FastStone Capture 10.7

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Released 20th August 2024

• FastStone Capture has many features that I find useful. It uses different modifier key combinations with the PrintScrn key to capture different areas. It is only $19.95 for a lifetime license.
• FastStone Capture 5.3, which is freeware for Home Users, has all of the basic features.

Key Features • Screen Recorder • Recording Software Tutorials • The FastStone Editor

New in Version 10.7

• Added “Close Saved Tabs” (Ctrl+Q) to “Tabs” menu in the editor
• Added a drop-down history list to “Settings” -> “Auto Save” -> “Output folder”
• Increased blur effect for Spotlight
• Enhanced “Pin to Screen”
• Added “Auto-Open Draw Mode” option
• Added “Press Enter to” (Copy and Close, Save and Close, none) option
• Other improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 10.6

• You can now add Steps(1,2,3...) in “Draw Mode” of “Pin to Screen”
• Added a right click menu to title area of capture toolbar
• Enhanced “Capture Text” to process larger (more than 10,000 x 10,000 pixels) images
• Enhanced “Screen Recorder”
• Added “Set computer to sleep mode after recording is complete” option to scheduled (via a timer) screen recordings
• Added right click menu to Microphone and Webcam icons
• If mouse cursor is invisible in screen video, prevent cursor highlighter from showing
• Made other small improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 10.5

• Added “Pin to Screen.”
  This feature allows you to pin and annotate screen shots on top of other windows, like sticky notes. Benefits include:
• Reference Convenience: If you're working on a task that requires you to refer back to a screen shot frequently, having it pinned on your screen could save you from switching windows or applications constantly.
• Efficient Comparisons: When you need to compare data between applications, pinning a screen shot can make it easier to view both sets simultaneously without needing a second monitor.
• Visual Reminders: Pinned captures can serve as visual reminders for tasks that need to be completed, or information that needs attention, reducing the chance of forgetting important details.
• Added “Capture Text.”
  Instead of manually typing text from a screen shot, this feature can extract the text and make it editable instantly, saving time and effort. It requires Windows 10/11.
• Made other improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 10.4

• Enhanced Screen Recorder:
• Simplified the Start Recording window. Switch between simplified mode and detailed mode with just a single click
• Enable/disable devices like Microphone, Speaker, and Webcam directly within the Start Recording window
• Enhanced Eraser in Draw tool:
• Show a circular cursor to indicate the area to be erased.
• Right click mouse to pick a screen colour
• Scroll mouse wheel to adjust eraser size
• Enhanced the Save dialog in the Scan tool with improved functionality and user interface.
• Added "Save All (same name)" option (Ctrl+Alt+S) to the File menu in FastStone Editor, allowing you to save multiple images with the same name and a sequential number
• Many other small enhancements and bug fixes

New in Version 10.3

• Enhanced Screen Recorder
• Audio indicator is displayed on the control bar during screen recording
• In video editor, auto-preserve annotation objects for re-editing after editor is closed
• Enhanced Draw tool
• Increased maximum font size of text objects to 200 pt
• Text input box is resizable
• Image and Emoji objects can be flipped and rotated (left/right)
• Added 3D arrows to Emoji list
• Enhanced window border capturing on Windows 10/11. Now it is possible to:
• Use Ctrl+Click to select and open multiple recent files
• Add MS Paint as an external editor on Windows 11
• Made other improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 10.2

• Fixed a bug that caused audio noise in Screen Recorder

New in Version 10.1

• Added a Timer option to Screen Recorder. Users can schedule recordings by specifying Start/End times
• Added "Select focus area" option to Screen Focus tool. Users can press Ctrl+Shift to select screen area to focus on
• Added support for WebP format
• Made other improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 10.0

• Enhanced Screen Recorder:
• Added Webcam option to include webcam in recordings
• Added “Microphone Settings” and “Webcam Settings”
• Added “Extract Audio ...” menu with support for M4A and MP3
• Added “Press Esc to close main window” to Options -> Hotkeys
• Added “Auto-boost volume when recording speakers” to Options -> Audio
• Removed requirement for a physical microphone when recording speakers
• Added “Acquire Images from Scanner” to built-in editor
• Made other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.9

