Ashampoo Snap 9 : A Walkthrough

[gdant]

Ashampoo Snap 9 is the ideal screenshot and video recording solution for your PC. Capture anything you see on your screen as images or videos and add additional information, e.g. texts or arrows. A picture is worth a thousand words - if it is done well! Use the integrated text recognition to copy entire pages of text or share your processed images with friends and family.

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Highlights:

Create screenshots and videos fast and easilyGreatly save time and effortRecord, edit and send instantlyWork faster and more flexibly with Snap 9.Use live editing and avoid post-processingUse new automatic featuresMore speed, flexibility and usability

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Requirements – 

Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7
Computer: Any computer that runs on one of the above operating systems at a reasonable speed.
Graphic adapter: min. resolution 1024 x 768 and 16-bit High color (32-bit recommended) and min. 64 MB RAM.
Sound Card: none (supported audio record device and microphone recommended)

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Languages supported – 



Company Website – www.ashampoo.com[/url]

Ashampoo snap 9 (direct link) - [url=www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pde/1724/multimedia-software/snap-9]www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pde/1724/multimedia-software/snap-9

Download Link – cdn1.ashampoo.net/ashampoo/1724/ashampoo_snap_9_e9.0.1_sm.exe

Download Size – 54.1 MB 

Price – Paid ($49.99) or trial for 10 days

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Review – 
It is one of the popular screen capturing software with many of the cool features. Let’s start from installing the software.

Simple setup UI that starts with language selection and some user based inputs.

After couple of seconds to get install, it is ready to capture screenshots.
I like their starting tutorial to guide the user, this helps the new users to know about the functions of Ashampoo Snap 9.



And its tray icon is beautiful with right-click access to many features and screen capture modes. It includes all capturing modes with shortcut for settings, help and exit of the program from the memory.



The main UI dashboard is clean and simple and can be easily navigated by any type of user. Though, only basic settings shortcuts are provided on main dashboard but it is enough as they are generally, most used settings for a user.



Thing that makes screenshot software handy is there one-click shot and to reach any tool in no time, dockbar makes it all possible. The dock bar is simple with auto-hide feature is very responsive to the mouse cursor. Also, it has dock touch gripper for touch optimized devices. Though it is optional to activate but it really makes the capturing easy.

[Img=600x500]http://i.imgur.com/Pmb4CRa.jpg[/img]




From the Left Side it has different capture modes like 

1. Capture Video,
2. Capture Scrolling Window (Freestyle, Firefox),
3. Capture Internet Explorer/Chrome Website,
4. Capture Single Window,
5. Capture Free Rectangle Region,
6. Capture Free Style Region,
7. Capture Fixed Region,
8. Capture Menu,
9. Advanced Menu
                9.1 Capture Multiple Windows/Objects
                9.2 Timed Capture
                9.3 Capture Text (OCR)
                9.4 Color Picker
10. Create Multiple Captures (ON/OFF),
11. Stop Capture/ Edit Capture,
12. Configure

Let’s go through each one of the mode one by one with detailed inspection:


Capture Video :It captures the complete screen with some visual effects to the mouse cursor and on-click effects.



It has various customisations like capturing window and video frames size ratio. Video Presets or custom codec config and audio recording device and buffered video encoding method can be tweaked from here.
After selection, Video Capture Dialog appears to control everything from video special effects to playback control.



In video capture dialog, setting for video effects controls visual elements for cursor, force zzom, video effects, Webcam position and size.




The Configure Mouse and cursor effects has following changeable visual settings:

Show Mouse Cursor: These options allow you to adjust the display of the mouse pointer during records and to add left/right click effects.
Zoom Effect: If enabled, use the specified key to toggle the zoom effect. While active, everything inside the red rectangle will later be magnified. Use the mouse to reposition the rectangle.
Use Video Effects: These are special effects that affect the entire video.
Webcam Position /Size: Use these settings to adjust the size and position of the webcam overlay window.


Capture Scrolling Windows : Captures the scrollable website opened in the Firefox and non-browser application. While Capturing, it creates a blue-rectangular box on the borders then hold down the left mouse button and select the area you wish to capture. Then, click into the selection. Snap will scroll the affected area automatically to capture its contents.

Capture IE/Chrome Website: It captures the complete scrollable page of IE/Chrome website into a single image. Capture the same way as done for above.

