A simple screenshot with some circles, arrows, lines, or texts can make things a lot easier to understand.

That’s why people use screenshots to capture an example or demonstrate something.

When it comes to taking screenshots, there is plenty to tools out there for both Mac & Windows. But yet it’s difficult to find the right screenshot tools.

To make things easier, I am going to show you the best free tools that work on Mac & Windows. I’ll also share some screenshots taking browser extensions.

I did all the research and compiled the best list for you.

So, continue reading the post and find the one that best suits you, and go with it.

1. Snagit

One of the most powerful tools when it comes to taking screenshots available in the market. It is created by TechSmith.

Not only can you take a screenshot of your desktop, but you can also record video when you want. You can even make GIF file from videos. It also has a built-in image editor that is easy to use so you won’t need to export the photos and put them on PhotoShop or other tools to do simple edits.

You can capture the entire screen at once, or you can just capture a part of it. You could also use the editor to hide sensitive information and so on.

It is the ultimate tool, and I’m sure you are going to like it.

Platform: Mac & Windows

2. PicPick

Another powerful program that is created specifically for Windows. You can use it to create screenshots and edit them as well.

The good thing is that you don’t need to install it if you don’t want to. You can use the portable version; however, you will miss some of the good stuff if you don’t go with the installed version.

Platform: Windows

3. Jing

Jing is another program created by TechSmith. It was first launched in 2007.

The program helps you take a video or a picture of your screen. Not only that, it allows you to upload your screenshots to screencast.com or add it to the clipboard directly, so you can share it and directly use it. You don’t have to wait till you’ve saved it. Look for the file, upload it, and then send it.

It saves you a lot of steps, making it more convenient to share screenshots. You just take the screenshot/video, get the URL, and share it with the person you want to share it with.

It is that simple.

Platform: Mac & Windows

4. LightShot

LightShot is a little more specific where it helps you take a screenshot of any of your browser’s tabs.

You just hit the LightShot icon, select the part you want to capture, select if you want to save it or upload it to the server, and you are done. Easy breezy.

You can download and install it on your Windows PC or Mac, or you could install it as an extension for Chrome, Firefox, IE & Opera.

Platform: Mac & Windows, Chrome, Firefox, IE & Opera.

5. Skitch

Created by Evernote, the app that helps you save your notes or screenshots across the web.

Skitch is created to intentionally help you save time by using things as annotations on your screenshots to share your idea with another person.

It is like pointing to your friend how to do something, just with images without you having to do so in real life.

It’s a good, simple tool to help you with simple photo edits. And of course, you could save your images on Evernote.

Platform: MacOS & iPhone & iPad

6. ShareX

ShareX is not only a free but also an open source program that you could use on Windows.

You can use it to capture your screen in full or just take a part of an image.

You could also edit the images using the built-in editor. You could then export the image or upload it to a remote server you connected it to from the beginning (as FTP) or just export to a printer.

Platform: Windows

7. Greenshot

Another free opensource code developed by Thomas Braun, Jens Klingen, and Robin Krom.

It is available for Mac, but you can only get it through the AppStore.

It is created specifically with developers in mind, but you could also use it if you are not one.

It helps you take screenshots, edit it and add annotations as you want, then export them as images or an email attachment or send to a printer, or copy to the clipboard.

Platform: Mac

8. TinyTake

Another great tool to help you capture your screen as an image or a video.

It only works on Windows.

You could also annotate both the screenshots and videos.

You could also use it to record videos using your webcam if you want and store screenshots locally on the cloud.

Platform: Windows

9. MonoShap

Monoshop is a free program that is available for both Mac OS and Windows. You could also create screenshots easily and annotate them.

You could then upload your screenshots on the cloud on your account instead of just saving them on your laptop. This makes it much easier to share images with others with less hassle.

You get free cloud storage once you sign up.

Platform: Mac & Windows

10. Lightscreen

As the name suggests, this is a light program that enables you to do the basic stuff of taking screenshots.

You just run it in the background and set up a hotkey that when you click on, it takes the screenshot automatically without you knowing.

It is very good if you want to take a lot of screenshots rapidly on your Windows device.

Not available for Mac, but you could use the known CMD+Shift+3 for full screen, or Cmd +Shift +4 to capture part of it.

Platform: Windows

11. Screenpresso

An easy-to-use app which is available for the Windows platform.

It enables you to capture your screen with 1 click, edit the image on the go, and share it directly on platforms like Evernote, Google Drive, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, and more.

