FastStone Capture - Screen Capture Software Review

Today is Technology Tuesday. I'll review various software and provide other computer tips and tricks that help folks understand their computers "more better". Let me know if you have any computer questions that are challenging you.

FastStone Capture is a screen capture utility that allows you to grab "screen shots" of your computer. Why would you want to do that?

Well, for documentation purposes, "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words." If you ever have to create documentation where you wished you could provide a screen shot of something on your computer then this software will do that.

Let's say your creating some "How To.." or other type of training documentation and you need to provide various screen shots to help someone understand what you're trying to get across. Screen shots help tremendously.

What I really like about FastStone Capture is its small footprint. The screen below shows what you see when it is running on your computer. A small screen indeed. Which also means that it starts fast.

FastStone Capture has a great drawing feature that you can use right after you've taken a screen shot. This allows you to point out various parts of the screen shot and it's very easy to use.

You can download FastStone Capture here to try. If it's something you'll use and want to purchase, it's going for $19.95.

In contrast, there is the Cadillac of screen capturing tools, TechSmith's SnagIt. For $39.95 this does just about everything you need a screen capturing tool to do.

I own both of these programs. I use FastStone most of the time because of it's size (on screen, very small) and speed loading, read quickly.

When I have to get down and do some in depth screen capturing and manipulating then I use SnagIt. A bit bigger on the screen, slower loading, and more configuration options but something everyone would benefit from having in their toolkit.