Snipping tools, otherwise known as screen capture software, are ubiquitous with digital design and digital photography. More than simple screen capturing, snipping tools should be part of any internet user’s repertoire of tools for communicating information that is not easily explained by text. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
This guide will provide an unbiased review of the best free snipping tools as well as directions on how to use them:
All you are doing is capturing what is displayed on the screen (or a selection thereof) by utilizing a function within the Word app. Being able to select 'Insert Screen clipping' and using the mouse to select what you want to import into the Word document should be a straightforward addition to Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. First off, go to the screen you want to capture. Next, you need to press the Control (⌃) key on the keyboard. Now, you need to hold Shift (⇧)+Command (⌘)+4 shortcut to send an image of part of the screen to the clipboard. Simply hold the Control (⌃)+Shift (⇧)+Command (⌘)+3 to take the screenshot of the entire screen. Best Alternatives to Snipping Tools for Mac. In this article, we will list down 11 Snipping tools for you. Now, Mac has a default tool like Snipping Tool, which is called, Grab. It comes pre-installed in every mac and does the job pretty well. As mentioned above, Grab is the official tool that Apple offers in the Mac.
Now follow along as we review the most popular snipping tools.
1. Snagit
Snagit is just more than a screen capture utility. It offers a broad range of editing and capturing tools and a comfortable user experience. The tool is intuitive, has a preview window, which shows a zoomed thumbnail shot of whatever your cursor is hovering over; the main screen of the program immediately gives you a choice of capture format, depending on what you need to grab.
Snagit works on both Windows and Mac. You can download it for free and try the software for 15 days. Snagit allows you to capture your entire screen or only a selected portion of it. The screenshot automatically opens in the Snagit Editor where you can preview, edit, and share the capture.
Snagit makes it easy to capture images or record videos, import images from cameras and scanners, capture text from within an image and drop it into a text editor.
Moreover, Snagit 2020 comes complete with a wide array of pre-made layouts and templates to help you create professional-looking technical documentation and instructional content right inside the app.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows and macOS
Price: $49.95
Price: $49.95
✅ PROS:
- Open source
- Easy-to-use interface
- Free trial: full featured for 15 days
⛔️ CONS:
- It only provides minimal video-editing tools
- Price
2. Snipping Tool
The default Windows 10 snipping tool, Snipping Tool as its name suggests is a simple screen capture application designed to quickly and easily capture, save, and share still images. More versatile than the Mac version, Snipping Tool can’t only capture full screenshots but can also draw custom snips and perform window specific snips.
Easy ways of how to take a screenshot on Windows 10 .
Even better, Snipping Tool supports simple text annotations and free-hand drawing. While there was a rumor that Microsoft had decided to do away with the Snipping Tool in its recent Windows 10 updates, Snipping Tool can still be found by selecting the ‘Start’ button and searching for it.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows
Price: Free
Price: Free
✅ PROS:
- Simple editor
- Customizable screenshots
⛔️ CONS:
- Image capture only
- Windows only
3. Screenpresso
Screenpresso is one of the best snipping tools for Windows 10 allowing you to not just edit screenshots by adding drawings or cutting out parts that you don’t need, but also to get snapshots of several screens at once (suitable for multi-monitor setups).
The snipping tool can capture HD Video of your on-screen activities, exporting the results in MP4 (H264), WebM, Ogv or WMV formats and allows you to upload videos directly to your YouTube, Twitpic, Flickr, Facebook, Evernote, even FTP servers. Captures are limited to a maximum of 15 seconds in the free version and include Screenpresso branding.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows
Price: Free/$29,99
Price: Free/$29,99
![Screen Clipping Mac Screen Clipping Mac](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/computer-display-blank-white-screen-isolated-background-clipping-path-included-30936748.jpg)
✅ PROS:
- HD Video Capture
⛔️ CONS:
- Branding in a free version
- Limited image editor
4. DuckCapture
A small and simple screen capture utility, DuckCapture is the best snipping tool for Windows 10 and macOS. Great for still image snipping, DuckCapture offers customizability for capturing different areas of your screen or capturing particular screen shapes.
Captured images can be edited with annotations, text, shapes, arrows, and custom sizes and colors. DuckCapture comes with one severe restriction however; that as a snipping tool it is limited to still images only.
? SPECS:
Works on: macOS and Windows
Price: Free
Price: Free
✅ PROS:
- Simple user interface
- Custom editing
⛔️ CONS:
- Image capture only
- Dated look
5. PicPick
A great Windows snipping tool, PicPick can capture all types of screen images easily and includes a powerful editor that even lets you edit images before saving them locally.
