Subscribe to our Free Multi-function Screen Capture / Image Editor Impresses
Yes this really is impressive.
PicPick is a free utility that combines into one package different functions normally handled by several different programs. So many in fact it does so much that we had to create a new software category just to accommodate it!
First it is an excellent screen capture utility that provides multiple capture options (including screen scrolling) together with multiple output formats.
Second it is a useful image editor that allows resizing,rotation, sharpness, hue and brightness adjustment and the application of various effects.
Third it provides Microsoft Paint-style features include painting effects, frames, drop shadows, text annotation, various kinds of boxes, circles, arrows, image insertion and more.
Fourth it is pretty useful color picker that allows you to select and describe the color on any part of your screen not just the image currently within PicPick. You can also select from an in-built palette.
Finally it offers a pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair, magnifier and whiteboard.
Not bad eh? But when you consider that PicPick is a modest 945KB in size and available in portable form then you will understand why we are impressed.
PicPick is free for personal and commercial use though donations are encouraged.
Freeware, Windows 2000-Vista including 64 bit, installed version 1.3MB, portable version 0.9MB.
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PicPick 2.0.2 is out :D
Anupam Shriwatri
OBIT360 registers a positive for "Spyware.Banker". I scanned with AVIRA, A2 and SuperAntispyware with no positives...Is this an OBIT360 problem or does PICPICK have a problem???
It's more than likely to be a false positive but you could upload the file here to be safe:
http://www.virustotal.com/
There seems to be two things I am missing in PicPick, unless I am missing how to do it. Other than that a fantastic program...
1) Once I select a portion of the captured image, I would like to magnify just that portion
2) Once I enter some text or an arrow or whatever in draw mode, there seems to be no way by which I can move that element around and reposition it - also no way to edit the text I enter...
I do not want to take away from this software, but it is hardly groundbreaking or a new category or any such. SnagIt has been able to do most or all for a long time as have some of it's competitors. The one I use and have for years - at least 4 or 5 years anyway - has been able to do all the above for a long time. It has replaced SnagIt for me since before SnagIt dropped the shareware option (version 5 I think). What is more, this software can capture and stitch together scrolling pages for most or all of that time. The real cincher for me, though, had to be the image editing capability that allows you to blur either inside or outside a defined area. This is killer that NO ONE has duplicated to my knowledge, and it was what made me switch so many years ago. The fact that it is free and has a plugin architecture for even more versatility are big bonuses as well, yet no one ever talks about it.
What is it? (Drum Roll....)
ScreenshotCaptor by Mouser from DonationCoder.com
Gizmo has seen this before, so he can definitely vouch for it even if he finds others more to his liking. I am just so suprised that it consistently doesn't get mentioned here with the likes of FastStone or SnagIt. Check it out and decide for yourself. It is free, after all....
I gave this a try and was very impressed.
I may replace my FastStone with this.
Do you know if this has an eraser?
I thought this might be a replacement for Faststone capture but was disappointed that after adding text to a captured image I could not go back and edit that text.
Can it do delayed capture? Wait n seconds while I get the screen into the state I want to capture before it takes its snap. Some applications (eg Flash & Silverlight apps) can change whats on screen if the mouse moves or a keystroke happens - so this essential if your debugging those apps.
Does it hook up with bug tracking services like FogBugz, Mantis, SharpForge Gemini etc?
This particular software category has been one where I have never been able to really warm up to a freeware program after paying for SnagIt, so I was very excited to try this one out.
Basically, this is the first one I've tried that looks like it has the potential to replace SnagIt for me. It has most of the main features I use. It has a lot of versatility for capture options (including scrolling windows, use "Window Control" option for capture) and output options - their editor, clipboard, directly to file.
But before it could replace snagit, there are 3 main features that I would like to see in this one.
1. Multiple HotKeys. One of the really great things about SnagIt is the various profiles. I have a hotkey for capturing a region to the editor, one for a straight screen shot to the printer, one for active window to the clipboard and several others. With PicPick, these are all different mouse clicks.
