I often need to take pictures of stuff that’s on my computer screen, so I can share the illustration in blog posts, put it into an ebook or manual, send clarification to my web programmer, etc. If you do any of your own marketing, you may need to do this sort of thing too. So here are two tools that will help you:
1. The Freebie:
Capture Me is a free application for Mac. It is extremely easy to use, requiring a simple drag-and-click adjustment of your desired frame. Your files will be saved as .jpegs, which are the most universal form of image.
Pros: Free, easy to use.
Cons: No ability to scale your resolution, so you can’t get high image resolutions. That’s probably not an issue for you if you are just starting out. High resolution images are typically only necessary if you are going to print something like a workbook, or try to scale the image to a small size while retaining a crisp appearance.
2. The paid version:
SnapzPro is a step up. This software is a bit more complicated to use, but when I say ‘a bit’ I mean it – I was up and running in 5 minutes so there is a pretty low learning curve.
Pros: allows you to save in multiple resolutions and multiple formats (direct to .pdf, etc) so it is probably more suited to heavy graphics users. Plus, more advanced versions allow you to capture motion images (movies) as well as still images.
Cons: None that I’ve found so far. The software is reasonably priced at $29 for the still frame version and $69 for the motion capture version.
AfriGadget
Kiva