Back in the days of DOS, you used to be able to press the Print Screen (also called PrintScr or PrtScr or PrintScreen) key and what was on the screen would print directly to your printer. These days, pressing that button will just copy the current screen to the clipboard. You then need to open up an application and paste the image into a document so that you can edit or print the screenshot. If you’ve ever tried to do this you know it is not very convenient and usually the files created are unnecessarily large. This has created a demand for screen capture utilities.

SnagIt by TechSmith Corporation is probably the most well-know screen capture utility. It lets you capture images of windows, toolbars, web pages, text, and video and has many features. I recently obtained a copy of SnagIt 7 to review.

SnagIt 7 Normal view SnagIt 7 Classic view SnagIt 7 Compact view

There is also a handy toolbar available in all the Microsoft Office applications as well as Internet Explorer. This toolbar is even smaller than the Compact view and provides the basic features of the programs with just a mouse click

SnagIt 7 Microsoft Office toolbar

The program is very easy to use. In whichever view you are in, you just choose what type of screenshot you want (screen, window, active window, region, fixed region, object, or menu) and any options you want (scrolling, shapes, capture format). Then you either press the Capture button or use the predefined shortcut key CTRL + SHIFT + P (this can be changed if needed). You will then be able to capture a screenshot of your choice. Below are three different screenshots obtained in three different ways:

As I mentioned above, SnagIt 7 also comes with a simple, yet effective, editor. When an image is captured, you can resize the image, save it in all the standard image formats, as well as mark up the image to make things stand out. You can add arrows, text, and “paint” on the image just like you could in any other image editor. When the images are saved, the modifications to the images are now permanently part of the image. It also comes with a program called SnagIt Studio. This lets you do even more with the images and save multiple images in a project file. Any modifications done here can be undone later.

SnagIt 7 contains an incredible number of features. Even if you don’t have a need for taking screenshots, the ability to catalog your images is very useful.

To get it free,just follow the steps below:

1. Goto the Christmas giveaway page at Avanquest website here.

2. Click on Number 13.After that in next page Click on Telecharger button as shown below

3.Enter the information and click the Countinuer button as detailed below.3. You should now receive your free SnagIT 7 activation code.4. Download SnagIT 7 installer from here and use the key above to register.