Best Free Screenshot Software for Windows

Initially, creating screenshots seems to be quite a simple task – we all have a Print Screen button on our keyboards for that. However, for those who capture screens frequently this is not quite a convenient option. When you create a screenshot using the Print Screen button, either the full screen or an active window area is saved to your clipboard. If you want to save the selected area as an image file or be able to edit it, you’ll need to paste it into a decent photo editor. If you need to share it quickly by link, you’ll have to first upload it to a cloud server and then the receiver has to download it as a file. To make the process of creating, editing and sharing screenshots easier and faster, there are many screenshot creators you can use. We reviewed the best free screenshot software for Windows so that you can save time on endless searches for a perfect program to fulfil this task.

Icecream Screen Recorder
Icecream Screen Recorder is a Swiss Army knife among the free screenshot software for Windows. Screenshots can be saved either as PNG or as JPG files. Screenshot capturing can be started by pressing hotkey combinations which you can adjust according to your preferences. Creating screenshots is proceeded in a super easy way – hit the “Screenshot” button to start. The tool for selecting the screenshot area appears and you can use it to manually create the frames of the future image. As soon as the zone is selected, the screenshot panel is opened. Here you can type in the required values for the width and height of the screenshot and choose one of the offered preset screenshot resolutions including Full Screen mode. In addition to that, the highlighted area of the future screenshot can be dragged over the screen of your computer and left in the required place. Press the “Draw” to open the drawing panel of Icecream Screen Recorder and add custom drawings, rectangles, arrows and text. Each graphic element can be one of the offered 32 colors and 3 of the offered thickness levels. When everything within the screenshot looks good, press the “Screenshot” button on the screenshot panel to save the image in PNG or JPG format. Alternatively, press the “Copy” button to copy it to the clipboard or the “URL” button to upload the screenshot by URL to Icecream Apps’ server. In the latter case your screenshot will be available through its unique permanent link.

Icecream Screen Recorder is a great and powerful screenshot software with a modern, user-friendly interface available in over 25 languages. Creating screenshots is simple and fast with the help of this software. You can save images in different formats, add drawings, customize the screenshot area and its position, copy images to the clipboard and upload them by URL to Icecream Apps’ server for easy sharing.

Gyazo
Gyazo is an easy-to-use screenshot tool that is mainly useful for fast screenshot sharing. You get a Gyazo icon in the task bar which you then right click and select the “Capture Image” option from a drop down menu (as an alternative you can use the Ctrl+Shift+C hotkey combination). Right after that, a screenshot area selection tool appears. Select the area to be captured and release the tool. The created screenshot will be automatically opened in the new tab of your default browser. From here you can copy the image to the clipboard or share the link with the screenshot using its URL, get the code to embed it or share on Facebook or Twitter. Adding comments below the screenshot is also available. All your created screenshots are available through the “My Images…” option of the drop down menu of the program, which is highly convenient.

Gyazo is an awesome tool for fast and easy screenshot sharing. However, there is no screenshot size adjustment before you create a picture (you can see the width and height of a screenshot, but you can’t type in the needed values or drag the screenshot area over the screen). Furthermore, you can’t add drawing or text to the screenshot.

Screenshot Captor
Screenshot Captor is a great screenshot software with plenty of useful features. There are 7 screenshot taking modes offered: Full screen, Active window, Selected region, Fixed size region, Repetition of last screenshot’s size and position, Windows object or scrolling window, and Image from scanner and Webcam. As soon as a screenshot is created according to the selected mode you will see a preview window with buttons for further actions. You can discard it, save it as a PNG image, print it, save it to clipboard, and send it via email or other programs that support image sharing on your computer (for example, messengers, TeamViewer and others). The settings of Screenshot Captor offer plenty of options to configure. An in-built screenshot uploader is available but should be customized manually.

Screenshot Captor is a really useful tool for creating screenshots. The things we’d like to improve a bit are its interface (which is user-friendly but not that nice looking and modern) and the ability to add custom drawings and text to the created pictures.

Jing
The thing that makes Jing different from all the reviewed programs is that you can’t use Jing without obtaining an account with them. It is said that this is needed to have access to the cloud storage, however neither Icecream Screen Recorder nor Gyazo require an extra account. So for this, Jing receives a minus from us. As for the rest, using it is super easy – you manually select the required area, which you can drag all over the screen, and press the “Capture image” button to proceed to the working window of the image. Here you can add arrows, text and frames of different colors and highlight certain areas. The finished picture can be shared via the cloud account, saved as a PNG file or copied to clipboard.

As well as the need to create an account, you also can’t manually type in the right width and height values for the screenshot. Plus the number of offered graphic elements to be added to the screenshot could be higher. As for the rest, Jing is a great screenshot software.

Greenshot
Greenshot is a pretty convenient screenshot creator which deserves a place here mainly thanks to its in-built screenshot editor and multiple output formats. You can draw rectangles, ellipses, lines, arrows, and custom lines, and add text and speech bubbles. Along with that you can highlight certain areas of a screenshot, blur selected regions, and add effects to the picture. Cropping, rotating and resizing the images is also available in this in-built editor. Another remarkable feature of this software is the impressive selection of output screenshot formats. It supports saving images in BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIFF formats as well as their own format, GREENSHOT.

Greenshot is an awesome software for those who want total control over the screenshots they have created. You can edit the images with a huge number of tools and save them in a wide range of formats.

Each reviewed screenshot software has its own significant features. Some are great for uploading images quickly, others for quality screenshot editing. Compare them with the help of our review and pick the one that will satisfy all your requirements when creating screenshots.