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Screen Shots and Video Capture Made Easy in Mac OSX

Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro X is the perfect tool and enhancement to Apple's Mac OSX built-in finder screen capture functions. Rather than trouncing the command + shift +3/4 key combination, Snapz Pro X supplements them by adding image capture and video capture combined with a whole slew of options. Whether you are switching from a PC to Mac, or you are a long time Mac user, this is the perfect tool for you to fulfill all your screen capture needs. In this article we outline Snapz Pro X, its functionality and the practical application of a number of its features.

Making Your First Screen Shot or Video Capture

Having downloaded, installed and rebooted your Apple Mac system, Snapz Pro X should startup as you reach the desktop. Once the Snapz Pro X splash screen has dissapeared, leaving the application to run in the background, you can invoke it by using the key combination:

At this you will hear the sound of a camera shutter clicking and the Snapz Pro X interface will come to the fore. From the interface you have a selection of 4 possible capture types:

1. A complete screen shot.
2. An object shot, for example a window.
3. A selection shot of all or part of the screen.
4. A movie of a selected portion of the screen.

You are also presented with a number of basic options: firstly, where to store the picture once it is taken; secondly, whether or not top open after saving; thirdly, to offer you the option to manually set a filename for the captured image; and fourthly, whether to stick around or close out Snapz Pro X after the shot or video is captured.

Taking That Shot

having decided what exactly you wish to do, simply click the respective button. Each and every one of the panels contains similar if not identical options regarding the screen shot, the only one being entirely different of course is the "Movie Capture" option, which provides more video-centric options to the end user.

When performing an image capture of the screen, you have a selection of the following options, as discussed and shown in the image below:

• Selection Style
  • Normal - Select all you like
  • Fixed Size - To set a specific dimension set in height and width
  • Aspect Ratio - To use an aspect ratio for using on screen or for video purposes
    
    
• Color Change
  • Black & White
  • System Palette
  • Greyscale Palette
  • Windows Palette
  • Thousands
  • Millions
    
    
• Border
  • Normal, Rounded, Square Window
  • Black Hairline, Drop Shadow, Fade to Black, Fade to White
    
    
• Width & Height
  • To specify fixed dimensions for the screen shot
    
    
• File Type
  • .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .pdf, .pict, .png, .psd, .tiff
    
    
• Scale
  To increase or decrease the size of the capture, which is GREAT for zooms!
  • Increase - 400%, 300%, 200%,
  • Default - 100%
  • Decrease - 90%, 80%, 75%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 25%, 10%
    
    
• Cursor Visibility
  To switch on & off the visibility of the cursor (arrow) in the screen shot.
  
  
• Quality
  Optionally available based on file type. Sets the level of compression for the saved file.
  
  
• Watermark & Watermark Opacity
  A watermark image to be used as an overlay for the screen shot, something such as a company logo or copyright symbol can easily be used. As well as to define the opaque nature of the watermark, or rather how solid or see-thru you want it to be in the screen shot.
  
  
• Thumbnail & Thumbnail Size
  To set the image as an icon for the file and, needless to say, to specify the size of the thumbnail that is to be used.

When handling a video screen capture, a mentioned the available options are different, and are listed and displayed as follows:

• Selection Style
  • Normal - Select all you like
  • Fixed Size - To set a specific dimension set in height and width
  • Aspect Ratio - To use an aspect ratio for using on screen or for video purposes
    
    
• Camera Mode
  • Fixed Camera
  • Follow Cursor
  • Smooth Pan
    
    
• Width & Height
  • To specify fixed dimensions for the screen shot
  
  
• Frame Rate
  Reducing the frame rate reduces the size of the movie, but, at the same time, also increases the extent to which jumps in cursor movements will appear as the movie as played back.
  
  • Frames Per Second (FPS): 1-30
    
    
• Scale
  To increase or decrease the size of the capture, which is useful for pans and zooms!
  • Increase - 400%, 300%, 200%,
  • Default - 100%
  • Decrease - 90%, 80%, 75%, 70%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 30%, 25%, 10%
  
  
• Microphone Track
  To switch on and off the recording of the audio input socket on the mac.
  
  
• Mac Audio Track
  To switch on and off the recording of the audio output socket on the mac.
  
  
• Auto Mic Input Gain
  To perform an automatic adjustment of the audio input stream to bring it to a decent and audible level, or to reduce it back, should it happen to be too loud.
  
  
• Cursor Visibility
  To switch on & off the visibility of the cursor (arrow) in the screen video capture.
  
  
• Use Movie Guides
  To show you clearly the outline of the movie you are recording.
  
  
• Color Change
  • Black & White
  • System Palette
  • Greyscale Palette
  • Windows Palette
  • Thousands
  • Millions
    
    
• Smoother (but more CPU-intensive) Video Capture
  To avoid video stutter, you might wish to switch this option on. Another good means by wich to ensure that you avoid video stutter is to minimize the number of applications open when performing your video capture.

Preview! Preview! Preview!

One of the best features of Snapz Pro X is the preview ability. When the "Preview" button is pressed, Snapz Pro X will take you into a screen view that shows you exactly how the image or recording will look, feel and sound. This is exceedingly handy when you are testing settings for a possible lengthy movie. You hardly want to start regarding, get through a 10 minute slot, and then find out that the quality of the movie was less than adequate. Anyhow, as with everything it makes sense to test! test! test!

Cut!!! Tieing Up The Ends.

When you are ready to take your screen shot or start your video capture of the Mac' s screen simply click "Enter". This will sound a camera shutter, if you are taking a screen shot, and then deposit the resulting file in the location specificied in the initial screen, most likely the user "Pictures" folder; or, if you are performing a video capture, you will hear the "director" shouting "Action!". When done with the video recording, simply press the magic key combo (command + shift + 3) and the director will shout "Cut!". You will then be presented with a video encoding dialog window, in which you can set your desired preferences for saving the movie, and upon clicking "Save" you will hear the director shout "That's a wrap!" and a progress bar will appear. Alternatively, you can click "Delete" and start the process all over again.

Conclusion: A Great Addition to Any Toolkit

From a practical perspective, given the line of work Delamain IT does, Snapz Pro X has been exceedingly useful through out all the years of using Apple Macintosh computers. We have purchased upgrade after upgrae and each iteration of the software produced by Ambrosia has never ever failed to impress us. Really, at $29 for image capture and $69 for image+ video capture for a single user license Snapz Pro X is a relative steal and should be part of every Mac users application suite, working both on older PowerPC and newer Intel-based macs natively. Its utility is endless, whether doing an assigment for school or work, or just trying to make demonstrations or capture family video.

For more information about Snapz Pro X, visite the Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro X microsite.

 

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UPDATE: The new version Snapz Pro X 2.1.1 includes improved performance for audio captures, fixed bugs where some compressors would save HUGE movie files, and numerous other bug fixes and enhancements to the video, audio and screen capture application.