• Use MP4 as the default output format for Screen Recorder on Windows 10/11
• Added “Convert to MP4” to Screen Recorder. You can use it to convert or resize video files (WMV and MP4) using the new MP4 format
• Now Screen Recorder can detect and recover a screen recording from an unexpected Windows shutdown or restart
• Enhanced the built-in video editor:
• Added a Title Page tool which allows you to insert title pages anywhere in the video clip
• Added Emoji to the Draw tool
• To trim a video clip, simply click and drag from the beginning or end of the timeline
• In Screen Recorder's Options -> Notifications tab, you can customize the colour and size of the control bar
• Fixed a position error in zoom mode of Draw tool
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.8

• Enhanced Draw tool
• Zoom In / Out in Draw tool from 1% to 5000%
• Double click on an emoji image to popup the emoji list
• Enhanced Custom Scroll Mode of Capture Scrolling Window. Now you can capture any part of a scrolling window even without a vertical scroll bar
• Added option “If draw objects exist, auto-save a copy in FSC format for re-editing” to Settings -> Editor
• Added Save As (Alt+S) command to Editor
• The Save (Ctrl+S) command in Editor only prompts for a file name when necessary (i.e. the image does not have a file name)
• The Save All (Ctrl+Shift+S) command in Editor only asks for confirmation once to save all the files automatically
• In Editor, Added Statistics Command to the right click menu on selections. This command calculates the total number of pixels and unique colours within the selected area
• In Resize tool, added shortcuts for 25% (Ctrl+1), 50% (Ctrl+2), 75% (Ctrl+3) and 200% (Ctrl+4)
• Enhanced Screen Ruler
• Added Protractor
• Screen Ruler can be used in Editor mode and Draw mode by launching it from tray icon menu
• When capturing a rectangular or freehand region, press Ctrl+Z to re-select or undo previous step. In Editor, press Ctrl+Z to undo previous step in "Freehand 2" selection mode
• Added Auto Date Time Stamp to the list of Output Options. In Editor, you can add a date time stamp to the image by pressing J key
• Most icons on capture toolbar are customisable (on/off) in Settings -> Toolbar
• Enhanced Screen Recorder:
• When recording full screen, the yellow control bar is always visible but not recorded in the video
• Used icons instead of a drop-down list for selecting audio inputs (microphone and speaker)
• Added a popup menu to the Edit button to Open / Open Last File Location / Play Last File
• Many other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.7

• Introduced a new image format called FastStone Capture format (*.fsc). This loss-less format preserves annotation objects together with image data for future re-editing
• Added “Filled Polygon” and “Emoji” to the Draw tool
• Improved reliability and performance of “Capture Scrolling Window”
• Added Language option to the Settings
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.6

• Added option “Show Button Captions” to the internal editor to show/hide captions on the toolbar. This option can be accessed under the Settings menu of the editor or by right-clicking on the editor's toolbar
• Added capability of “right-click to pick screen colour” to all colour boxes in the Draw tool
• Added "Rename (F2)" to:
• The internal editor
• The “Combine images into a single image file” tool
• The “Convert images into a single PDF file” tool
• The Print dialog
• Enhanced multi-language support
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.5

• Translated user interface into 12 languages including Bulgarian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian
• Improved reliability and performance of "Capture Scrolling Window"
• Enhanced "Fill with Color" in Draw tool. Now you can select a screen color by right-clicking
• Enhanced Screen Color Picker
• Enhanced Screen Recorder:
• Auto detect and switch to active speaker when recording speaker
• Added confirmation window when discarding current recording
• Fixed a bug that fails to start recording on external monitors
• Fixed a bug that fails to cut videos
• Improved support for 4K monitors
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.4