2. It may be there and I just had a hard time finding it, but the editor lacks a simple highlight option. It can be accomplished with the paint brush, just not quite as easily as a simple highlighter tool would make it.
3. The one output option that is lacking is a direct to printer.
Of these, number one is the biggest killer for me. If that capability makes its way into this program, it would become my screen capture tool of choice, but for now SnagIt will continue to keep it's place in my startup.
You can access the Screen Capture Program Options either by clicking on the PicPick Tray icon and then clicking on About PicPick or by opening the Image Editor by using the mouse and selecting any of the screen capture options from the Tray icon menu and going to Tools/Program Options.
There you will see an entry for Hot Keys in the Left hand pane. Click on it and you can either leave them at their default settings or from the drop down menu at bottom left choose from a set of profiles that match a couple of other screen capture programs or create your own customised profile to suit you particular needs.
Additionally, Click on Auto Save in the left hand panel and, if you want, you can elect to automatically send any screen capture, whether activated by a Hot Key or mouse, to one of a preselected range of external programs including one of your own choosing.
In fact, most everything in the screen capture module not immediately available from the Tray icon menu is selectable to one degree or another via Program Options.
The hot keys are only for the input source. The advantage in SnagIt is that each hotkey can be tied to a specific profile that allows option settings, input source and output source. For example, I have three hotkeys for a region copy - one to printer, one to clipboard and one to the editor. PicPick has one hotkey available for a capture by region. You have to mouse click to change the output option between each capture.
But again, this is a really good program already with a lot of potential. A couple small tweaks would make it a best of class. And if I was looking at this versus Snagit and weighing free versus Snagit's cost, I may very well pick this one depending on how much I would use it.
Installed it, enabled Auto scroll, and there is no way I can figure out how to capture a scrolling window... Maybe I am missing something
With Faststone it captures both vertical and horizontal IE screens and vertical scrolling Firefox Screens easily and smoothly. Also, one of the many capture options is as simple as 'Capture Scrolling window'. There seems to be no such option in PicPick
Other than this basic drawback... it seems to be an excellent program
After enabling scrolling, either click on Window Control in PicPick's Tray Icon Screen Capture menu or use the Window Control Hot Key. A small Window will then appear and the information inside it will change as you move the mouse around to reflect the Window currently under the mouse. Move the mouse over the window you want to capture when you will see it's edges highlighted to indicate it is the active window. Then click on the window you want to capture and it will be, complete with scrolling. I have only tried it in IE7 but it works perfectly for both vertical and horizontal scrolling.
N.B. One thing to note is that, at least in IE7 though I haven't tried it in anything else yet, it captures and scrolls from whatever position you left the Window in. I.e. if you had already scrolled part way down a page it will only capture from approximately there to the bottom of the page. In other words, if you want to capture the whole of a page make sure that it is at the very top before you invoke Window Control.
A pity, but nobody seems to be talking about a critical aspect of screen capture programs that I, for one, can never do without - and that is capturing a scrolling screen.
Fast Stone is the only one which does that really well, though it refuses to do horizontal screen capture in FF, and does it only in IE...
Can anybody tell me if either PicPick or Ashampoo do this easily?
Just tried it and it works perfectly in FireFox 2 and 3 for both horizontal and vertical scrolling. See my reply above to another poster for using the scrolling capture feature.
As I wrote on another page, elsewhere, herein: Now if it would just do clipboard management, too...
...O.M.G. what a product it would THEN be... no?
Of course, it's pretty amazing, as is. But... still... one can dream, can't one? (Actually, I suggested it an email to PicPick's creator... but so far no response.)
Oh... and one more thing, Ian: Looking at the screenshot of PicPick in your article in chief... did you use PicPick itself to capture it? I only ask because... well... wouldn't that cause... like... a rift in the space/time continuum or something? [grin]
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
Thanks G.
This is one for my system tray... straight from start-up.
Hello all.
I want to take this moment in time to do something I do not see as much as I would like.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, and THANK YOU to all of the great people, that we all tend to forget are RESPONSIBLE, who find the software and/or GREAT OFFERS made available for us. And all we have to do is check our email to have it available for us to download and enjoy.
