Jing
Jing is not only a screen capture utility but a screencasting tool as well, the latter function being the ability to record the cursor movements, scrolling, and everything else that happens on the screen in up to 5 minutes of real time.
The screen capture functions let you take a snapshot of a window, pane, or region. Just click and drag the rectangle to make your selection. Making a screencast movie is nearly as simple. You can add a commentary, upload the whole movie to Screecast.com, then send the link to your friends. To record full-motion video, including a stream from your webcam, you need the Pro version.
Comment
While Jing is great for most capture tasks, including the ability to add some text, there are times when you need more facilities -- such as blurring a password, adding a border, or merging images together. At this point you may be inclined to purchase the vendor's full professional tool, Snagit, with its 32-bit capability.
Jing is perfectly adequate for most screen capture tasks -- and is certainly very convenient to use. It dwells on your desktop as a sun icon peeping under the top of the screen area -- or you can drag it elsewhere. It even has a button that will send your video to YouTube -- and there is built-in FTP to send output to your website.
Tech info
- OS: Windows XP onward; Mac OS X
- Price level: FREE. Pro version $14.95/year.
TechSmith Corporation
Founded in 1987, TechSmith is the world's leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. It is based in Okemos, Michigan.
From the same vendor:
- Camtasia Relay (presentation capture)
- Camtasia Studio
- Morae (customer research tool)
- Snagit
- UserVue (connect with web customers)
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