Before You Start: Set Snipping Tool’s Options. The Snipping Tool window has a few basic features, like taking a new screenshot, canceling a screenshot you’ve started, and taking a delayed screenshot (if you have Windows 10). Popular Alternatives to Snipping Tool for Mac. Explore 25+ Mac apps like Snipping Tool, all suggested and ranked by the AlternativeTo user community. You can use Snipping Tool to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image.

• Snipping Tool
• Snipping Tool For Mac Shortcut
• Screenshot On Mac

1. The most convenient tool is the one included in Windows 10, the Microsoft Snipping Tool. It’s lightweight, simple to use and very effective. It is also built into Windows so works at every level.
2. If you are using a third-party screen capturing utility in Windows 10, you might want to disable the built-in Snipping Tool. Fortunately, there is a provision in Windows 10 to disable the Sniping Tool without touching its system files.
3. Of course the Mac's built in command-shift-3 and command-shift-4 is satisfactory for most snap shots but if you need something more or have a particularly tricky screen to capture, one of these programs might help.

Do you want to snip and paste on your Mac? You have come to the right place because here we will give you the best snipping tools for Mac OS.

It’s no wonder that you want to snip on a Mac. Many people want to take screenshots of their desktop. Here are some reasons you may need snipping tools for your Mac:

1. You need to make tutorial videos for students
2. You want to share your screen with friends
3. Your work requires you to take a screenshot and send it to someone
4. Snipping tools for Mac can help you keep records of important documents that you can’t download

Bloggers and computer users rely on snipping tools for their everyday life. Below, you will find the best apps to help you capture your screen.

Our topics

• 3 External/installable snipping tools for Mac
• 4 Conclusion

Are all snipping tools the same?

Before you go ahead and download a tool for your needs, it’s important to know that snipping tools for Mac aren’t all the same.

Some tools allow you to take a screenshot of your full desktop, while others allow you to capture selected areas on your desktop.

Similarly, some tools let you zoom into the area you want to capture, as well as add graphics and text to the screenshots.

Take a screenshot using Mac’s built-in tool

If you need to take screenshots on your Mac, the first thing to try is the native screen capture tool (Grab) that comes pre-installed on your computer. Here is how to use this tool:

1. Press Command + Shift + 3 together to take a screenshot of your desktop at any time
2. You can also take a screenshot of a boxed area using Command + Shift + 4
3. To take a screenshot of a particular window on your desktop, press Command + Shift + 4 + Space keys when the particular window is active

Once you have taken a screenshot, simply press Command + Shift + 3 + Control to copy it to the clipboard.

External/installable snipping tools for Mac

If for any reason, you want to extend the functionality of your built-in screenshot tool, you will need to try a third-party app. These apps come with many additional features that make them better than Mac’s built-in tool.

Here are some of the best snipping tools for Mac. Pick the one that gives you the features you want.

1. Snagit

Snagit lets you capture your Mac desktop with ease. This tool not only gives you basic image capturing but it also allows you to record the screen, as well.

Snagit is a powerful tool with plenty of advanced features to impress users.

Features

1. Capture desktop
2. Easily take a screenshot of scrolling screens
3. Capture video stills
4. Create animated gifs from captured screens
5. Easy image editing
6. Add text, stamps, shapes, and emoticons
7. Capture the full desktop or a particular window
8. Users can also capture a particular selected area using this tool

2. Jing

Snipping Tool

Jing is easily one of the best snipping tools for Mac. It’s visually pleasing and offers many premium features.

This tool is easy to use. You simply use the drag-and-select feature to indicate the area you want to capture and then take the screenshot with a single click.

Features

1. Capture active windows
2. Take screenshots of scrolling text
3. Capture full desktop, active window, or only the selected area
4. Record video of your desktop activity
5. Screenshots are easy to share with your friends and can be sent via email
6. Tons of visual elements to add to your captured images, such as annotations, highlights, captions, and so on
7. Hundreds of effects and text tools to help you create powerful screenshots

3. Lightshot

When it comes to snipping tools for Mac, you can’t ignore Lightshot. Like other top tools, it offers you plenty of features to make your experience worthwhile.

Lightshot is a fast tool that incorporates many social elements. It enhances your images and allows you to go beyond Mac’s default tool.

Features

1. Capture screens using drag-and-select
2. Find similar images after you capture a screenshot
3. Use various image enhancing tools to enhance your images
4. Easily share your images with your friends on social media
5. Simply and intuitive user interface
6. Available for Mac, Windows, and Chrome OS

4. Nimbus Screenshot and Screencast

Nimbus is a browser-based screen capture tool. You don’t have to install it on your system like other snipping tools for Mac.

Nimbus is great for capturing browser windows. You can capture an area and then use the cropping feature to fix your image dimensions.

Features

1. Robust screenshot app for your browser
2. Great editor interface for easy customization
3. Edit screens after capturing the image
4. Add objects to your images
5. Capture images using the browser address bar, context menu, or set up a hotkey to be used with Nimbus
6. Easily create a freehand drawing on the image
7. Record videos with this app
8. Option to save images in various formats

5. ScreenCloud

ScreenCloud is among the top snipping tools for Mac. It allows you to capture and share your screen with your friends.

ScreenCloud is a unique snipping tool for Mac since it comes with a cloud sharing website. You can upload images to the cloud and share the URL with your friends.

Features

1. Snip and share your screen with ScreenCloud
2. No installation required, as the tool works as a browser extension
3. Upload images to ScreenCloud website for quick sharing
4. Share your screenshots on popular image sharing websites, such as Imgur and Dropbox
5. Use drag-and-select feature to capture exactly the area of your desktop you need
6. Use a hotkey or simply click on the screenshot button in your browser
7. Easy to save images on your desktop

6. Apowersoft Mac Screenshot

Apowersoft Mac Screenshot is a powerful screen capturing tool for Mac. Just like other snipping tools for Mac in this list, this app also surpasses the built-in Mac tool for capturing your desktop.

