Capture Your Screen

Learn how to take your first capture with Snagit.

This topic provides a brief introduction to help you take your first capture with Snagit. For more in-depth information about how to capture a screenshot or video of anything on your screen, see the following topics:

Open the Capture Window

The Capture window provides access to all Snagit capture settings. To open the Snagit Capture window:

On Windows, click the Snagit icon in the taskbar or notifications area.
On Mac, click the icon in the menu bar.
In Snagit Editor, click the Capture button.

Capture Window Overview

In the Capture window, select the capture type and settings to capture anything on the screen.

All-in-One tab
Quickly capture an image, video, or scrolling capture with basic capture settings. See Take Your First Capture.

Image tab
Customize the settings to take a screenshot. Automatically add effects, share directly to a destination, and more. See Capture an Image.

Video tab
Customize the settings to record video. Set up audio, webcam options, and cursor effects. See Record a Video with Snagit.

Presets
Save frequently-used capture settings and assign keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow. Click Presets to open the list of presets. See Save Capture Settings as Presets.

Capture settings
Adjust basic settings on the All-in-One tab, or customize more specific settings on the Image or Video tab, to set up the exact capture you want. See Basic Capture Settings.

Capture button
Click the Capture button to start a capture with the settings selected on the current tab.

Take Your First Capture

Open the application or window you want to capture on the screen.
In the Capture window, click the All-in-One tab and click the Capture button or press Print Screen (Windows) or Control+Shift+C (Mac).
The orange crosshairs appear. Click and drag on the screen to select the area to capture.
The All-in-One toolbar appears.
Select an option:
- To capture an image, click the Image Capture button.
- To capture a video, click the Video Capture button. Select the recording options and click the Record button. See Record a Video with Snagit.
- To capture a scrolling area, click the Scrolling Capture button. See Capture a Scrolling Area.

The capture opens in the Snagit Editor where you can preview, edit, and share the capture.

Tip: Save time with the global capture hotkey and presets.

The global capture hotkey (Print Screen for Windows or Control+Shift+C for Mac) starts a new capture with the current settings in the Capture window. These are typically saved from your most recent capture. To edit capture settings, open the Capture window.

To set different keyboard shortcuts for your most common captures, see Save Capture Settings as Presets.

Basic Capture Settings

The All-in-One tab includes basic capture settings. Click the or icon in the middle of the Capture Window to expand or collapse the settings.

Option	Description
Selection Windows: Mac:	Select the capture area. Options include: Region: Click and drag crosshairs on the screen to manually select the area to capture. Window (Windows only): Capture a specific window. Fullscreen: Capture your entire display.
Share Windows: Mac:	Automatically send the image to a specific app or save to a specific file destination. If the Preview in Editor option is enabled, you must click the Finish button in Snagit Editor to share the capture. If the Preview in Editor option is disabled, the capture is sent directly to the selected destination. To learn more about available share destinations, see Share Captures.
Preview in Editor	Open the capture in Snagit Editor to preview, edit, and share the image or video. Disable this option to prevent Editor from opening after the capture.
Copy to Clipboard	Copy the capture to the clipboard to quickly paste into another program or location after capture.
Capture Cursor	Include the cursor in the capture. For image captures, the cursor is captured as a vector image that can be moved, resized, or deleted from the image.
5 Second Delay	Delay the start of the capture 5 seconds to allow for additional setup for items such as dropdown menus. After clicking the Capture button, a countdown appears on the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Note: This tutorial is for Snagit version 2025. Previous versions may look or function differently.

To check your version, select Help menu (Windows) or Snagit menu (Mac) > About Snagit.
If you have a previous version of Snagit, see tutorials for previous versions.
For unexpected behavior with Snagit, visit the TechSmith Help Center.

All Snagit Tutorials