ZScreen: The Awesome Free Screenshot Tool
July 23, 2010 Posted by Tyler CruzOver the past year I’ve been more backlogged with work and projects than I have ever been in my life, and so I am always looking for ways to save time whether that be by automating as many things as possible, hiring other people to do work for me, or by simply finding faster ways to do things.
Over the next series of posts, I will be sharing with you various tools, tips, and techniques that I use to save time while working. While some of these things may seem minute in their amount of time saving, you could be very surprised in just how much time they save you in the long run.
2-3 months ago, my friend Brian and I were doing a lot of chatting on AIM, discussing everything under the sun from business to personality types, when Brian noticed that I would often pause for a minute to take a screenshot, copy it into Photoshop, upload it to my server, and then send him the link (I couldn’t send it to him via AIM file transfer since he uses one of those multi-instant messenger programs which are usually buggy with those advanced features).
Since this would often ruin the flow of conversation, Brian recommended that I use a program called ZScreen. It’s a completely free, open-source software tool that makes taking and sharing screenshots extremely easy. It also does a number of other features as well, but its main purpose is to quickly and easily share screenshots.
Below is an 11-minute screencast of me showing how ZScreen works and why it’s useful:
You can download ZScreen, completely free, here.
Every version of windows 7 has a program called Snipper installed that does this.
Yeah? Hmm… cool. Well, for those without Windows 7 then 🙂
You’re referring to the Snipping Tool in Win 7. I’ve used that before, but that’s not the same as ZScreen.
ZScreen will not only take the screenshot for you, it’ll also compress the image (if you want), watermark it (if you want), resize it (if you want), upload it (to anywhere, e.g., private FTP, imageshack, whatever), and then copy the URL to your clipboard. This is all done in seconds with ZScreen running in the background.
It also has lots of other settings aside from those listed above (e.g., multiple destinations, history, and so on), and works with text, images, files, etc.
For Mac users, there are a couple of options. Personally, my favorite one is called TinyGrab. It does the same thing but isn’t as flexible.
win 7 had this function, but win 7 is not that good when you use XP for long.
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Looks like a very good tool to have, and looks nothing like the snipper tool in windows 7
Snipper is not on my windows 7 and it’s a new pc, a month old
Perhaps it is an optional tool to select during install. A new install of Windows is going to have slightly different programs depending on what options you choose.
ah ok snipping tool.. anyway kool prog Tyler
Looks like another useful tool to used. Thanks for sharing it my friend.
Thanks for the tip.Now I can finally take pictures of websites and save them.
.exe is always windows only, .dmg is for mac. Anyone know of a similar utility for mac (that uploads the image immediately)?
I mentioned one in my original reply:
“For Mac users, there are a couple of options. Personally, my favorite one is called TinyGrab. It does the same thing but isn’t as flexible.”
Thank you for this useful tool man! I’ve always wanted to find a helpful tool to take snapshots of the screen.
I use HyperSnap generally or Sureshot is great if you use Firefox for quick browser screengrabs.
Cool tool. Thanks for sharing. Now I know why you keep sending me screenshots every time we chat on MSN.
🙂
BTW, your “Submit Comment” button is still not a button. It’s still goofy looking.
-Paul
Hmmm, why don’t you just use http://www.JingProject.com ? Seems like a ton more work using this software.
Chris
Looks pretty nice, I gotta get me another tester pc lol
Great job on the video Tyler zcreen is definitely awesome!
Good stuff Tyler – for some reason on my PC I have real problems making screen shots – I will def give it a try!
great tool -something like this could save me a heap of time. Cheers.
I have tried over a half-dozen chrome screenshot tools and this one is by far the best. Easy, fast, but just the right amount of tools you would need. Very impressed.
Chrome you say?
I’ve been using PrtScr myself for a while. The update of ZScreen is sweet though. I wonder if there is a way to change the image destination to DropBox?
This looks like a great tool for taking screenshots, thanks for making a video on how ZScreen works.
I simply do not need to capture screenshots often enough. So I’ll just keep using shift+printscreen and then pasting it into photoshop. Sure a bit of time is wasted, but it’s not enough to bother installing separate software.
Howdy Tyler
Personally I have used my share of screenshots in my day, and the current one now is the Snipping which is not back if you ask me.
I will be looking to use this ZScreen within the next couple of days Tyler. I will let you know how it goes.
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
Great article post really. I simply do not need to capture screenshots often enough. So I’ll just keep using shift+printscreen and then pasting it into photoshop. Sure a bit of time is wasted, but it’s not enough to bother installing separate software. You make my task easy.
I love free tools such as this one ! It will come in handy, believe me. As I am sure many do, I printscreen and copy into photoshop. Not any more. Thanks.
this is what I did to, but it is soo time consuming, love these kind of tools
I often need to make video screenshots and they turn up blank if I use the printscreen and paste method but ZScreen is able to cap them perfectly. Thanks for bringing this up, Tyler.
I’ve been using PrtScr myself for a while. The update of ZScreen is sweet though. :/
I will have to take a closer look at this excellent tool. Many thanks
Thankyou very much for this helpful video Demo about Zscreen !
Please please could you tell me what video capture/recorder program you are using for this Video Demo ? And can you recommend any FREE (Absolutely FREE and not free trial to buy) Video Capture/recorder ? I am very desperate for one to post on forums to display problems and issues I am having with firefox and with my computer.
Please and thankyou Tyler !
Just googled “free video capture software”. #1 result is what you need. Google is your friend… don’t make me do it for you 🙂