Features

1. Take a screenshot of your entire desktop or capture a selected area
2. You can save the image in a format of your choice
3. The tool offers plenty of editing options to get the desired result
4. Upload or share your screens with a single click
5. Zoom in on your screen before capturing for clearer text

Conclusion

Many users want to install a third-party snipping tool on their Mac since the built-in tool only offers basic functionality.

The tools we discussed above offer many extended features that will help you make the most of your screenshots. You can annotate, add text, and use various graphic elements to improve your images.

Petr is a serial tech entrepreneur and the CEO of Apro Software, a machine learning company. Whenever he’s not blogging about technology for itechgyan.com or softwarebattle.com, Petr enjoys playing sports and going to the movies. He’s also deeply interested about mediation, Buddhism and biohacking.

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One can take a screen shot of a part of the screen on a Mac with Cmd + Shift + 4.

Is there a similar functionality in Windows 7?

JonikDavid FauxDavid Faux

11 Answers

You can take a screenshot of the active window with Alt+PrintScreen. Also, the included Snipping Tool* (%windir%system32SnippingTool.exe) allows you to select an area to capture, among other features. _{Thanks, @Matt}

If you are fond of the Ctrl+Shift+4 keyboard shortcut, you can set a shortcut key (Properties > Shortcut) for the Snipping Tool.

*Not included with Windows 7 Starter or Home Basic.

iglvzxiglvzx

The Snipping Tool in Windows 7 lets you do this, but there isn't a keyboard command for specifically doing a partial screenshot. You'll have to use your mouse to capture your screenshot. When you launch the program it brings up this little screen:

which will automatically dim your screen so you can draw your (rectangular) box around what you want to capture. Under the 'New' menu, you have the option of switching among the various screenshot methods:

• Free-form snip
• Rectangular snip
• Window snip
• Full-screen snip

After you snip, you can annotate it with a pen (you can choose among various colors, thicknesses, or tips) or highlight items:

Whether you annotate or not, you can save the image, e-mail it, or copy it to your clipboard.

The Snipping Tool also includes with some configuration options:

Greenshot

If you have ever heard of or used SnagIt, it is a program that will allow you to take partial screenshots of your screen. The best and free alternative that I found for home use is Greenshot. Pretty lightweight and awesome program.

Cool thing is that you can also use it as an editor and draw arrows and whatnot on it.

kobaltzkobaltz

Not really, but there are a couple options:

1. Single window screenshot. Select a window and hit Alt-Prt Scrn to get a screenshot of just that window.
2. Pin the Snipping Tool (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories) as your 1st taskbar item and use WinKey-1 as a shortcut.

hyperslughyperslug

Alt+Print Screen is the built-in method to capture the active window, and there are several alternatives (free and paid), but under Windows 7, most suffer from an important shortcoming: the Aero window frame (the semitransparent titlebar and borders) is polluted with whatever you happened to have behind the window when you took the screenshot.

That's why my favorite screenshot tool is Window Clippings, which captures Aero window screenshots as PNGs with full alpha channels – full semitransparency and window shadow effects are preserved.

Compare:

That window is in the exact same position over my desktop; the one on the left was taken with Alt+Print Screen and the on the right with Window Clippings.

Gypsy Spellweaverjosh3736josh3736

If you have OneNote running in the background (SideNote?) then screen clipping for partials is as easy as:

• Windows + S

• Drag the area to snip and release

• Copy to clipboard

See: Introduction to OneNote Tips (plus Screen Clipping tip) - OneNote Tips & Tricks

slhck

I was satisfied with FastStone Screen Capture which can capture

windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular/freehand regions and scrolling windows/web pages

If you need it, it is possible to customize the keyboard shortcuts.

xralfxralf

If you're on Windows, then as noted, you can simply use Alt+PrtScr.

But even though this is all you need 99% of the time, Windows' built-in print screen feature does have some limitations. E.g.

• only the visible parts of your window will be captured, i.e.
  • if your window extends outside the desktop, the hidden parts won't be capture;
  • if your window is obstructed by an always-on-top window (or the start menu or tooltips from other windows), the screenshot will show those obstructions;
• you can't capture certain OpenGL-rendered pictures (such as 3D games);
  • in XP and older, this applied to most video players as well (possibly due to DirectDraw), as when you pasted the capture into an image editor, the video would continue playing in the picture, but when you saved, it would just be a black screen;

I've yet to find a screencap tool without the first limitation (though I've only tried open source tools like ZScreen and Greenshot), but EVGA Precision supposedly can allow you to take screenshots in OpenGL games; it's not specifically a screen capture tool, but is still used by lots of people for game screenshots apparently.

Note: with either ZScreen or Greenshots, after I posted a bug report, a developer uploaded a patched alpha that I recall was able to capture the full window even if it extended outside of the visible screen area. However, it still cut off parts of the window if it exceeded your maximum resolution.

Lèse majestéLèse majesté

If you have the Windows Evernote client installed (requires Evernote account) that can take a partial screenshot to a new note with the Windows + Print Screen keys.

I use ac'tivAid for doing this job.

It saves (partial) screenshots directly to disc and to clipboard.

My favourite shortcuts are

• Shift-Print to capture the active window
• Windows-Print to capture the active window without title bar

Michael S.Michael S.

The great tool focused on rapid select area, capture, share workflow is ScreenCloud. It's cross-platform, free and open-source. The partial screenshot option is the one that I use most often. The screenshot is immediately ready to share, which is great. I tried alternatives other have suggested, but they were overcomplicated for me and lacked automatic sharing.

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