XeWebshots

Most activities can now be performed online through your web browser. However, it doesn’t appeal to everyone, and you might be one of those individuals that prefer to work with desktop utilities. Resources can still be grabbed from the web, and applications like XeWebshots help you effortlessly take snapshots of specific pages you visit.

The application was built using Adobe technologies, and for things to go smoothly, you need to make sure that Adobe AIR is on the computer you plan to run it on. Accommodation is not a thing to worry about, because the main window makes sure you instantly get the hang of things.

You might want to keep a web browser at hand during the whole process. This is because you need to provide the URL from the source so that XeWebshots knows what to look for. There’s a dedicated field for that, but sadly, there aren’t any navigation options, so you can’t use the application to browse through content until reaching a specific place on the website.

There’s the possibility to set size specifications by writing down target values, and whether or not to scale the preview image, in case you need a small thumbnail. Pressing the capture button initiates the process, with additional options to copy the image to clipboard, or save it to file. However, the only format you can export to is PNG.

What’s more, it can take up to several seconds for the application to generate the image you’re looking for, which has a considerable impact on overall practicality, especially since the printscreen button on your keyboard does the same thing as soon as you press it. Pressing capture repeatedly queues multiple shots, and you can end up missing the actual frame you’re looking for.

On an ending note, XeWebshots is nothing more than a screenshot utility for web pages. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite get things done right, with a huge delay that affects target pictures, and no possibility to configure exact region of capture. Export format is limited to PNG, and general functionality issues leave a lot more to be desired.