You could export the images as pdf.

And you could just do a video instead of an image and share it on any of the platforms shared above.

Platform: Windows

12. Marker.io

Marker.io is a specific software created for developers to capture bugs. You can use it to capture bugs, or even if there is one part that you want to give feedback or an idea on.

After you capture the image, you can explain your feedback using the drawings available or as annotations. You can also tag teammates to make it easy to know who should do what.

After that, with just one click, you can send your feedback directly to Trello (which many teams use, and I use it specifically as I explained in my writing tools post), GitHub, Jira, and many more.

Platform: Cloud so uses it anywhere.

13. Snipaste

Snipaste is another tool that is intuitive and has a good idea.

This tool helps you take a screenshot, and when you paste it, it is inserted as a floating window, without the need to open a specific window for the app and so on.

You could also convert the text in your clipboard in the floating image window. The window can then be zoomed, rotated, made translucent, flipped and so on.

You could even copy the color on any screen to use it as you want. So if you are on a website and want to know the hex or RGB code of the specific color in their background, just right click and you can then copy the code you want.

It can come in handy for many people especially designers.

Platform: Windows & Mac

14. ScreenToGif

Would you like to easily save something as a gif instead of as a video?

As the name of the tools says, it helps you do just do that.

You could use your screen or your webcam and use the integrated editor for any edits you want to make.

You could also save it as a GIF or a video if you want to.

And since it is opensource, you can use it for free as you want with no ads in it. It also has a good community of lovers so you can expect updates frequently.

Platform: Windows

15. FastStone

FastStone has a set of tools that can help you with anything related to images.

One of these tools is the FastStone Capture 9.0 which is a lightweight program that enables you to capture your screen and annotate anything as you want.

You could also record video with voice.

Another cool feature is the ability to scroll any webpage and capture it in full screen.

I know it may look a little bit outdated, but the tool was just updated in June, so don’t worry. The developers are updating it frequently.

Platform: Windows

Extensions

The above are programs that you need to install on your computer before you can use them. The following are extensions that you could add to your browser and help you do anything you want using a browser.

With that said, let’s proceed to the first one.

1. Awesome Screenshot

The tool helps you capture a part of all of the web page. You could then add annotations or comments on the go or blur information you don’t want to share.

The tool is so popular that it already got over 2 million users.

If you just want a simple tool to use on websites, this tool could be more than sufficient.

Browser: Chrome & Microsoft

2. Nimbus

Let me start by saying this is my favorite extension. It helps you do everything.

You can capture the whole page in front of you, capture part of it, select and scroll, make it capture the whole page for you without dragging it all over the place and so on. This could come in handy when you want to capture the whole screen of a page, maybe an important post or a sales page of a product you want to save, and so on.

You could then save the image in any format you want including PDF.

Did I say you can also record video? Yes, you could.

After that, you could save the image/video on your computer or save it on Google Drive or your Nimbus account.

The editing tool is more than enough. I told you, this is my favorite. The only problem is that it is available for Chrome only, which is not a problem for me.

Browser: Chrome

3. 1-Click Webpage Screenshot

Want a fast way to save screenshots and get going with what you are doing?

Look no further. This simple tool helps you capture screenshots in one click, and you are good to go.

It is that simple, and this is the point of this extension.

Browser: Chrome

4. Screengrab

Another great extension that helps you save an entire webpage as an image.

It is similar to Nimbus. It can capture anything you want: part of the page, the whole screen, the whole site, and so on. After that, it saves it as an image and helps you upload it online if you want to.

Platform: Chrome & Firefox

5. Full Page Screenshot

As the tool says, it helps you capture the full page with ease.

You could then save the images offline. It helps you remove certain elements from the page that you don’t want to show, which may come in handy many times.

Platform: Chrome

Conclusion

Capturing a screenshot may be a tedious process, but it doesn’t need to. There are many tools and extensions that will suit your need specifically.

I compiled the best of these tools in this post and showed you what it is like to use them. Your job is to determine the one that will best suit you and go with it.

If you still cannot choose a tool for you, here are my recommendations.

• For Mac, I’d recommend SnagIt.
• For Windows, I’d recommend PicPick.
• For Chrome users, I’d recommend Nimbus.
• For Firefox, I’d recommend Awesome Screenshot.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Which is your favorite screenshot tool? Let us know via comment. And if you’ve found the post useful, help us by sharing the post.