PicPicks editor is perfect for most and comes with a wide array of features such as text overlay, adding shapes, blur, and pixelation, resizing and rotation, and freehand drawing. Even better, PicPick automatically opens its editor any time you capture a screenshot. However, once again, PicPick is limited only to still image capture.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows
Price: Free for personal use
Price: Free for personal use
✅ PROS:
- Powerful editor
- Intuitive interface
⛔️ CONS:
Screen Clipping Mac
- Image capture only
- Windows only
6. LightShot
Lightshot is a simple screenshot software tool available for Windows, Mac and in your web browsers, namely Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. It does not just capture an essential area of your screen, but comes with sharing options and editing tools like cropping, transforming, adding new layers or even adding filters and special effects.
LightShot is an excellent replacement for the standard PrtScr functionality in Windows. It features an impressive online editor but lacks more capturing options.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows, macOS, Chrome, Firefox
Price: Free
Price: Free
✅ PROS:
- Includes an image editor
- Easy-to-use application
- Powerful editors
⛔️ CONS:
- No publicly available license
7. ShareX
ShareX is a free open-source screen recording tool that lets you capture or record any area of your screen and share it with a single press of a key on an extensive collection of platform destinations, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Twitter, Imgur, bit.ly, Pastebin, among others.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows, macOS, Linux
Price: Free
Price: Free
✅ PROS:
- Open Source
- Capturing (screen, video, a window, etc.) with annotation
- Customizable
- Allows uploading to a vast number of different services
⛔️ CONS:
- Too complicated
8. Screenshot Captor
Screenshot Captor is another piece of free software available only for Windows. It’s a versatile snipping tool capable of capturing still images in selected areas, whole windows, and even content from a scrolling window. Even better, Screenshot Captor can record images from your webcam.
Use Screenshot Captor’s editor to block out sensitive information, add text overlays and other custom edits - there’s even a watermarking tool to protect your intellectual property. One downside to Screenshot Captor is its expiration after 6 months. While it’s free to renew, a new subscription key must be generated every six months to continue to use the program.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows
Price: Free with 6-month renewals
Price: Free with 6-month renewals
✅ PROS:
- Powerful editor
- Customizable
- Many export options
⛔️ CONS:
- Subscription key expires after 6 months requiring you to register for a new account to continue using
- Image capture only
9. Grab
A now discontinued Mac utility for capturing image content, Grab has been replaced in the latest Macs with a simple screenshot utility. Unlike its predecessor, the newer snipping tool for Mac is no longer classified as an application, instead, it is a feature that is accessible via shortcut.
Less of a snipping tool and more of a shortcut for capturing content, both Grab and its newer cousin, are accessible by using any of the following shortcuts: Command+Shift+3 to take a picture of the entire screen and Command+Shift+4 to drag to select a particular area. Screenshots save directly to the desktop.
? SPECS:
Works on: macOS
Price: Free
Price: Free
✅ PROS:
- Built in for mac
- Simple to access with shortcuts
⛔️ CONS:
- No built-in editor
- Image capture only
- Mac only
10. Greenshot
Greenshot is a simple screenshot software tool for Windows and macOS that offers many of the same features as its proprietary counterparts. It allows you to quickly take screenshots of a selected area, capture complete web pages, annotate, add arrows, signs, boxes, highlight or obfuscate parts of the screenshot and export files.
Being easy to understand and configurable, Greenshot is an efficient tool for project managers, software developers, technical writers, testers and anyone else creating screenshots.
? SPECS:
Works on: Windows and macOS
Price: Free
Price: Free
✅ PROS:
- Open source
- Easy to use
- Freezes screen when you capture
- Allows annotating, highlighting and obfuscating screenshots
⛔️ CONS:
- Rarely updated
What are the Benefits of Using a Snipping Tool?
Mac Screen Clipping Shortcut
There are many great reasons why snipping tools are useful and why its high time you adopted one into your digital repertoire. For one, snipping tools are a simple way of conveying information that is not easily communicated in text. If you’ve ever tried explaining a complicated digital process to someone, you may have found that simply writing directions isn’t enough.
With some user interfaces as complicated as they are today, being able to quickly snap a photo or make a quick educational slideshow of you completing a process can make the learning experience that much easier for others.
While great for teachers or those making tutorials, snipping tools are also widely used by content makers to create viral content such as memes or even short videos. In their very essence, snipping tools are simple recorders that come packed with quick and easy editors. From capturing an image with a snipping tool, you can then easily add text, graphics, or maybe even voiceovers.
