PicPick is an excellent easy-to-use, multi-function screenshot tool with editing capabilities
March 8, 2012 38
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Yesterday Jeremy posted about Screenshot Captor, a feature-filled screenshot tool. If you were turned off by Screenshot Captor’s learning curve but still desire an excellent screenshotting tool, then PicPick may be for you.
WHAT IT DOES AND HOW TO USE IT
PicPick is described by the developer as “an all-in-one program” for “graphic design”. Calling PicPick a graphic design tool may be stretching the truth a little bit, but the point of the developer is to say PicPick is not your average screenshot tool. In addition to being able to take screenshots, PicPick has other useful features. However, screenshotting is PicPick’s main focus so let’s talk about that first.
Screenshots
PicPick has the ability to take the following types of screenshots:
- Full-screen: This takes a screenshot of your whole screen.
- Active Window: When you select this, the program tells you to press Alt + Print Screen to take a screenshot of the program window you are in and ignore the rest.
- Window Control: This one will put a box around anything you put your mouse on and take a screenshot of that. It could be a desktop icon or an entire window.
- Scrolling Window: It will show you a box, but if there’s a window on top of what you are selecting it will select what is in the background with what is in the foreground within that same box selection.
- Region: With this tool you see cross hairs that all you need to do is draw your own box to capture part of what you want to capture.
- Fixed Region: Like region you capture part of what you want, but you have to set the pixel size to what you want to capture. If you don’t have the proper size, you can always resize it later in the program.
- Freehand: This screenshot is one of the most unique of options. Similar to Region you draw the area you want, but this time you are drawing the region like the tool is called by freehand. As with most images they are in a four corner shape. You still get that, but the image is something you’ve never seen before.
- Repeat Last Capture: This function will repeat the exact same thing you captured last. The only function it doesn’t work with is Freehand. This function will not even highlight for you to do the last capture.
Taking screenshots is as easy as right-clicking PicPick’s system tray icon, selecting the type of screenshot you want…
…and taking the screenshot. If you prefer to use hotkeys, each type of screenshot has a hotkey assigned to it (hotkeys are customizable from Program Options -> HotKeys). If you don’t like the system tray icon or hotkeys method, you can use a the floating widget Capture Bar instead:
Regardless of how you take a screenshot, once you snap a screenshot it automatically gets sent to the PicPick Editor from where you can edit the screenshot and save it. If you don’t want to send screenshots to the PicPick Editor, you can make PicPick send screenshots else where:
PicPick Editor
PicPick Editor is a neat little image editor that can used to edit screenshots you take with PicPick or any images you have saved on your computer. It is so easy to use it can make anyone into an editing wizard. The menu selections have a similar feel to Microsoft Office 2007 and very easy to maneuver with whatever you need to do with your photos.
With PicPick Editor you can do things like crop images, rotate images, add effects, adjust image properties (brightness, hue, saturation, etc.), annotate images with arrows, place arrows and text on your images, and even put comic book balloons on your images. Text and objects placement with PicPick editor is very precise thanks to grid lines, allowing your image to have a professional look.
Once you are happy with images you can save them as PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, or PDF; or you can print; or you can send to Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or a custom program you define; or you can share by via ImageShack, Facebook, Twitter, FTP, or e-mail (Outlook).
One cool thing about PicPick Editor is if you don’t like the screenshot you took, PicPick Editor allows you to re-take screenshots:
If you prefer to use hotkeys, you can continue to use PicPick screenshot hotkeys while PicPick Editor is open — it will automatically minimize when you press a screenshot hotkey.
OTHER TOOLS IN PICPICK
There are some other tools you can use in the program that will help out in editing anything you might capture or open:
- Color Picker: When using this tool you will get a magnified box that pinpoints what color you need to pick. This is one of the most helpful tools out there because you can get a better idea what color you pick without second guessing in a normal view.
- Color Palette: This is standard in many editing programs. It’s fine tuning the exact color you want to use in the editor. Usually when you use the Color Picker tool, this tool will show up afterwards so you can fine tune the color you want.