• Added OneNote as an output option
• Added 3 options to Editor tab of Settings:
• “Set default tool in Draw”
• “Highlight active tab”
• “Use workspaces to group tabs.” This option allows you to organize and group captured images (tabs) in multiple workspaces. Each workspace remembers its last-used folder and works like a separate instance of FastStone Editor
• Added “Stay on Screen” and “Minimize to System Tray” options to “Run when Windows starts”
• Added “Send to New Tab” (Alt+C) to duplicate the current tab as a new tab
• Added a count down text box to “Delay before Capture”
• Added Apply button to Settings window
• Added 2 icons (left/right clicks) to “Insert Mouse Pointer” in Draw tool
• Enhanced “Save As” and “Open” dialogs:
• Added “Hold Alt key to peek behind this window” option to “Save As” dialog
• Resizable
• Size and position are kept for next use
• Added “Delay before showing” option (click […] in Toolbar tab of Settings) for the hidden toolbar
• Added preview option to “Spotlight” effect
• Added a right-click menu to “Capture Fixed-Size Region”
• Added Contrast and Gamma auto-adjustment to “Acquire Images from Scanner.”
  Enhanced the De-skew algorithm
• Added tips for the toolbar buttons of FastStone Editor
• In Draw tool, press Tab/Shift+Tab to cycle through drawing tools
• Enhanced “Screen Colour Picker.” After picking a screen colour, click the “New” colour box to fine tune the colour
• Enhanced Print dialog. Now you can:
• Print multiple images in batch mode
• Print file name in the header area
• Enhanced Edge/Watermark. Watermark image is resizable
• Enhanced “Make Background Transparent” (Ctrl+T) by adding 3 options: Preview, Tolerance, and Anti-aliased
• Enhanced “Fill with Colour” in Draw tool by adding 2 options: Tolerance and Transparent Fill
• Optimised loading speed of Draw tool. Now it re-opens much faster
• Many other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.3

• Enhanced Draw tools
• Added Indent option to Highlighter
• Added Shape option to Line Highlighter
• Added Bracket tool
• Added Blur tool
• Improved image quality of Magnifier
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.2

• Enhanced Draw tools
• Added a Border option to Highlighter
• Added a Highlight option to Magnifier
• Added left/right click option when Mouse Pointer inserted
• Smoother Pencil and enhanced L-Line
• Draw tools load faster
• Added Classic Skin option to Editor under its Settings menu
• Added a new method (by entering diagonal length of screen) to calibrate Screen Ruler
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.1

• Added a Clone tool (shortcut c) to the internal editor
• Added more preset colours for text boxes in Draw
• During rectangular region capture, you can switch corners by pressing Tab key
• Improved support for touch screens and high-resolution screens
• Improved compatibility with various scanners
• Improved number and letter stamps
• Optimised Window / Object capture
• Ctrl+S to open the Save dialog, press Ctrl+S again to confirm
• Many other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 9.0

• Added "Auto Screen Capture", which automatically and repeatedly captures the screen at user-specified time intervals
• Added "Auto-Send to Clipboard" option to the right click menu in Screen Ruler. This option sends measurements to Clipboard automatically
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 8.9

• Added “To Draw (Skip Editor)” as a new output destination option
• Added “Print” button to Draw tool
• Enhanced Window/Object Capture function on Windows 10
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 8.8

Enhanced Draw Tool:

• Oval Text Box: as well as rectangular text boxes
• Magnifier Tool: Zoom in 150, 200, or 250% into any area of the screen shot.
• Highlighter: Use a Rectangle, a Rounded Rectangle, or an Oval for highlighting areas.
• Preset Colours: Select from a list of preset colours for all annotation objects. One can also select from a dialog or pick any colour from the screen shot while the colour dialog is open using the colour-picker tool. In the screen shot on the right I used this to match the colours of the Alphabetic Labels to the three different shapes of highlighting.
• Delay Timer: A delay timer can be used to capture drop-down or pop-up menus before they disappear.
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 8.7

Enhanced Draw tool:

• Other minor improvements and bug fixes
• Draw curved text. Use the A icon to create Artistic Text
• Insert text along a curved line (Right-click on the line and select "Insert Text")
• Draw fancy lines (10 styles)
• Apply an Outline effect to lines, rectangles and ellipses
• Added an option (Use @ in file name template) to generate random characters (0-9,a-z,A-Z) in file names. See "File Name" tab in the Settings
• Help tips available in the Annotation Editor
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 8.6

• Added an audio indicator to Screen Recorder
• Added resizing handles to the "Acquire Images from Scanner" tool
• Standard sizes for fixed-size region are customisable
• Converts multi-page TIFF file to PDF file
• Improved support for 4K monitors
• Other improvements and bug fixes

