
| The video capturing feature can be a bit confusing for some | Easy to use | Agile and easy to use |
If you are looking for a comprehensive screen-capturing tool that can work with both images and videos and offers better third-party integration services, Snagit is a better option than the other two. However, if you want basic screen-capturing and editing with limited sharing features, the free Greenshot will suit you better.
You can read our Greenshot Review here.
Pricing of Snagit
TechSmith has targeted every pool of users with Snagit. Therefore, the price of it is also set accordingly. All Snagit licenses entail a one-time fee and can be installed on two machines that have either Windows or macOS. The four categories of Snagit for pricing are:
- Individual
- Business
- Education
- Government & Non-Profit
Individual: It costs $49.95 and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Business: It also costs the same as a single individual license. You can, however, get a volume discount with business licensing. For instance, if you get more than four licenses, you get a straight $10 discount on each. The discount gets bigger as the volume increases.
Education: The Snagit license for educational users is available at $29.95 (a $20 discount). This discounted price further lowers with the volume purchase.
Government & Non-profit: TechSmith also offers a $7 discount on Snagit licenses for governments and non-profit organizations. A single license is available at $42.95.
If you are already using a licensed Snagit and want to update it to the latest (2020) version, you have to pay $24.95. You can also sign-up for annual Snagit Maintenance that costs $12.49/year. It includes automatic upgrading to the latest version of the software and priority support by the developer.
Download Snagit Free Trial Here: https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html
Snagit Hotkeys
Before we wrap this review, let’s have a look at some of the Snagit hotkeys that will help you in keeping a better flow of your work. You can also customize capture shortcuts from:
Windows: Capture window > File > Capture Preferences > Hotkeys tab.
| Function | Hotkey |
| Capture Mode/Global capture (the big red button) | Print Screen |
| Take a Capture | Enter |
| Video Selection Guides | G |
| Start Recording | Shift+F9 |
| Pause/Resume Recording | Shift+F9 |
| Stop Recording | Shift+F10 |
| Start a Region Selection | Shift +Enter |
Summary
Snagit is an ultimate screen-capturing tool that offers its expertise for both still and moving images (videos). For all those users who have to deal with a lot of pictorial content, Snagit will come in handy from making presentations to comprehensive guides and video tutorials.
| Price | ★★★★★ |
| Ease of Use | ★★★★★ |
| Features | ★★★★★ |
| Overall | ★★★★★ |