- Magnifier: A helpful tool that will show another window and you hover over areas to get a better look at what you have open at the time. This could be used to fine tune a image that was captured.
- Pixel Ruler: If you need to know the measurement in pixels, this tool will come up to help you measure the size of what you need to inspect to fine tune the image. You don’t have to have the ruler where it lands, you can move it around so you can measure anything on the screen.
- Crosshair: You will get the crosshairs to have you select something by clicking the mouse button. It will lock in to place and instead of the staring numbers of something like 523, 289 and reset the location to 0,0 which would help you measure to see how far left or right it is from say the center of the screen.
- Whiteboard: This will have you draw things if you get in the mood for a doodle. Of course if you wanted to save it just use the screen capture, and that sounds like a pretty neat idea just drawing away on your desktop for no reason.
PICPICK LIMITATIONS
PicPick can’t record video — it only does screenshots. Also, the scrolling window screenshot does not always work properly although this isn’t unique to PicPick — most screenshotting tools suffer from this. Furthermore, PicPick Editor is definitely one the simplistic side compared to other image editors. For example, PicPick Editor cannot change change the number of colors or have a digitized black signature.
That said, by far the biggest limitation to PicPick is that this program is free for personal (non-business) use only — companies have to pay to use PicPick. If a company really needed a screenshot program, there are plenty of free ones out there and even cheaper alternatives like FastStone Capture.
CONCLUSION
PicPick is a simple and easy to use – yet powerful – screenshot tool with plenty of extras with an editor and other tools. For the average and advanced user alike, PicPick has features for the picking. Simply put, PicPick is an excellent screenshotting utility.
You can grab PicPick from the links below. Take note PicPick comes bundled with Bing Toolbar — be sure to hit Decline when Bing Toolbar’s installer pops open if you don’t want to install Bing Toolbar.
Version reviewed: v3.1.2
Supported OS: Windows XP/Vista/Win7
Download size: 6.38 MB
Malware status: VirusTotal scan results (1/43)
Note: PicPick is free for personal (non-business) use only. Commercial users must purchase a license.
PicPick homepage [direct download]
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@Mike:
Some ideas are hatching in my brain.
I have knocked up a wee VB6 Form.
When it is running, it is invisible.
If it notices that the user presses the mouse Left button AND the Middle button (wheel press down), it shows the Form.
The presses do not have to be simultaneous. That is, you can hold down one, and then press the other, whilst still holding the first down.
I have not got fancy or pretty with the Form, yet.
If I click the form, it hides itself, and sends the Print button keypress instruction.
And voila, PicPick takes a snapshot.
And the good news (in XP anyway), is the focus is maintained.
EG say I had Notepad and EditPadLite windows open, and mediumized (I invented that word as a complement to Maximized, Minimized, and Mediumized).
Let us say I had Notepad with the focus (It’s Titlebar is vibrant blue).
When I do the scenario described above, Notepad regains it’s focus, prior to the snapshot.
That means two things -
- The snapshot has just Notepad as vibrant (Editpad is the dimmer inactive Blue)
- If you were desiring the active window (Alt Printscreen) that should work (not coded yet).
Are you ‘using’ PicPick’s default Hot Keys (I mean they are set in Settings)?
Are you seeing where I am going ?
Are you interested in where I am going ?
Namely -
The Form could have a list of choices (Full Screen, Active Window), and all you would have to do is -
Press Left and Middle buttons, and then click the desired action, such as Active Window.
Rob
PS We could allow one of the list to be marked as a default, and we could press Middle button and Right button, and the Form stays invisible. It just tells PicPick to do the default capture (no extra click needed)
@RobCr: Thanks! Between my having placed the program icon on my taskbar set to open up the capture bar, and the program hotkeys, I find that I’m pretty well set for getting to the program easily. And who knows–perhaps the dev will consider a switch of the menus accessed through the Notification area icon.
I will have to dream up other uses for that popup.
Perhaps it could have a wee list of clips for pasting into the active program.
Or a launch list of programs or files or URLs
Or ?
