Screen grabbing tools – sharing vs. collaboration
Updated Jan 3, 2020.
Further to my post in July – The hunt for review and screen capturing tools – the hunt indeed still goes on. This time around I thought I’d document my findings in a bit more detail, but also what I’m looking for – I may well go on and build the “ideal solution”, so getting it down will help. However, if you’re working in the web industry this post is definitely relevant.
Screen capturing software and why?
OK so first of all, most people within the web industry take screenshots and use them in mock-ups, reports, presentations, etc. As I come into contact with customer experience, usability and user experience consultants and designers and developers, I know this happens, albeit to differing degrees.
As I go about spotting good and bad design examples, new techniques and bugs in the projects I’m working on, I take screenshots or the occasional screen cast. I share these with colleagues and clients, I put them in wireframes or mock-ups and I use them in reports or presentations. I have always done this.
The word “collaboration” is used a lot these days (as if it has never existed before) and there are a mountain of collaboration tools now available. I’m looking for an online screen capturing collaboration tool. But sadly I’ve no come close to finding one. Here’s a few user journeys to help explain:
- I want to take a screen grab of a new design feature I like. I want this screen grab to sit on my local machine plus sync online (like how Dropbox works). If I’m working without an internet connection I can use this screen grabs locally, but if I’m connected I want to be able to do a lot more e.g. tag the screenshots, search and filter, set permissions (see the next two points), assign screenshots to projects (say I’m working on a report) and export screenshots.
- I want colleagues to be able to login in and share workspaces / projects with me. For example, if we are working on a report or proposal that involves taking examples from other sites, then I want colleagues to be able to add screenshots to a shared space and, if we need to, export them either as a zip file or to Word / PowerPoint.
- If I’m working on concepts and I take screenshots of different examples I’ve seen on the web, I want my clients to login and view the screenshots – and possibly add comments. If it is an actual design concept that we’ve produced, I want to create a .png or .jpeg move it to the sync’d folder and then manage it online.
- I could not care less about sharing screenshots or screen grabs on Twitter, Linked In or Facebook. I want to be able to collaborate with colleagues and clients over ideas and new web techniques – this goes for mobile too.
You may well be on a different boat from me, but regardless, as I’ve reviewed almost all the screen capturing tools available I thought I’d list and comment on a number of them. My comments are based on my needs above.
The current state of play
I started using Snag-it about 5 years ago – a far cry from “print screen” and modifying the image in Photoshop. It’s a great tool and easy to use. Does it allow me to collaborate – no not really. In fact, TechSmith (the makers) seem to be adding more and more functionality to the editing tool that it is borderline image manipulation software. Snag-it does allow you to send the screen grab to your own FTP site or TechSmith’s Screencast (which I’ll mention later). You can also send the screen grabs to PowerPoint and Word, so from that perspective it ticks the boxes. However, you still have to manage the screen grabs one by one and there is no form of collaboration.
Screencast is a poor product. Whilst you can sync screen grabs with it from Snag-It and Jing (Techsmith’s simple screen grab tool), the user interface is like something from the late 90s. It’s good in theory, but has been poorly executed.
The reason I started with Snag-it is because it is the leader, but after having used it for a while and having looked at many other products it is no doubt going to lose some of its market share. I’ve categorised some of the other tools worthy of your attention – but just to be clear, none of them do what I’m looking for!
Driven by sharing
With the explosion of social media, every tool that comes on to the market now seems to include sharing with third parties in some shape or form. Screen grab software is no different. Here is a list of tools that allow you to take a screen grab and share it on, for example, Twitter:
Tinygrab (defunct)- Jing (by Techsmith)
- Tweeshot
- Screenjelly
- Dropmock (this is cool)
Tinygrab, is probably one of the best tools I’ve come across recently. It is very simple and I love how it just syncs online. If you read their blog posts they have recently relaunched after some financial difficulties, but I wish them well and, although it is too basic for what I’m looking for, it works well. You should check it out.
Mac only
I’m not keen on the Mac only tools approach – but hey, who am I? Anyway, there are a couple of good tools that you can use. None again, offer any form of collaboration. Sharing yes, collaboration no.
Skitch
Skitch is a great tool for manipulating images and sharing them. There is also skitch.com, which is an online storage tool that allows for commenting. Like Screencast, it is fairly basic.
Little Snapper
Little Snapper is probably the best mac tool. It’s a slightly more complex tool than Skitch in that it gives you a console to manage your screenshots. The major failing is that it creates a library and processed vs. unprocessed batches of screenshots, which you export from. I find this annoying. It’s still a pretty slick tool, but it’s very much designed for solo use. What it has going for it is its ability to sync with Emberapp – a community site for designers to share screenshots.
Document based
Screensteps is pretty much the only tool I found that is based on putting documents together. From my perspective, it is definitely worth a second look. It’s based on elearning and customer support, where you create documents and slides that help users with applications. The desktop tool allows you to tag slides / pages and manipulate the images in many ways. Whilst I like this, it is still very much single user based. The online tool does offer some nice add-ons like customisation and integration with Zendesk. Hence, it’s worth a second look.
Bug snapping
SnapEngage – Watch this video below. It’s a nice tool:
Feedback
If you work in design / front-end development or part of a large e-commerce team then some of the design feedback tools available will be of interest. Whilst these are not strictly screen grabbing tools, what they do offers you a lot of potential to collaborate with clients and colleagues. What I’m looking for is more of a cross between these tools below and the tools mentioned above, but you should have a look at these three:
- Concept Feedback
- Get Sign Off
- Notable (an amazing product)
Online based
Some other tools for managing screenshots include:
These are all excellent tools in their own right and if you want to share your screenshots with the world then choose one of these tools.
What I’m looking for is a tool that focuses around collaboration. Many of the tools are based around single users and sharing with other single users. If you work with a team of people who take screenshots wouldn’t it be great to share those screenshots between the team, search across the team’s “library”, create workspaces and allow clients access? I can see how it would work with large e-commerce teams also.
Whilst screen grab collaboration may sound trivial, it forms part of my day to day work and I rely on it to be as effective as possible when it comes to collaborating with clients and colleagues. I’m sure many other design agencies, researchers and web departments do too.
Apps to check out then
So to conclude from the reasearch I’ve done, but in no relation to my requirements, I recommend you have a look at these tools:
Let me know what you think 🙂
