How To Do a Screen Capture and Add Text

It can be helpful at times to be able to do a screen capture. Perhaps you want to save it for being able to reference later. Maybe you want to share the screen shot with a colleague to discuss something. Perhaps it is an image that you want to include in a blog post!

There are different ways to do screen captures, but today I wanted to spotlight a free app called Skitch.

At the top center of the app window is a pull down list of different ways to get what you want on the editing canvas. The most used option is the default which is “screen snap”. If you click it, you will be asked to click and drag a rectangle area that it will capture as an image whatever is inside the rectangle. (As an option, you can simply click inside any app window and it will capture the entire window.)

Once you have your screenshot, you have the option to mark it up with arrows and text. There is also other tools like stamps and shapes. The bottom of the tool palette is a swatch that lets you choose from several different colors.

In the image below, you can see some of the different drawing objects you can overlay.

Once you draw an object, you can edit its location or simply delete it. In order to do this, click on the object. Notice that when you click an object, little blue circles appear on the points that you can modify.

For instance, if it is an arrow, you can adjust either endpoint to better hit your target. If it is a text object, you can drag the corner circles to make the text larger or smaller. You can also move an object. First click the object to select it, THEN click and drag where you want it to go.

If you want to delete an object, click it to select it. Then press the delete key.

Finally once you are ready to save it, you can use the “Skitch” menu at the top and choose “Save as Image”.

You have the option of a few different file types such as PNG, JPG, and PDF. The PNG format is a really good for illustrations like this especially if you are going to insert it into a document or a blog post. If you are going to email the file to somebody, PDF is a great choice because most everybody will know how to read it.

Skitch is part of the Evernote site, and I do recommend you check out Evernote also! However you do not need to have an Evernote account to use Skitch.

You can download Skitch from this page