@RobCr:
Hey Rob—why not just use Fastone Capture…on the Taskbar……:-)….?
@Janetb:
Once you have been exposed to Tabs
(multiple captures sitting there, until you have the time to go edit, name, and save them) ,
you can never go back
I have been experimenting further.
I can now have my program running Invisible.
If I hold the middle mouse button for 1 second, my Form appears.
It is like the PicPick Capture Bar, but better.
When you click one of the choices it gets out of the way (goes invisible again), and tells PicPick to carry out that capture.
If you had a change of heart, just hold the middle button down for one second, and my Form goes away.
I am also building in a default, where you can set one of the captures as your favorite (most often used). There is a large button at the bottom which you can click to just use your favorite (Default). Saves you having to choose one of the multiple choices, everytime.
Would people like to have two defaults ?
What I have at the moment are a column of checkboxes to the right of the capture choices.
You click one of those, and a X appears.
The next time you bring up my form, you can click a large button at the bottom, and it uses your favorite capture instruction (your default).
I could also have a column of checkboxes down the left, and you could set another default there.
There would be two large buttons at the bottom. Click the left one, and you get the left default. Click the right one and you get the right default.
Would most of you only have one Default (one capture method you use most of the time) ?
Or do a lot of you have two capture methods that you use frequently ?
Rob
PS Mike, this will be better than PicPicks Capture Bar.
Anyone like to give it a try ?
It makes no changes to your system.
It does not need installing.
Just place it in a folder, and double click the EXE.
It will then run invisibly, until you hold the middle mouse button down for one second.
Email me at -
robhp AT iprimus DOT com DOT au
Rob, thanks, am happy as is, with being able to easily click on my taskbar icon. (And there’s always the program’s hotkeys.) Thanks, though–
I just downloaded the latest version (out of curiosity to see if my suggestion was heeded).
The download page -
http://www.nteworks.com/download/download_cn_35283431.html
Has McAfee SiteAdvisor yelling that it is a dangerous site.
If a few of you download and install, it will help me.
(It is a German thing to enjoy others suffering)
@RobCr: Would you do me a favor and post the link to the McAfee SiteAdvisor result? I am very curious as to what they say, but I did try to check the site and even the PicPick download through the web site. I got no result or a good result so I am wondering what you saw.
I stopped using SiteAdvisor when I kept getting so many false positives (like flagging Majorgeeks.com as a bad or questionable site), and I have been using Avast! Free Antivirus which includes something similar to SiteAdvisor. So to put everyone’s minds at ease I downloaded the newest version, and I scanned it using VirusTotal. The result has changed for the good because now it is 0/43.
There is something that I noticed when I installed the program is that it came bundled with the Bing Bar so instead of doing the standard installation I just did custom and removed the Bing Bar installation since I have no use for it. I hope this helps, and I don’t mind testing this out so I’m not suffering! :)
@RobCr and Robert: The update seems fine, at least per Norton Internet Security; I suspect, as Robert notes, that this is an overly-sensitive McAfee issue. I just installed the update, and it works fine as well. But sorry, Rob, no change in the menu structure, unfortunately. (By the way, I never heard back from the company after I wrote to them about the menu suggestion, as well as a proposal to add a highlighter tool to the image editor, last week.)
Here’s the changelog for the update:
v3.1.3 (2012-03-24)
- Support Windows Pen and Touch (BETA)
- Added Hebrew language
- Fixed Ruler toggle problem
- Fixed Ctrl+Tab problems in Image editor
- Added wheel click action in Image editor
- Language updates
- Minor bugs are fixed
@Mike: Thanks for saying something about the menu structure and the changelog! I feel if they do change it the version might go to something like 3.2 or 4.0 since it might be considered a major change, but I wouldn’t know how major.
@Robert:
I followed the one download link from PicPicks Download page -
http://www.nteworks.com/download/download_cn_35283431.html
And across the top was the red warning.
I just did it now, to get the exact warning, and not a warning anywhere. (It is gone).
I wonder how many celebrity oops sites, I quickly closed, that could have remained open (AH! such is life)