Sharp/Crisp Screen Captures

Use Snag-it to capture the images but then edit them with a real graphics editor such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Fireworks. The other option is to press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. This takes a snapshot of your desktop in a BMP format that can then be pasted and edited with Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, etc. If you can, use a MAC. They are truly king when it comes to multimedia.

Have you reviewed this blog post on screenshots by Dave Mozealous? It may have to do with scaling and resizing. http://www.articulate.com/blog/how-to-get-perfect-screenshots-in-presenter-09/

I second James' suggestion about editing them in a real graphics editor.  Even using Paint and playing around with file type, scale and resizing, I've been able to great improve the clarity of screen shots in my Engage interactions.

Melanie - Thank you for the link.  After reading the article and testing a screen capture, I believe that this will solve my issues.  Regarding James' and Michelle's suggestions, I'll need to find the budget to purchase one of the graphics editors.  Thank you all for your suggestions.

I typically don't have access to purchase a graphics editor, but have had a great deal of luck using the standard Microsoft Paint for basic edits and Picasa for anything slightly fancier.  Neither have all the tools of a paid, professional editor, but do a decent job for the screen captures I've used in courses.

Also, if you're working with software you have the option of doing a screen cast instead of a screen capture ... then embed this into PPT or Articulate as needed.  I use TechSmith's Camtasia (same company that makes SnagIt) and this works really well!  The newest version of Camtasia is about $300, but you can sometimes get discounts for military, student, educator, etc.  Editing audio to synchronize, etc. is really easy with it as well ...

They have a free trial (30 days) on their website, but this does not provide crystal clear screen casts.  You need to purchase the software to get the visual clarity.  We found this out when we were testing it and couldn't figure out why the screens were blurry.

I agree with Michelle.  I've been using that Paint screen capture method for years.  I too find it far superior to SnagIt.

If you are going to use MS Paint, I would suggest you switch to GIMP. It's a lot better than MS Paint, and it actually is a step up from Snag-it.

I can throw out a vote for GIMP as well - I haven't used at work yet (and I don't know why - thanks for the reminder James, it is downloading now), but I've used it to edit photos at home and have been very impressed by the program.

A less expensive alternative for screencasting is BB Flashback Express:  http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBackExpress/Home.aspx

For $199, you get the clearest full-motion screen capturing I've ever seen along with the ability to edit everything (including screen text, add captions, and mouse movements), add audio, record audio and webcamera while recording your desktop, and output to SWF, FLV, or WMV.

Very nice product that I use quite a bit.  There's even a free version to start with that does everything only there's no editing capabilities.  You do have to register the free version in order to remove a watermark.

I agree, Snag-It is a great screen capturing tool.  My other favorites are Powerpoint 2010.  Yes, the editing features (for my purposes) are quite satisfactory.   If you are looking for a free online tool, I love Aviary.  In fact they have several different tools. 

I've downloaded GIMP, but it's still not working for me...maybe I need to just get down the basics.  

I have found that Evernote works very well for capturing screenshots.  You have multiple options in screen capture selection and you can save the images directly to your computer. I have also found the image quality to be excellent. Another great benefit of using Evernote for me is that I can store all of my screen captures in one central location, organize them by category or project, and since all the screen captures are automatically stored on Evernote's server, you can access them any time from any computer simply by logging into my evernote account. It's a definite value add in terms of organization and ease of use.  Oh and did I mention it's FREE?

As for image editing, I agree with Jeanette, Powerpoint 2010 has excellent image editing tools, especially for simple quick edits like cropping, fading, shadows, resizing and removing backgrounds.  For more advanced edits, I have found that Adobe Photoshop works excellent, but if you're not familiar with the software, it may feel like rocket science trying to figure it out at first.  Not to mention it's very expensive. Anyway, hope this helps!

I love Evernote (on my Chrome page, on my mobile!) Never thought of using it in that manner...will have to try it.  Now Im wondering if OneNote has the same capabilities (hmmmm).

A better alternative is to use screencasting software My Screen Recorder Pro. Crystal clear screen recordings and small file sizes are just two of the benefits.

I agree, Jeanette. Never thought of Evernote for this purpose. Thanks for the tip, James!

G'day everyone

Whilst we're talking image editing - has anybody else tried the free online PhotoShop clone PIXLR? If not, give it a go - it will blow your mind! PIXLR can be used anytime/anyplace that you need to do some serious image editing...so long as you have access to the Net of course

Most useful website around (except this one, of course!)

Cheers

Jim

www.artofjimbo.com