14 DAY TRIAL // The new Ashampoo Snap 6 includes a set of fresh features that promise increased productivity and performance through modifications that touch on the capture bar, as well as a smaller amount of clicks to reach the desired end.
An important step in the development of the application is the new capture bar, which takes less space in the current version, thus greatly reducing the chance for activating it by mistake. Additional improvements refer to the color picker, the preview (which now is on the spot) and the possibility to re-adjust the image as new elements are added.
Ashampoo Snap is available for a $19.99 / €19.99 fee, but you can also try it for free, with full features active, for a total period of 40 days, if you register with the developer.
If you are used to Ashampoo products, you already know that they are packed with the developer’s toolbar. However, if you pay attention during installation, you can customize the procedure and deny Ashampoo toolbar on your system.
Capture Bar provides the same options as in the previous release and functions, allowing you to initiate recording of a video as well as a rich variety of still photos (scrolling window, menu, timed, application window, rectangular/freestyle/fixed area).
Accessing these options can be done easily by moving your mouse to where the Capture Bar is docked, but if you decide to disable this element you can always find the choices in the context menu of the system tray icon.
Although Ashampoo Snap is a screen capture software, the tools available for snapping the desktop are overshadowed by the editing possibilities for the snapshot or video.
Once an image reaches the editing stage, the application provides not only the basic editing tools, but also more complex ones.
As such, instruments such as cropping, erasing, or adding various shapes and text could be considered part of the standard equipment in applications of this kind, but Ashampoo Snap expands the set of choices with tools for highlighting specific areas in the capture or adding spotlight effects to focus on a certain element in the image.
In some cases, there are multiple choices for the same tool. When typing text, you can decide the purpose of the message as the app can present it either as a simple text, as a hint or as a simple note. This is extremely useful especially when trying to offer an explanation or an indication.
The application is also capable of removing the alpha channel or flatten layers.
Snap from Ashampoo shows plenty of versatility as far as adding new details to the capture is concerned. It can apply a time stamp, fade effect from different directions or add a border to the image.
Imprinting the time and/or date onto the picture is not too much of an effort. You can choose the format, paste the element anywhere you want, as well as customize it in terms of size and font. Moreover, you can adjust its opacity, apply gradient or a text effect.
One of the best parts is that Ashampoo Snap keeps all the screenshots and videos you make until you explicitly delete them. This makes it possible to see previous captures in the lower right hand part of the editing windows and skip to any of them.
All images are stored in a proprietary format (SNAPDOC), but you can choose a different one (JPG, PNG, BMP or PDF).
Video can be saved as WMV or AVI and there are two encoding methods to choose from: on the fly, which encodes the frames directly into the video, or disk cache, which saves the frames on the disk and then encodes them.
The application offers a varied amount of options for configuring the video capture procedure - from choosing the codecs and setting them up to configuring how the mouse cursor should appear in the video and the effects marking specific actions, such as left or right click.
Furthermore, Ashampoo Snap can trigger a zoom effect on the position of the mouse when a user-defined key is pressed. There are also three post-process effects (sepia, black&white and pencil drawing), as well as the possibility to resize the video to a percentage of its size.
The application makes available a rich array of possibilities as far as snapping a screenshot or video recording are concerned.
It features quite an extensive collection of image editing tools, which includes useful options for highlighting various elements in the picture and photo effects.
In the case of video recording you can enable mouse cursor effects or apply post-processing filters.
All snapshots are saved, unless you delete them, and can be edited at any time.
On the other hand, it can take some getting used to, since editing mode takes the entire desktop screen in order to avoid other distractions. The campaign ends on November 4, which gives you five days to drop a line or two. Winners will be notified by the end of the next week; needless to say that we need valid email addresses in order to contact you.The Bad
The Truth
NOTE: We have 10 licenses to give away for Ashampoo Snap 6. In order to win one of them you are expected to come up with a smart post, positive or negative, about the application in the comments section below.
NOTE
UPDATE: Giveaway over.
