Big Brother 2.0: now easier than ever before!

December 1, 2009 8:45 AM

Alt-Printscreen, load photo software, paste, crop, navigate browser to image host, browse for file, upload. Yeesh, so much work. Want free and "seriously instant" screen-grabbing or screen-casting? Then you'll be glad to know two pieces of software have recently cropped up to streamline the whole process: (open-sourced) Gyazo for instantly hosted screen-grabs, or (free) Jing, likewise, for screen-grabs and screen-casts.

If you're the meddling and paranoid type, you might be interested in this Gyazo mod (Google Cached link) that posts screen-grabs to your own server rather than the public Gyazo repository.

posted by tybeet (17 comments total)

Translation: here's some free software to grab video of naked people on their webcam.
posted by Muddler at 9:16 AM on December 1, 2009

Thanks, though Gyazo's disclaimer uploaded images cannot be deleted or modified lowers the tinfoil level from paranoid to reasonable.
posted by cgk at 9:21 AM on December 1, 2009

Another open source alternative for screen captures: Greenshot
posted by JaredSeth at 9:29 AM on December 1, 2009

Sweet!
posted by DU at 9:31 AM on December 1, 2009

I see Jing is made by TechSmith, the makers of SnagIt, which we regularly deploy to users at our offices. This will come in really handy when we have groups that don't want to pay for that, so thanks tybeet.
posted by JaredSeth at 9:38 AM on December 1, 2009

I've been happy with ZScreen for just capturing to a folder (has automatic upload for ftp, Rapidshare, Imageshack, flickr...) This looks interesting, thanks for the post.
posted by acro at 9:40 AM on December 1, 2009

So, wait, this is like Snaggit but it has to talk to the internet?
posted by Artw at 9:42 AM on December 1, 2009

Windows also comes with the Snipping Tool, which is pretty good (especially in 7).
posted by Jairus at 9:47 AM on December 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

There's also TinyGrab for the Mac. It's not free, but works very nicely. Command+Shift+4, drag the image you want and it gets saved to your Desktop and uploaded (with the URL copied to the clipboard) in less than 20 secs.
posted by jontyjago at 10:12 AM on December 1, 2009

don't forget the awesome ScreenshotCaptor (windows only) - free and does scroll long windows automatically !
posted by motdiem2 at 10:53 AM on December 1, 2009

I am a big fan of Grabup and also Skitch.
posted by chronkite at 11:22 AM on December 1, 2009

On Mac OS X:

Whole Screen: Shift+Command+3
Single Window: Shift+Command+4, then Space

You'll end up with an instant and tidy .png file ready to single click upload to imgur.com or your own personal favorite host. You're welcome.
posted by cgomez at 12:01 PM on December 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

On Windows, I used SnagIt but recently switched to Greenshot. It's good stuff.
posted by mrbill at 1:58 PM on December 1, 2009

if you want instant Screencasting, then http://screenr.com looks really good. No software to install (sort of) and os independent. It needs java though.
posted by seanyboy at 2:37 PM on December 1, 2009 [1 favorite]

Also, If you've got windows 7, then check out psr.exe.
posted by seanyboy at 2:42 PM on December 1, 2009

So. It's just like 1984, only opt-in?

"We can see what you're doing, at all times, Winston, thanks to the omnipresent, omniscient viewscreens! Well, we could. If you would hit "print screen" already. Any time now."
posted by Pronoiac at 11:18 PM on December 1, 2009

Dropbox has a "public" folder in which every file is instantly online; useful for screenshots, but also for example for xml-feeds.
I prefer Faststone Capture for its anti-aliasing when resizing, its drawing tools and the advanced JPEG quality settings. You can setup the auto save folder to direct to your public folder which gives you full control of your screenshots after publication. There is a portable version.

Aviary and Kwout both offer bookmarklets to make screenshots of (parts of) websites. No need to install anything. Just synchronize your bookmarks and all your computers gain this ability. The above mentioned Screenr bookmarklet is even more impressive as it works outside the browser window and records sound too. If only it allowed you to create a single screen capture instead of a screen cast.

iClippy seems to be similar to the tools discussed here.
posted by Akeem at 3:06 AM on December 2, 2009