Capture Single Window :Capture any of the opened window by just selecting it. Move the mouse pointer over the window you wish to capture. Snap will add a blue border around the detected window. Left-click into the affected area to create the screenshot or right-click to cancel the process.

Capture Free Rectangle Region : Captures the rectangular region in the menu.

Capture Free Style Region: Image capturing tool but it take shot in any shape (freesytle).

Capture Fixed Region :Irrespective of no. of window, it capture everything in a fixed area of desktop. There are many standard pre-defined region size along with custom region size function.

Capture Menu :It capture the menu of any program.

Capture Multiple Windows/Objects :This feature captures all non-minimized program windows and arranges them according to the selected option. Program windows will be displayed as editable/movable objects.




Timed Capture :It triggers the capturing after a certain time or after fixed time intervals. Capture style settings tweaks whether snapshots should be taken once or at regular intervals and, if so, specify the desired time interval. Use these settings to define which area to capture. 

And from “Capture to capture” setting section, you may adjust the width/height for "Custom Region" in the program settings. For "A Single Window", move the mouse pointer of the desired window and left click the selection. For "A Rectangular Region", hold down the left mouse button and drag to select the area to be recorded and click your selection, to begin recording. The other options do not require a manual selection.




Capture Text (OCR):Its one of the most interesting feature is Capture Text (OCR) mode, here image is analysed for characters of different languages and the text found is saved as text element for future editing, i.e. you can copy/delete/change the text in the captured image.
To capture, just hold down the left mouse button and drag to select the text to be recognized. Use the zoom window to work with pixel precision. Click into your selection to begin the process. The text will be added to your snapshot as a text object.

[img=600x500]http://i.imgur.com/djqvkdK.png[/img]


The menu list are quiet simple, compact and organised.

[img=600x500]http://i.imgur.com/XBbFPDs.png[/img]
[img=600x500]http://i.imgur.com/UQq1IzY.png[/img]
[img=600x500]http://i.imgur.com/t8ZeHCL.png[/img]
[img=600x500]http://i.imgur.com/5ecCM3o.png[/img]

Now coming to configuration, let's have a talk about basic settings to tweak. 
Skin has three customizations, first is Color theme, second is Default theme and the last one is Light theme with the different range of Bar size.








They can be changed from the following settings tab:



Startup behaviour settings along with startup splash screen and reset of the program can be controlled from the general settings tab.



Ashampoo snap 9 give us the flexibility to assign hotkeys for the different modes of capture and can be changed easily and even can be left unassigned. It has some more supportive features like browser monitoring for images, sound capture.



The captured image support import in any of the following file format.




The image color tweaks (background and shadow) along with auto-watermark on image, cursor sparkling all these screenshot color settings can be done in Screenshot setting tab.




Editing display monitor can be configured from edit mode settings tab.



Images can be shared direct by mail in image format or pdf format. And, to get rid of managing files files both online and offline on local disk it give auto-delete feature after uploading online.




If user is habitual to other editing tools and don’t want to edit it in Ashampoo snap editor then its feature “Send Image to other App” option enables you to open the image directly in the desired program.

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Image Editing Mode:
Ashampoo snap 9 do even more than just image capture. It gives you an option to edit the image after every capture with its image editor.



The image editor consists of three bars:

Action Bar – on the right side
Tools Bar – on the left side
Image Bar – on the top side


Action Bar: The Action bar targets file actions related to the image or video you are working.

For Images:                                      For Videos:  


From top to bottom:

Keep Capture: Applies all changes and save the file.

Reject/Delete Capture: Deletes the current recording.

Send Capture by Email: Launches your default email application and creates a new email with your recording as attachment.

Send Capture by Webmail: Allows you to send your recording via Google Mail, Yahoo Mail or Mail.ru.

Save a Copy of the Capture to the Cloud: Uploads the recording to DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive. To use a service you need to have the standalone client provided by each file hoster installed on your machine.

Upload Capture to Ashampoo Webspace: Uploads the recording to Ashampoo Web and opens it in your web browser. You may share this link with others to enable them to view your recording.

Upload Capture to Facebook or Twitter (only images): Uploads the image to Facebook or Twitter. You will need to input your user name and password.

Export Capture: Saves the recording to a separate file.

