Snagit -- capture videos as well as screens

Screen capture can be as simple as hitting the Print Screen key on your keyboard, but if you’re slightly more demanding you’re going to have to look elsewhere for a more advanced tool than those built into your operating system.

Snagit is one such a screen capture tool that has carved out something of a name for itself on both Mac and PC, and can be used to grab entire screens, individual windows, capture on a delay and much more. The release of Snagit 11 and Snagit for Mac 2.0 sees a major new feature, the ability to capture video as well as stills, added to the Mac version, while Windows users have a number of key improvements and new features to enjoy.

It has long been possible to capture shots of your desktop in a number of ways, but the new screen recording option opens up new opportunities. The app can be used to record demos and reviews, and these can be posted to the likes of Facebook and YouTube all from within the application.

Anyone who has used previous version of Snagit will be aware of just how versatile a tool it is when it comes to capturing the contents of your desktop in still images, and now this has been extended to video.

There have also been a number of enhancements to the standard stills capturing process. If you are capturing a full desktop, or a very large window, the preview canvas is now automatically scaled so that the image is visible in its entirety.

The Mac version of the app also adds the ability to capture still images using a web cam, but whatever type of capture you are working with, whether on a Mac or PC, there are a range of new stamps that can be used to highlight sections of an image -- and of course there is the usual selection of editing tools to work with.

The images you capture can be uploaded to Facebook, Twitter and Evernote, but even those that you choose to keep stored only locally can be tagged and stored in your library for easy retrieval in the future.

An all-important spell check has been added so you can avoid embarrassing mistakes in presentations and there are easier resizing options as well as better canvas handling. In terms of look and feel, there’s little to differentiate between this and its predecessor, but this is no bad thing.

You can find out more and download a free trial of the software by paying a visit to the Snagit 11 and Snagit for Mac 2.0 review pages.