New in Version 8.5

• Enhanced rendering quality of annotations in Draw tool
• Added 4 different dash styles to lines in Draw tool
• Added 4 resizing handles to the corners of captured images
• Added a sub-menu under the Open button in Editor for fast access to recent files
• Optimized video recorder for better CPU utilization
• Improved support for high-resolution monitors
• Other improvements and bug fixes

Key Features

• Simple Installation and Setup
• Print Screen + modifier keys to capture different regions
• All shortcuts are user-definable
• Touch screen support
• The Escape key cancels screen capture
• System tray icon for easy access to settings
• It doesn’t use the Windows clipboard unless you want it to
• Allows you to resize or move the capture area, or try again
• Saves the captured image as BMP GIF PCX PNG JPG TIF, TGA or PDF
• Excellent compression of PNG images, with filters to suit different image types
• Acquire Images from Scanner. It supports batch scanning to PDF, TIFF, JPEG and PNG. Rotate to any angle, crop, deskew, annotate and save scans directly.
• Capture Fixed-Size Region
• Repeat Last Capture
• Very easy to use and configure
• Draw on the screen capture — shapes, lines, arrows, text boxes
• Capture a scrolling web page as a single image. Compatible with the latest version of popular web browsers: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari.
• Add date and time stamps to the captured image.
• A Colour picker
• A Screen Magnifier
• A Screen Ruler
• A screen-recorder that includes pause and resume
• A help file is included, but you may never need it
• Edit captures in external editors
• No nag screens: even the splash screen can be hidden.

Capture Settings

The capture tab of the settings dialog offers options for launching FastStone on Windows startup, automatically minimising to the Windows System Tray is the most convenient and the least intrusive.

Note: This is an Animated PNG image

Hotkeys

The default hot keys are sensible and not hard to remember. Mostly I use Ctrl+ PrintScreen or Alt+PrintScreen. F12 will bring up the options dialog when it is the active application. Here you can change the shortcuts to use any modifier keys with PrintScreen. If you want to capture FastStone’s own dialogs, disable the PrintScreen by pressing the spacebar to set “None” as the shortcut to capture the active window. Then the Windows clipboard contents can be pasted into any graphics application for editing.

Filename

The filename pattern can be defined for use when saving multiple captures to file, which can also be automatic without showing the FastStone editor for each screen capture. Filename patterns can be saved too, handy when you wish to resume work on a task you started some time ago. If you write program tutorials you will appreciate these sophisticated file naming options.

Auto Save

Choose the default directory for saving files. Choose a photo-editor for the command to open in an external application. Open the output folder or copy to the Windows clipboard (normally, screen capture does not overwrite the Windows clipboard).

FTP

Capture images can also be uploaded directly to a server. Enter your upload details and password to automate the process without opening an FTP program.

Rotate

From the edit menu, rotate the capture left or right, flip it horizontally or vertically, or rotate it to any angle using the slider.

Effects

From the effects menu, apply a drop shadow, blur, reflection, oil-painting, sketch, sepia, negative, or greyscale. Blur a selected part of the capture to hide private details.

Colour-Picker

The Screen Colour Picker displays the colour of the selected pixel in a window with colour values, etc. Clicking on a pixel will open a dialog where the colour values can be copied to the clipboard as Red, Green, Blue values, or as Hex, or Decimal values. Or it can be set to copy any one of those three values immediately without showing the dialog.

Screen Magnifier

The Screen Magnifier can be used to zoom in to view details. When capturing a rectangular or freehand area of the screen it enables precise positioning. The magnifier’s zoom factor, shape, size, and negative mode can be changed in the settings dialog.

Editor

The Close button on the FastStone editor Window can be set to close the program or just minimize it to the system tray. By default, the capture editor will close as soon as you save the capture as a file, but you can have it remain open to continue working. FastStone’s capture editor is a mini graphics editor in its own right and files can be opened in it from Windows Explorer or from its own File menu.

System Tray Icon

Left-click the system tray icon to display the toolbar. Click to select a capture area, or change options. Right-click the system tray icon and select an option from the menu.

