14 DAY TRIAL // When just words are not enough, you need to rely on all the necessary means to prove the accuracy of what you are saying. In the vast majority of cases, pictures are indubitable proof that comes to sustain your theory. Now speaking of computer images, they can prove quite useful as the very core of the user interface is image-driven and so they can, for instance, provide you with proof of unauthorized use of your system, or record activity as well as taking snapshots of a certain application and the list can go on.
All modern keyboards have a Print Screen button included so you can take a screen capture at any given time. Because of the usefulness of this feature, nowadays many developers took the screen capture idea one step further and have come with applications that do more than just screen capturing. Today?s topic is a software utility called EZ Screen Capture provided to you by eXibition Softaware.
As the name itself suggest, the program captures images and saves them as jpeg or bmp files, but it does not allow users to select the current image quality settings, a feature that could greatly enhance the functionality of this application as well as making the posting of images on the web easier and faster. The installation kit of the current version, 1.0.5 is rather small 6.28 MB (or rather big considering its reduced functionality) and by just following the instructions, you won't have any problem installing this software.
The first thing that puzzled me when testing this software was that you have to provide your first and last name as well as a valid email address in order to use EZ Screen Capture. However, this information is only required at the first launch of the application and the provider ensures that all the data is kept private and it's necessary only to keep an evidence of how many users are taking advantage of this demo version. Another aspect is that if you don't have an active connection to the Internet, you won't be able to use this application as the email address can not be validated. Luckily, my Internet provider did not fail me, so I was able to properly launch the utility.
EZ Screen Capture has a rather poorly constructed interface, with the typical menu on the top side and shortcut buttons right underneath. There are a couple of things I want to mention here. First of all, the shortcut for the Save function is somehow "unnatural", as most computer users tend to use Ctrl+S when saving a file, but in this case, the producer used the Ctrl+A key combination, the former being used to capture a selected area. Secondly, the Edit menu includes the "Copy Image to Clipboard" function which, in my opinion, should have been included in the File menu.
Moreover, if we look at the shortcut buttons we find that the Save icon is placed before the Open file icon, which is again unusual. Keeping in line with the amalgamated icon placement, the Exit shortcut is also placed in the first third of the toolbar, while most applications that are using such a function are going for a more conservative and natural approach of inserting an Exit icon among the last items from the toolbar.
Of course, there aren't strict rules about the menu and shortcuts, but generally, software applications tend to "obey" certain design principles. Another downside of this graphical user interface is the icon size, a little too big if you ask me.
Let's say a few words about EZ Screen Capture's functionality. This software utility is only able to capture a specific area or full screen. The shortcuts for these functions are Ctrl+R and Ctrl+S, respectively. Based on my experience with other screen capture software applications, most of them are also offering a host of other features that are not to be found in EZ Screen Capture. For example, this application does not support capturing fixed size screen areas as well as delayed screenshots. The images can be previewed in the main program area, but unfortunately, EZ Screen Capture does not support image scaling; so when capturing images from high definitions displays, users may have a hard time seeking a certain area from those images.
Moving along, we find the Help menu that, just the like rest of this program, is offering little to no functionality, as users will need an active Internet connection in order to gain access to additional instructions, even if using such a software application should be pretty straightforward for the average computer user.
The good
EZ Screen Capture is doing a pretty standard job and even as it has some problems it will surely capture all your desktop images and applications and help users save and manage them.
The Bad
On the downside, this screen capturing utility comes with a rather high price for the offered functionality and it looks as if it has been designed and implemented by an amateur programmer. Apart from the non standard layout of the GUI, users will have to face a very basic program that offers little or no advanced options. EZ Screen Capture does not support running as a daemon so it must always be active in order to take screenshots, depriving users of the possibility of capturing images taken from full screen applications like those using DirectX or OpenGL functions.
The Truth
EZ Screen Capture needs some serious re-working as well as a more functionality-minded development team. For users needing a quick and rather convulsed way of taking a screenshot, this application will do it in a pitch, but the lack of advanced features and options will surely scare away the more professional minded users. On the pricing side, this software application may look dirt cheap but in fact, users may pay for some basic functionality that is usually provided free of any charge by a host of free and open source applications. Of course, users that can put up with EZ Screen Capture's nag screen and 30 days trial period may capture some images with this utility but I would rather go for the basic capturing tool that is included in just any modern day operating system without the bother to install an additional software.
NOTE:The producer's home page is currently not working.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