What are the Criteria for Choosing a Snipping Tool?
When choosing a snipping tool, the most important thing is ensuring that it can capture different image types and sizes. Many free programs can only capture images, but with their editors, chances are they are much more useful than your legacy operating system’s built-in tool.
Another important factor to use when evaluating a snipping tool is whether it can perform basic editing. Editing can mean many things, but at its most basic try and find a snipping tool that allows you to easily cut, blur, or watermark your work. To avoid having to import your recordings into yet another program, find a snipping tool with text overlay to simplify the creative process.
As with most software decisions, whether or not your program is easy to use is often the most salient point. The best snipping tools combine powerful and creative editors with beautiful and intuitive user interface design.
Can I use a basic snipping tool for Mac and Windows?
Definitely, you can! There are basic snipping tools in both operating systems already and they can work quite well for you if you just need to take a screenshot of a still image on your screen.
If you’ve ever used a Mac then you might be familiar with the ways of how to take a screenshot on a Mac using snipping tool shortcuts below:
CMD + SHIFT + 3
makes capture a full-screen screenshot
makes capture a full-screen screenshot
CMD + SHIFT + 4
helps you capture selected area as a screenshot
helps you capture selected area as a screenshot
Best Screen Clipping Tool Windows
CMD + SHIFT + 5
captures only an active window that you choose
captures only an active window that you choose
To find the best snipping tool for Mac check a list of these snipping tools for Mac, try, and choose the best one that fits your needs.
Looking to capture images on Windows? With Windows, the PrtScn screen button does the same thing:
CTRL + PrtScn
takes a screenshot of the whole screen
takes a screenshot of the whole screen
ALT + PrtScn
takes a screenshot of an active window
takes a screenshot of an active window
More ways on how to take a screenshot on Windows.
It's a no sweat to click just one button or several buttons to capture an image. However, basic Windows and Mac snipping tools don't come with even the most basic features common to most snipping tools we consider below. The methods considered above are crude and limited, with no other features besides simply capturing a still image.
Use Snipping Tools to Capture and Share All Your Digital Content
By now you should have a pretty good idea of some the pros and cons of the various freeware snipping tools available online. While these are great for capturing still images, if you’re seeking something more powerful, for instance, to capture video, these programs will not suffice.
Many more powerful paid snipping tools can be found under the moniker of screen recording software. These programs can do all of the above and more as they pack video editing, audio capabilities and more into powerful screen capturing applications.
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People really like to snip an image in multiple ways. We generally get a snipping tool inbuilt with most of the newly arrived windows versions after Windows-7. This tool is represented with a scissor sign and comes inbuilt with the windows version. People who are habitual of using this tool try to find a substitute for it on the Mac platform as well. People looking for an alternative approach/application which can substitute snipping tool can follow these simple tips in order to avail the same benefit from their Mac.
How to Snip Screen in Macbook
1. A full screen capture in Mac:-
In order to have a full screen image capture in Mac, you can bring a shortcut command in use. This command just includes you to press a few keys all together at a same time. You only need to make use of your keyboard and you never need any application in order to follow this approach. The shortcut key combination includes you to use the Command, Shift and “3” key together at a same time.
2. A selectable screen capture:-
Some people never require capturing full screen image. I am not using Mac currently and though I have snipping tool in my windows 7 computer, but still I like to edit my pictures printing them first using print screen option and then I paste them to paint. It makes me able to crop up only a selected portion of the captured screen. This is also possible with your Mac. All you need to do for this purpose is a shortcut key combination to be pressed at a same time. This includes you to press Command key, Shift key and “4” key, all at the same time.
3. Download a snipping application:-
Just like Windows these days has its own application store, even Apple devices come equipped with an application store which can be bought in use to download quality applications and one such application is the snipping application. You can download it from the Mac app store and it can be downloaded if you have OSX 10.6.6 or later versions in supported with your gadget.
Screens 4 1 1 – access your computer remotely. This application makes you able to capture the screen of your Mac. You can capture the image of an active window using this application. You can zoom in or zoom out using the drag feature and you can also add labels, texts and handwriting contents etc according to your choice saving it to your device with this tool.
4. The screenshot tool:-
Mac devices come with inbuilt screenshot capturing tools and thus there is no need left for any snipping/ picture capturing and editing tool. Though we have mentioned the approach to download a snipping tool in a Mac based device but it has been told keeping in mind the requirements of a new Mac user only.
Mac Screen Clipping Tool
The screenshot application within the Mac system is enough to make you capture any desired part of the screen which can later on be cropped up according to the requirement of the user.