Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: FastStone Capture
Don Bradbury looks at a configurable screen capture program
| Product | FastStone Capture |
|---|---|
| Company | FastStone Soft |
| Web | www.faststone.org |
| Price | Free |
| We like | Configuration options; capture editor; image magnifier; it's free |
| We don't like | Default hotkeys may have to be changed |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
Those who need to compile documents that include Windows screen grabs, or for any other reason illustrate their point in print with examples of Windows operations - as we do on Practical PC - couldn't do much better that download the free (to home users (Ed: That's us paying then!)) 1.35MB FastStone Capture setup executable from www.snapfiles.com/get/fsscreen
The program integrates an image viewer and capture editor, for adding annotations for example. It lets you capture windows, objects, rectangular regions, freehand-selected regions, the entire desktop, and even videos, and then, if appropriate, apply editing tools for resizing, sharpening, adding shapes, text, watermarks and so on.
The image captures can then be sent to the image viewer, Windows' clipboard, or saved directly to a file in your chosen format which includes BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA.
Magnifier
Among other features which are offered, users have access to a screen magnifier for precise location of the cursor in area grabs, plus a program color picker, configurable hotkeys, resizing, cropping, facilities for printing and e-mailing, and support for the capture of scrolling windows such as an entire web page. The floating Capture Panel is probably the most useful and unobtrusive way of selecting the area for the "grab", and this works well, though capturing freehand areas is, of course, subject to your artistic abilities if it's to be an attractive proposition.
JPEG output gave us the option to compress the output file size to between 100% and 30%. Useful, though anything below 90% showed increasing amounts of compression artefacts, as would be expected.
HotKeys
We found that on our test machine the default hotkeys involving the PrtSc key were inactive. We had to reset them to ensure that this function worked, but that's a simple enough task in the Setup dialogue. Don't try typing in the assigned keys, just press the keys you choose and they'll be stored. Hotkeys, of course, must not be set to coincide with the hotkeys of any other apps you may have running.
Once the program is activated, the third way of selecting your choice of screen grab is via the Taskbar where you can right click on the FastStone icon and select from the menu that's on offer there.
A useful range of program options is available in Settings, including whether to run the program from boot-up, setting the DPI of the output, changing mouse wheel functionality (zoom in/out or scroll up/down), whether to have the magnifier on screen, reset the characteristics of the magnifier, select your file name template and so on.
In Conclusion
Altogether, FastStone Capture is well worth having on your computer if you have the need, even if it's just a supplement to another capture program you already use because one or the other may not always work under every conceivable condition. FastStone Capture is free to home users, and recommended. And, unusually, the author can be contacted via email should you have questions!
