N+ Recommends…: ShareX

Ever find yourself needing to take lots of screenshots on the go, whether to save to your computer or share to someone else on the net? In our office it’s a common occurrence for us – sometimes we’re explaining steps to a customer, making a training booklet, or just have something neat to show to one another.

Here’s where I’d recommend ShareX.

Previously, I’d use a combination of Nimbus Screenshot and Puu.sh — both which are great of their own regards. Nimbus handles screenshots that need to be edited on the spot and saved locally to your computer, while Puu.sh would quickly upload images to your personal account on the web with a ready-to-use share URL.

ShareX combines the best of the two, while adding more.

Once you have downloaded and installed the software, you truly don’t have to mess with the settings if you do not wish to. By default, it saves a copy both to your computer while uploading it to Imgur, giving you a URL that you can send to others. The images are not shared with the public community of your site, either.

If you do wish to tweak the settings, you have many options to play with. You can upload specifically to your personal Imgur account, or one of many other image sharing sites such as TinyPic, Photobucket or Flickr, choose a specific URL shortner, copy text to pastebin and other services and share files.

In its base interface, you can always go back to see where it has been saved on your computer (stored in a specific folder set aside for ShareX unless otherwise specified) and uploaded online.

ShareX uses easy-to-remember hotkey combos – such as PrintScreen capturing the entire desktop(s), or Ctrl+PrintScreen allowing you to specify a specific region of the screen. Even then, you can always set up further combinations specific to your workflow.

As shown in the screen shot above, there are even more features than I mentioned that I have yet to test out: including GIF making of screen recordings, text capture, monitor testing, ruler, color picker, image editor and more.

Currently, ShareX is only available for Windows OS, but can be downloaded directly from their website at http://www.getsharex.com or through Steam.