Snipping Tool is a screen capture utility that is included in all Windows Operating System. This program is the most convenient way to take screenshot. It features different capture modes such as Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip, and Full-screen Snip. Plus, this app also has a pen and a highlighter, which are beneficial in adding marks. But in spite of these, Snipping Tool can only run on Windows OS and it's not supported in other operating platform like Mac. Many users who switch from Windows to Mac may look for the same functions brought by Snipping Tool for Mac. There are many programs out there that can serve as Snipping Tool alternative for Mac and three of them will the provided after the jump.
Top Three Snipping Tool on Mac
- This Video is about how to use the snipping tool on Mac or MacBook Pro or Air. Unlike in Windows Snipping tool isn't a separate tool or application in Mac.
- Here are a few of the many ways you can learn how to snip on Mac and get the tips to start using a Mac like the Mac Pro you are. Use Mac's Built-In S nipping Tool Mac. The easiest way to take a snip on Mac is to use the built-in Mac snipping tool. Mac's snipping tool isn't an application, but rather a keyboard shortcut.
Best Snipping Tool for Mac. Aiseesoft Mac Screen Recorder is the best Mac Snipping Tool that enables you to record screen and take screenshot on your Mac. Besides acting as a snipping tool, it also works as a good video game recorder, Skype call recorder, YouTube video recorder, audio recorder, webcam recorder, etc. Just remember one set, and then you can use the tools you see to take a screenshot or even screen recording on Mac running macOS Mojave or later. For this, press together Command + Shift + 5. After you take a screenshot using any method, you might see its thumbnail in the lower right corner.
Apowersoft Mac Screenshot
The first Snipping Tool alternative for Mac that you can use is Apowersoft Mac Screenshot. This program is designed and created to fit in any device that runs on Mac OS X. It has simple yet powerful screen capture capabilities that will allow you to take 'Regional screenshot', and 'Full screenshot'. Some of the features that you can get from this app include:
- Take screenshot of anything shown on Mac screen
- Numerous snapshot outputs
- Annotate the screenshot with various editing options
- Upload and share captured screenshot with just one click
- Magnify screen to enhance the image's readability
These helpful features show that Apowersoft Mac Screenshot is the best Mac Snipping Tool that you can use since these features can rarely been seen together in one program. Plus, this tool enables users to make some necessary settings according to their preference, just like setting the hotkeys, output folder, and the image format to be used. It is indeed a complete program that is worth a try.
Here are the steps in taking screenshot using this screen cap tool.
- Click the download button above and install it.
- Change the default settings in 'Options'.
- Show something that you need to capture from your Mac screen and then click the hotkey that you've set.
- Hover the mouse above the portion you want to capture and drag along it, then release your mouse.
- An image preview with an image editor will be shown where you can add simple annotations.
- Once editing is done, you can save the image either to local disk or save it to cloud storage.
Grab for Mac
Another Snipping Tool on Mac that you can use is Grab. This is a built-in utility tool that is included in every OS X running devices. This is comparable to Windows Snipping Tool since it also has various modes like Selection, Window, Screen, and Timed Screen. To use this program simply click 'Finder' > 'Applications' > 'Utilities' > 'Grab' and then open it. In order to take screenshot, hit 'Capture' function and choose the capture mode based on your needs. Some of its features include:
- An easy to use interface
- Different screen capture modes
- It's free of charge
Grab can be a great Mac Snipping Tool that you can utilize, however one of the downsides is that the captured image can be automatically saved in TIFF format. If you desire you save it in other formats, you can change it in the 'Preview' app.
Skitch
The next free Snipping Tool for Mac that we have is the Skitch. This is a well-known screen capture program that is created by Evernote. It is capable of taking multiple screenshots easily without any incompatibility issues with Mac OS X. It also has a screenshot editing and sharing functions. This tool has features that include:
Snipping Tool For Mac Os
- A straightforward interface
- One click screenshot function
- Has a built-in annotating program
Skitch for Mac can be a good Snipping Tool alternative for Mac. This is due to the fact that it provides more functions than the Windows Snipping Tool, such as various image annotation options. Moreover, it allows easy sharing of captured screenshot from one person to another via internet.
These are the various programs that act like Snipping Tool for OS X users. However, it is recommended to use the first Snipping Tool for Mac, for this program is packed with many powerful functions such as uploading and sharing image online.
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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:
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
✅ 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
✅ PROS: Beyond compare 4 3 3 cylinder.
- 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
✅ 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
✅ PROS:
- Simple user interface
- Custom editing
⛔️ CONS:
- Image capture only
- Dated look
5. PicPick
How To Use Snipping Tool On Macbook Air
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:
Download free editing video software windows 7. Works on: Windows
Price: Free for personal use
✅ PROS:
- Powerful editor
- Intuitive interface
⛔️ CONS:
- 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
✅ 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
✅ 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
✅ 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
✅ 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
✅ 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?
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
CMD + SHIFT + 4
helps you capture selected area as a screenshot
CMD + SHIFT + 5
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
ALT + PrtScn
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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