TechSmith Capture (formerly Jing for Windows) 2.1.4.608

Overview

Jing is an app that blurs the line between taking stills of the screen and recording it. Jing started as a freeware project that boasted basic screen recordings and capturing but has beautifully grown into one of the best tools and capture distribution systems out there. Moreover, it also offers a premium component. If you subscribe to the pro version, you will be able to record from your webcam. Pretty cool, isn’t it? Let’s analyze the features of Jing in this quick article!

Installation

A very easy to install tool, Jing sorts a setup kit that revolves around 6 MB in size. As a result, the installation process was smooth and fast. Just follow the instructions in the setup wizard and you shall not encounter any sort of problems. It is important to know, however, that you need to have the Microsoft .NET Framework in order for Jing to run on your system. If it is absent, install it and be patient as the installation takes several minutes to complete. Jing doesn’t come with spyware/adware or other programs and you should be happy to find out that it supports all of the available versions of Windows operating system.

Interface

After Jing is installed, Jing “sun”, a small yellow ball, will float to the top of the screen. Every time you want to start a screencast or a capture, you must hover over it. If you don’t like its default location, you can move it with relative ease, or even hide it by using a hotkey combination. Jing is a very attractive screen capture tool. By taking a simple approach to capturing, Jing is an easy to use program that boasts an intuitive and clear interface.

Pros

Jing is a tool that offers screen capture, recording and sharing capabilities. To begin a capture, just click the “+” sign and define your capture area by clicking and dragging the crosshairs. You can capture screens in both 4:3 (press CTRL) and 16:9 (by using SHIFT) formats. Then, it’s just a simple matter of choice – the filmstrip icon for recording a video, or the computer screen icon for a still. It’s really simple and novice users will have no problems whatsoever using Jing.

The second half of Jing resides in its sharing and editing capabilities. As for the editing of your captures, don’t expect anything very advanced, as you will only be able to perform basic editing tasks, such as drawing some arrows. Regarding the sharing options, you have a few choices. You can create a Screencast.com account (it is operated by Jing’s publisher), or upload your capture/video onto an FTP site or Flickr. Support for YouTube is included for premium users. 

Cons

The free version of Jing only records for 5 minutes and the output is SWF.

Alternatives

Let’s look at some alternative tools for Jing. These include the following: Shutter, Greenshot, Snipping Tool, PicPick and many more screen capture tools.

Conclusion

All in all, Jing is a good solution for all your screencasting needs but consider getting the premium version as it is more advanced and offers much more features.