Image Save Options

When you save an image from FastStone Capture (I always use PNG because it is lossless), click on the Options button to open the save options dialog.

The default settings seem to be optimised for saving screen shots of dialog boxes, but if you’re saving photo-realistic images, you may get much better results by using a filter. Click on the Filter drop down to try the Paeth filter. To optimise file sizes for other images, try setting the compression level to Max (the default level is 6). The dialog shows what the New file size will be so that you can immediately tell if the choice was a good one for that image. The dialog may take some time to redraw the image previews if you’re taking screen shots of large, photo-realistic images. The wait is worthwhile, however. A 4 Mbyte image saved without filtering may compress to not much more than 2 Mbytes with filtering. Results tend to be better than IrfanView.

Screen Recorder

Version 6.3 or later includes an option to record screen activity and sound and to save it in a video file. Capture the entire screen, a window, or a rectangular area.

To stop recording, press the F11 key to save the result as a Windows Media Video file. This feature is ideal for making tutorials on how to use computer software.

Version 7.1 includes a pause and resume option, which is very useful for keeping videos short when recording Software tutorials.

Version 7.2 includes an option to edit videos, so that annotations can be added after recording the video. Stop the video at any frame and use the Draw tools to add arrows, text, highlighting etc., to explain the video.

Version 7.3 added options to remove unwanted sections from a screen video, save a video frame to a file or copy it to the clipboard, drag and drop a video file onto the screen recorder's panel to open it in the video editor.

Options dialog

The options dialog allows the user to:

• Set frame rate and quality
• Record the mouse pointer
• Change the volume
• Set the hot key to stop
• Set the output file name
• Choose the action to perform after recording: Open the containing folder, Play the video, Show the “Send E-mail” dialog, or Edit the Video, to add text, lines, highlighting, etc., using FastStone’s drawing tools, include a Title clip, or cut unwanted sections.

Recording Software Tutorials

1. Choose the area of the screen to be recorded: Window/Object, Rectangular Area, Fullscreen Without Taskbar, Fullscreen, or Repeat Last Area. I recommend recording software tutorials in a window at 1024 x 768, which most users will be able to view. The small window also reduces the size of the recorded video substantially if you have a high resolution monitor. The video can be maximised in Windows Media Player at playback time to enlarge it.
2. Optionally, include a Title clip before the video. Add a description, author, copyright details, etc.
3. Click on Start to begin recording. Make sure that dialogs and toolbars are arranged as you want them to be during the video to minimise distractions caused by moving or resizing dialogs.
4. Use the software to open menus and dialogs, etc., and perform the functions that you wish to illustrate and explain in the tutorial.
5. Press the Ctrl F11 shortcut to end recording and open the video for editing (if that is the option set in the Recorder options dialog).
6. In the video editor, draw text objects, arrows, etc., just like in the FastStone Editor, to explain what you are doing in the video. By default these annotations will only stay on screen for five seconds. Drag the edge of the green highlight on the Timeline to extend the delay, or move the green highlight to reposition the start and end.
7. Mark any unwanted sections for deletion. Moving and resizing the cross-hatched marked sections in the timeline as for the text objects.
8. Save the edited video. Section marked to be cut will not be included in the export, and text objects will be merged with the recording.
9. If you need to edit the video further, drag and drop it onto the Screen Recorder dialog.

Some examples of my recorded tutorials can be found on the FontCreator Review Page.

The FastStone Editor

This is where FastStone excels. You can crop, zoom, pan, print, and save the capture in numerous formats, but before you do that you can also draw on the captured image. You don’t need to open screen captures in a photo-editor to add text labels, arrows, etc. You can do it all in FastStone when you capture the image. The screen capture below shows a textured background on top of which I have added text boxes, highlighting, shapes, an image, arrows, lines, stepped labels, and icons.

Tips

1. To restore the default hot keys, click the Reset button on the Hotkeys tab of the Settings dialog. The defaults will be restored.
2. Leave the PrintScreen key unassigned if you want to capture the whole screen including FastStone dialogs, or if you sometimes want to use IrfanView before saving images.
3. Open saved images in the FastStone Editor to add annotations later.

Page last updated on 29 August 2024