Export Capture to Adobe Photoshop / PSD Format: For Images, opens the image in Adobe Photoshop, if installed. Otherwise, your image will be saved to a PSD file and placed in the "_PSD" folder that sits in your default output directory. You may select a different output directory in the program settings. For Videos, exports the video to GIF. 

Copy Capture/Path to Clipboard / Zoom In: For Images, copies the current image to the system clipboard. For Video, zooms into the image.

Print Capture / Zoom 100%: For Image, prints the current image. For Video, displays the video in its original size.



Tools Bar: The Tool bar is like paint with extra features like blurring, adding arrows, numbers, etc.These tools help you highlight and annotate your screenshots. See the section "Working with Objects" for details on how to work with objects.

               

From top to bottom:

Scroll: Left-click and hold, then, move your mouse to pan the screenshot.

Crop/Pixelate/Blur: Left-click and drag to create a selection rectangle. Click into the selection and hold, then, move your mouse to reposition the selection. Drag the border markers to adjust its size.

Eraser: Use the eraser to overwrite individual pixels either with a color or transparency.

Blur Pen: This tool allows you to blur individual pixels. You mad adjust the degree of blurriness by selecting different effects.

Marker Pen: The marker allows you to highlight individual areas like a text marker.

Highlight Area: Hold down the left mouse button and drag to create a selection rectangle. Use the border markers to adjust its size or drag within the selection to reposition it.

Flood Fill: Fills a region with transparency, a color or a color gradient.

Add Shape: Add the desired shape from the selected shapes.

Pencil: Hold down the left mouse button and draw directly into your screenshot

Stamp: Once you select a stamp it will automatically be placed in the screenshot. You may then move it like any other object.

Numbered Button, Zoomed Button: Add a numbered order to the image and place a zoomed view of the selected area.

Spotlight: Applies a spotlight effect. Left-click and drag to create a selection around the desired area.

Configure: Open program settings.

Help: Open Program help.


Image Bar:The Image Bar provides the functions to add special effects to the image like watermark, borders, shadows, etc.




From left to right:

Undo All / Reset to Original: Reverts all changes and restores the original image.
Undo: Undoes the last operation.
Redo: Redoes the last undone operation.
Zoom Out: Zooms out of the image.
Zoom 100%: Resets the zoom level to 100%.
Zoom In: Zooms into the image.
Rotate / Mirror: Rotate 90° Left
                          Rotates the image 90° left.
                          Rotate 90° Right
                          Rotates the image 90° right.
Mirror: Flips the image horizontally.
Flip: Flips the image vertically.

Apply Drop Shadow: Enables/Disables the drop shadow and allows you to adjust the intensity and direction.
Apply Border: Applies a border effect to all or individual image borders. 
Apply Fade: Applies a fade effect with a selectable direction to the image.
Apply Watermark: Text - Allows you to use text as a watermark. Use the variables to add details such as the current date.
                              Image - Allows you to insert an image as a watermark. 
                              Show © sign in the center - Displays the copyright symbol in the center of the screenshot.
                              Transparency - Adjusts the opacity of all watermarks.

Apply Mouse: Displays the captured mouse pointer.
Apply Date and Time: Inserts the current date/time as a text object.
Apply Effects: Applies an image effect, e.g. "Pencil Drawing", to the current screenshot. Watermarks, mouse pointer and time stamp objects are not affected.

Change Background Color/Flatten Layers: 
                                        Convert to 24bit - Decreases the color depth to 24bit and replaces all transparent pixels with a color.
                                        Flatten layers - Integrates all objects into the image. After that, objects will no longer be editable.

Resize Capture: Adjusts the image size.
Resize Canvas: Adjusts the size of the canvas. For example, if your image is 500x500 pixels and you use a value of 800, Snap will create a 300 pixel wide border around the image that allows you to add additional objects outside the image. If your image is 24bit, the border will be of the specified color. Otherwise, it will be transparent.

Rename Capture: Allows you to enter a new file name.

Open Help: Display the program help.

Note: These three editing tool bars are for Images only. In video editing mode, only action bar is available.


Sound interesting, there are even more to explore in it.

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Final Verdict:
Ashampoo Snap 9 has all features required in a screen capture software with in-house editing tool. Export tool can now export it to Photoshop, LightRoom and many other editing tools.Equipped with many cool tools and features, it worths what we pay for.

[tarekma7]

Thanks a lot for the informative detailed review

[scot]

Thanks for a good review.

[Askanag]

Thanks for the very full review gdant