Review: QuickSnap Screen Capture App
If you have read this site for more than a day, you will know that many of my articles contain screenshots of various applications and websites. For the past two years I have been relying on a simple Dashboard widget called Capture. I have never had any complaints with it other than having to open up the Dashboard whenever I wanted to use it and that it couldn’t do timed shots.
When it comes to capturing screenshots in OS X, there are a few choices. You can go the built-in OS X route with the Cmd+Shift+3/4 shortcut key variants, which I always found to be too much trouble to learn never really used. There’s also the screencapture Terminal command, but I realistically don’t think anyone uses that anymore. Then you have the Grab utility in OS X, which is still fairly basic yet has the ability to take timed shots.
As far as non-OS X screenshot applications are concerned, the big dog seems to be Plasq’s Skitch, which is currently in an invite-only beta phase. Skitch is a highly capable screen capture utility that goes beyond just taking screenshots and allows you to draw on them, edit them, upload them to .Mac, an FTP server, Flickr, and mySkitch among others. That’s exactly why I don’t use Skitch. It does too much. For a person like me who has an established Photoshop workflow and always runs their images through it for fine tuning, cropping and resizing, I don’t ask for much out of a screenshot utility. I just want something that doesn’t take up much screen real estate and works. This is where QuickSnap comes into play.
Meet QuickSnap
QuickSnap’s simplistic interface.
QuickSnap was named after its interface; a no frills, get-the-job-done rapidly kind of interface. The main interface pictured above only occupies 230×146 pixels on your screen. There is the option to display a menu bar item for conveniently accessing QuickSnap. I thought that if I had closed the main interface, the menu bar item would remain. Unfortunately, closing the QuickSnap window exits the application. This means that in normal use you must have the always-on-top QuickSnap window present.
The three main screenshot capture modes are Screen to capture the entire desktop, Selection to capture an area of your screen defined by your crosshair selection, and Window to capture a window of your choice. Window mode can also capture icons as exemplified with my hard drive icon on my desktop below.
In the preferences, you can set a timer, which comes in handy if you want to take a screenshot of a menu item.
There are a few more basic capture settings that should cover all of your needs. One thing I did note however was that if you take a screenshot in the JPEG format and try to open it with Photoshop CS3, you get the following error:
Could not complete your request because a JPEG marker segment length is too short (the file may be truncated or incomplete).
With QuickSnap-saved GIFs, you get the following error in Photoshop CS3:
Could not complete your request because the file-format module cannot parse the file.
With QuickSnap-saved TIFFs, you get the following error in Photoshop CS3:
Could not complete your request because Photoshop does not recognize this type of file.
There are other discrepancies as well. While set to the PSD format, images are actually saved as BMPs. When set to the BMP format, QuickSnap saves a PDF file.
I don’t know if it’s just my computer or whether this is a widespread problem, but I can edit images properly in the PNG format. Let me reiterate, even with these Photoshop errors, the images can be viewed properly in Preview.
Thoughts
I enjoy using QuickSnap as opposed to other applications due to its simple, easy-to-use design. However, when you think about it QuickSnap offers little more than OS X’s built-in Grab utility. QuickSnap is shareware software with the retail price running $14.95 USD. As for the errors I encountered while using QuickSnap-saved images in Photoshop CS3, QuickSnap has only been out for several months. As such, it is quite possible that these problems will be solved soon.
I also came into an error when launching QuickSnap every once in a while:
An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down.
What do you use for capturing screenshots in OS X?
I use my buddy CMD SHIFT 3, 4 and space. And the occasional CTRL for some copy to clipboard action.
Gotta love useless widgets and apps that do nothing. (Well, actually, I don’t…)
Great little app. I’ve always used Cmd+Shift+3/4 to create PNGs and then Preview if I need to convert to GIF or JPG (or Photoshop if I need them decently compressed).
Great find Paul!
I think I will just stick with Cmd+Shift+3/4 then Photoshop for my needs.
I also use the Capture dashboard widget for my screenshot needs. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll resort to Cmd+Shift+3.
I’m a big fan of the default screenshotting options but lately I’ve been using Skitch to do a lot of my grabs.
I find the statement “You can go the built-in OS X route with the Cmd+Shift+3/4 shortcut key variants, which I always found to be too much trouble to learn.” kind of odd especially considering you’re an experienced Mac user.
I think Cmd+Shift+3 is one of my default fingerings that I’ve just become accustomed with over the years. As well, I find Cmd+Shift+4+Space really helpful for tutorials, et al. And it allows you to do icons, the dock, etc… as well.
I also use Cocktail or the usual terminal commands to change the default screenshot format every once in awhile if I need to as well.
It kind of looks like Quicksnap is simply a GUI layer on top of OS X’s features and at $15, it seems a bit ridiculous. I’m usually the last one to ridicule shareware prices, but this feels kind of silly. In fact I should make a utility called “QuickDoc” and maybe charge $14.95 for it ($10.99 for the first week on MacZot!).
I use mySkitch. :P
hey! this is why I read this blog… now I know about cmd+shift+3/4
:D
Snapz Pro ftw!
I use ⌘⇧4 with space and ⌃ variants. I do use Paparazzi! for long screenshots though.
@Joshua - yeah I knew that kinda sounded weird. Let me put it this way, I’ve always known about them but never used them first hand as I’ve relied on widgets/apps to do it for me.
I dunno, one thing that really bugs me is macs screen capturing ability. Sure you have lots of options and need animations (like the camera popping up), but you gotta press like 3-4 buttons.
In windows, I hit print screen, open up photoshop, make the selection then save. It sounds like a lot more work, but I guess I’m just used to it and you have a lot more control.
I used to use the “Capture” widget from vanillasoap.com, but am far happier with Skitch now.
Just back off holiday, so trying to catch up with things here…
I think Skitch is brilliant - you could set your own custom key for a screenshot and then drag it to wherever you need for editing, even Photoshop. The meagre image editing tools in Skitch are plenty for my needs, and I’m really enjoying the drag me tab, especially dragging straight into a blog post in textmate for instant upload.
Helpful to know thanks, since I ordered my very first Mac (MacBook uh oh) today.
PS: Is that the Mandolux grass desktop you’re using?
Cheers,
Ben :)
Probably this from now onwards for the timing facility
Yay, another screetshop app that does exactly what all the others do.
Being a recent switcher, this is one area that I’ve been repeatedly disappointed. I used to use SnagIt on Windows. I haven’t been able to find something on OS X that can even come close to its capabilities. SnapzPro has nothing on SnagIt and it’s nearly double the price.
I can see where you are coming from Paul but I’ve just started to use Skitch and love it. Most of my screenshots are either to show somebody something or to blog something. To show somebody something, the mySkitch service is perfect and to blog something, it goes straight to Flickr.
The drawing functions of Skitch are over the top I agree and the application has a very un-Mac interface but I can live with it. If mySkitch remains free and Skitch itself is cheap then I’ll keep on using it!
I never use mySkitch. :P
SnapNDrag is nigh perfect as far as I am concerned. ImageWell is great, too.
I prefer Grab, but i’ll have to try this out.
I have some Skitch invites if anyone is interested. First come, first served.