Discover the screen recording and screen capture process with Snagit 2020

Snagit, together with Camtasia, are products under the same Techsmith brand. Although they’re similar in interfaces, their functionalities and areas of efficiency widely differ.

While Camtasia is for professional video making and video editing, Snagit is intended to easily capture your screen and get high-quality and quick screenshots.

It’s best to have in mind that both Snagit and Camtasia are high-end tools, with powerful and quality features, which their price clearly reflects.

Overview of Snagit screen recording tool

Snagit is almost synonym with professional screen recording. It might include a few features for video creation; however, it’s not specialised in professional video making (as it is Camtasia).

But when it comes to recording computer screen, and even short explanatory videos, it outperforms other software. In short, it has powerful, yet not complex features to use for day-to-day tasks. The software makes it easy for everyone to get “telling” images and videos for their teammates or clients, without their being designers.

Snagit 2020 Free trial + Discount Code

Snagit screen capture tool is ideal for

Multiple uses that are part of the daily routine:

• explanatory visuals for teammates, with steps to follow in a working process
• showing bugs to technical team, with emphasized areas where the error message signals the issue
• communication with clients, if you are in the technical assistance team
• sustaining technical documentation with images, reducing the written part to the minimum needed
• quick and helpful tutorials that are easy to follow and understand
• how-to articles that expand upon performing a task the optimal way.

. And the list might continue with your own use of Snagit, for your own tasks.

The 5 easy steps to record your screen

Before diving into the process, you should install Snagit screen recorder and open it. (Techsmith gives you the possibility to check the tool in a 15-days free trial, and test its functionalities overall). Afterwards, Screenrecorder.info invites you to seize the opportunity and get Snagit at a discount price.

Step 1: Open Snagit

Select the Image option (as you’re making an image out of your screen capture), and press the Red circle saying “Capture”:

Step 1: capture your screen

Alternatively, you canselect the Video option, if you’re going to make a short explanatory video. You can even attach audio elements to it, activating and using the Record Microphone option on the right.

Step 2: Record your screen

Once you’ve pressed the Capture button, you’ll have to select the area to capture in your screenshot:

• the whole screen
• one portion of the screen
• a scrolling page
• an infinite scrolling page
• dropdown menus, etc.

Move the crosshairs onto the screen, to cover the whole image you want to capture.

Step 3: Preview screen capture in Snagit editor

Before saving the screen capture, you can preview the result. It opens directly in the Snagit editor:

• You can adjust the image to fit to screen or keep the actual size. You have a zoom option, as well, to show how large the image will appear.

Zoom feature

• You can set customized values for the width and height of the image, and trim it to pixel-perfection.

Set image dimensions

Step 4: Edit your screen capture

Snagit screen recorder has all the needed options to annotate your images and make them self-explanatory.

Among them:

• Adding arrows to indicate an important part of the screen capture
• Adding text with copy and paste; customize Font Face, size, color, etc.
• Adding callouts which explain certain areas in the image
• Advanced options such as: Blur effects, Crop, Cut Out, Highlighter, Eraser, Magnify, Redo
• Highlighter puts an emphasis on what’s most important in the image to notice
• Magnify – also known as Spotlight Effect, it amplifies a certain portion of the image you want to bring up and front
• Adding borders to the image
• Defining edges for the screenshot
• Adding perspective to the edited image
• Applying a shadow to the screenshot
• Using filters for the image
• Performing color adjustment for the whole image (brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc.)
• Above all, you always have the possibility to undo your selection while editing, and restart editing from a previous step.

Step 4: Editing the screen capture

What more is, the upper toolbar is customizable. You can add the most used features in this toolbar, to have them at hand for repeated uses of Snagit while recording the screen.

Step 5: Save the file and share it.

After you’ve finished editing the image, you can save the file, in .png, .jpeg or .pdf format.

For short videos, you can save the files in MPEG-4 format.

The Snagit screen recording tool comes with plenty of sharing options: a simple link can be sent via Screencast, Google Drive, Email, Twitter, Slack, Dropbox, to name a few of them.

Step 5: Sharing screenshots with Snagit

After screen recording…

If you close the program, the screen captures you’ve made and edited are kept within a bottom gallery as thumbnails. There’s no need to search for them, you’ll have them all when you reopen the Snagit tool.

Saved screenshots within the tool

Some Snagit screen recorder perks

We’d like to showcase 2 features you may find especially useful for advanced screen capturing.

1. Time Delay – if you enable this option, the screen is recorded with a delay of x seconds (depending on your own selection), so you can capture dropdown menus or other elements of a webpage that are hidden by default. Within the delay, you have the time to go back to the dropdown menu (or another element of the same style) and expand it for showing it in the screenshot.

Time delay in Snagit screen recorder

2. Making a short video out of multiple screenshots – this is a 2020 update to the Snagit tool. You can collage a few images in a short explanatory video that walks viewers through the steps of a process they have to learn.

Snagit – system requirements

Snagit screen recorder works well with MS Windows 10, 8.1, 7 SP!, or macOS Catalina (10.15), Mojave (10.14), High Sierra (10.13).

How to make the most out of the Snagit screen recording software?

First, you can take the free trial of Snagit, and get familiar with its powerful, yet simple options.Then, if you like the tool (and you cannot but like it!), get our Snagit discount coupon and purchase the full version.

Get it and tell us what do you find most useful at Techsmith Snagit by leaving a comment below!