One of the best things I ever 'stumbled' across while checking out the web was Gizmo. Now I think things are even BETTER with the combined efforts of Gizmo AND Window's Secrets. May the team efforts go on forever... or until I die first... hee hee.
Seriously, thanks guys and gals for all the hard work.
Michel J. Gaudet_ ******, with a cat with an 'attitude' lately
Moderators comment:
Please refrain from using words which many parents would not find acceptable for their children to read here.
Gaudet!
YOU cad! You have stolen my sobriquet, my own (sputter) my, my selfedness. To restore my Honor, I challenge you to wireless laser mouses at dawn. (um, no, that won't work - I don't get up that early anymore, now that I am with grandchildren.) Nonetheless, you are yet a CAD. (and no, yu are not a pretty drawing thingy from AutoDesk. Who names a company AutoDesk? It makes me think of a bumper-car with a desk strapped to the hood with the overhead sparks drifting down upon it.)
My honor has been somewhat restored at being able to at E-EW via the anonymity of the NetWeb. My feline companion, Earl Gray, sticks his tongue out-at-U also.
I am now off to brew myself a cup of excellent Earl Gray Tea, with creame (long live the colonies and all my Best to Her Majesty)
I am, Sir,
respectfully,
The Resident Horse's **** (or so intones my Bride of Forty Years)
Thomas L Shipley aka "T O F"
ps: I also 'found' Gizmo some number of years ago, and His is the site I first visit each day to view the cites as well as the sights. However, I do MISS his monthly missive to US!
Moderators comment:
Please refrain from using words which many parents would not find acceptable for their children to read here.
I completely agree.
One thing I want to rectify though:
This site is the result of the efforts of Gizmo and several volunteers, but has - as far as I know - nothing in common with the (imo more commercial) Windows Secrets guys.
Gizmo is the common element; he is the chief here and writes articles for Windows Secrets every second week. Otherwise, as far as I know, there is no further overlap.
Yes, this community based site has no relationship with the commercial based Windows Secrets website or newsletter other than the fact I write two articles for Windows Secrets newsletter per month as a paid contributor. I have no say in the policy or management of the newsletter, I'm just a writer.
BTW this site is manned by over 60 volunteers who freely contribute their time and effort to the internet community without monetary reward. They are the real heroes of this website not me.
Gizmo
I've been using picpick for awile now and it workes fine, then i tried ashampoo magical snap free and i really like this program better try it its free.
Malwarebytes detected a trojan when my download started.
Unfortunately PicPick cannot save in PDF format. Nowadays this is a VERY BIG show-stopper.
I often use Alt+Print Screen to capture a window and then paste it into XnView. That can save to very many formats, including PDF.
Why is that a show-stopper? If you need the results in a PDF, print to a PDF distiller.
I've been very tied to JING recently with it's ability to immediately upload screen and video captures.
You can also download the program at
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/PicPick-Download-69160.html
Well, the link doesnt work to download PicPick.
Their website seems to be down for the moment. You can download from either of these two sites:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Capture/PicPick....
http://www.freewarefiles.com/PicPick-Tools_program_27578.html
Anupam Shriwatri
You can still get the last freeware version of FastStone Capture. It's version 5.3. And it's very good indeed. Try http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html
I too prefer FastStone, much simpler and gets the job done.
PICPICK is a great program.
Small download, easy installation, low resource consumption, a useful set of tools...AND FREE SOFTWARE.
Nice program but Fast Stone Screen Capture does most of the same things.
Yes, but Fast Stone Screen Capture is shareware - http://www.faststone.org/index.htm
I recommend using combination of Gadwin PrintScreen and Paint.NET (as default image editor). If it is to complicated then try PicPick.
You can get the free version here:
http://www.winaddons.com/faststone-capture-53/
or here:
http://www.oldapps.com/fast_stone_capture.php
Anupam Shriwatri
Version 5.3 is a FREEWARE, you can get it if you look around.
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