What I need
After working with screenshot software for a while, I have come to realize that there are around 9 things that I need:
A Quick and Easy install
A Simple and Quick editor
Draw Professional Rectangle and Circles
Draw Professional Arrows
Ability to Apply Blur Effect
Ability Apply Highlight
Ability to Add Text Directly To Screenshot
Save Images with great quality and low file size
Low Cost or Free
ScreenSpresso (No longer using)
Around 8 years ago I was introduced to a piece of software that I liked so much that I bought it. The name of the software is ScreenSpresso.
ScreenSpresso is an amazing screenshot program. At the time that I decided to buy the product, I went with the lifetime version of the license. The idea of the lifetime license was to pay around 2.5 times the cost of the software to ensure you got all new updates forever rather than buying a new license each year if you wanted updates.
The developer has since gone back on that promise and is now asking the people who bought the lifetime license to pay again and again. It is because of this, I have decided to look at alternatives.
Right now the pricing is as follows. They no longer have the 4 tiers. They only have 3. The “PRO” tier is their old standard tier. It is a one-time purchase however you only get one year of updates. The lifetime tier has been removed.
Enter ShareX
After looking after an array of different utilities my new tool of choice will be “ShareX”. ShareX is a truly free and open-source editor with a ton of abilities including the option to automate some of the screenshot processes. It also checks all my needs.
You can easily install ShareX by downloading and installing the software from the website. If your home or organization allows you to use “Winget” you can also install it from the command line:
winget install sharex.sharex
After installing ShareX there are a few tweaks I would recommend that you make:
Open Application Settings…
Change Capture Keys
You will need to double-click the Hot Key area and then set up the screenshot hotkeys. I find this works the best for my needs:
By default, ShareX saves screenshots to the folder that is located here:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\ShareX\Screenshots\Change Paths
Change Capture Tasks
Click on:
The ShareX System Tray icon,
click “After Capture Tasks”.
I recommend that you select “Open in image editor”. Doing this will make the letters of the words “Open in image editor” turn to BOLD font. For any other options that are also BOLD, I recommend that you unselect. In my screenshot “Save image to file” is also BOLD which I unselected.
