Snagit Review: Capture, Edit, Manage, and Share Photos

very good
key review info
  • Application: Snagit 12.1.0 Build 1322
  • Reviewed on:
application features
  • Clean and intuitive GUI
  • (6 more, see all...)

We have looked into numerous screenshot-taking utilities in the past, such as Snipping Tool++, WinSnap, and FastStone Capture. Today we're taking a look at Snagit, a feature-rich photo-grabbing program that offers support for multiple capturing modes, video recording, image adjustments and effects, as well as several methods to share the projects with other users.

License type, installation, interface

The software utility can be tested for 15 days without any limitations, and once the trial expires, users can purchase the full package for $49.95 / €37.29.

During installation it is possible to change the initial configuration set by the application. For example, it is set to immediately launch when the setup is done and automatically runs at every Windows startup until further notice. As for the its components, the tool integrates the Snagit Printer and a Windows Explorer menu extension, along with support for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote 2013, Screencast.com, Camtasia Studio, YouTube, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Any of these components can be excluded from setup, however. The installation may take a considerable amount of time to finish.

Once launched, the application creates a small frame on the top margin of the screen that is hidden when the mouse cursor is not hovering over it. It stays on top of other windows, thus enabling users to immediately access it from any environment they may be working in, to start a new capture by drawing a region on the desktop. This action may also be triggered by the PrintScreen key, since Snagit overwrites the global functions. There are three additional buttons available, for opening the Snagit editor, viewing profiles, and accessing other options and the help documentation.

Select between multiple capturing modes

When entering screen capturing mode, the tool permits users to freely create a rectangular region to save as an image. Alternatively, moving the cursor above a particular frame (or entire screen) causes the application to select it automatically, thus sparring users the trouble of creating the selection themselves. What's more, it is possible to capture the entire scrolling window (if available). The cursor is accompanied by a small magnifying glass and also displays the width and height of the current selection (in pixels).

The top right part of the screen shows keys corresponding to some commands, such as canceling the capture, toggling the magnifier and video size guides, locking the aspect ratio (16:9, 1:1, 4:3), as well as for hiding this entire help section. Once the selection is made, Snagit provides users with the possibility to either capture it as an image and enter editor mode to make adjustments, or record a video while taking into account or excluding the system and microphone audio.

Resourceful editor for enhancing captured photos

The editor has many options available for customizing the pictures. They are all shown on the bottom part of the screen and can be easily switched through. Drawing tools include selection, callout, arrow, line, stamp, highlight, and blur, along with various filters such as pixelate and smooth. Each tool comes with its own set of versatile styles and colors. Apart from this, the pics can be rotated, resized, cropped, trimmed, or cut out, while users may add borders, watermarks, and effects such as shadow, perspective, shear, grayscale, noise removal, and posterize.

Library manager for captured photos and recorded videos

The software utility's functionality does not end at taking screenshots and capturing video footage. Snagit comes equipped with its own library to easily administer the collected files. It includes some really useful features in this regard, such as the possibility to flag items (e.g. important, follow-up), a search function to easily locate files within a large collection, as well as tags for quickly grouping together items by various criteria.

Meanwhile, file properties may be examined to find out information such as size, date of creation and last modification, width, and height. Multiple photos can be printed in batch mode, exported to popular file types (e.g. BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, PDF, TIF), as well as saved as Snagit projects and resumed at a later time.

Batch processing and a

diverse range of sharing options

A batch conversion wizard helps users transform the photographs into image files with different extensions, regardless of whether they were captured with the tool or just happen to be local files on the disk. Apart from converting them, the tool is also capable of applying numerous filters to all images at the same time when it comes to monochrome, grayscale, invert, brightness, contrast, size, rotation, captions, borders, edge effects, watermarks, and trimming effects. In addition to this, users may create patterns for automatic new file names. Similarly, multiple images can be put together to print side by side.

Images and videos can be sent to friends via email or uploaded to personal websites via FTP, copied to the Clipboard and reused in other applications, directly sent to other programs, as well as uploaded on YouTube, Dropbox, Google Drive, and other file sharing services.

General program preferences

The software program can be set to run at every Windows startup until further notice, hide the magnifier, and remain on the screen before capturing photos. It is also possible to disable the notification area icon or capture window, paste images as HTML for Outlook Express and embed them when sending emails, customize hotkeys for global captures and video recordings, hide the video countdown, as well as activate sound effects when hotkeys are pressed or a capture is finished.


The Good

Snagit worked smoothly on Windows 8.1 Pro during our evaluation, without hanging, crashing, or popping up error messages. It includes help documentation and interactive tutorials, supports hotkeys, and it is wrapped in an elegant and intuitive interface.

CPU and RAM consumption was low in our tests.

It is filled with numerous useful features and customization settings to help users capture photos and record video, enhance the images by making adjustments, convert them to other formats and apply filters in batch mode, easily administer the collected items via a built-in library, and share images in various methods.

The Bad

We have noticed some bugs during our evaluation. Sometimes the description shown when hovering the mouse cursor over a button is improperly displayed (drawing tools, in our case).

The entire package seems a bit too expensive.

Although it is attractive to look at, all its features are not very intuitive to first-time users, so they might take a while to get used to everything.

The Truth Taking everything into account, Snagit proves to be a resourceful photo capturing tool whose features and configuration parameters should meet the requirements of those looking for an all-around application.

NOTE: You can also read our previous review for Snagit 8.0.1.

user interface 4
features 5
ease of use 3
pricing / value 3


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
NEXT REVIEW: Howard

Snagit (8 Images)

Capture, edit, and share photos with Snagit
Click, hold, and drag to select a region or capture the full screenAdjust the captured photo in many ways, from effects and borders to styles and filtersAdminister all captured photos and recorded videos from the built-in Snagit library
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