Filed under: Software, Cool tools
Jing makes screen captures slick and easy
It's always something: just as I start to write up a Mac 101 on screen grabbing, along comes something cool, free and pretty: Jing for Mac. Built by the screen capture savants at TechSmith (developers of Windows tools Camtasia and SnagIt), Jing combines a lightweight, one-click image or motion capture tool with a free 200 MB hosting account at Screencast.com. The result is a fine way to quickly get 'casual' captures online and shared with a minimum of fuss. The motion captures are saved as .swf Flash video, which is either a bonus or a drawback depending on your perspective.The current-but-one version (labeled a 'project,' not a beta) gave me a smidge of trouble on a dual-monitor setup, but the current 1.2.4 version seems to be working better, and it also cleared up a conflict with Growl. I'll do a few captures here and get a gallery together to see how they look. Jing isn't going to replace power tools like Snapz Pro, ImageWell or Skitch, but it's pretty good at what it does. Also, as Laurie pointed out, the Jing installer comes with a handy 'autoinstall' AppleScript that copies the application and then unmounts the disk image -- particularly useful for those friends and family (you know who they are) that seem to get confused and end up running applications from a mounted .dmg instead of installing them properly.
Thanks Laurie & Dave
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Usher said 2:39PM on 7-20-2007
Very nice looking. Not as robust as skitch, but hey if it's free...
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Ed said 2:42PM on 7-20-2007
Nice idea. Perhaps they could expand it into a "live" version too, would be useful for supporting people who can't work out how to set up VNC and their router etc...
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LuminousNerd.com said 2:42PM on 7-20-2007
Hmmm. I'll have to try it out. I've been using iShowU, which is an excellent app, only $20 and blows Camtasia far and away. Still, maybe they make better software for Mac than for Windows (Microsoft-Style). Thanks for sharing :)
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Travis Bell said 2:46PM on 7-20-2007
Yes but Jing does video and man, have I been craving an app to allow nice and easy screen caps with. Click, record, upload. Nothin' to it.
Now, if Skitch were to implement video, yes, Skitch would be the winner, but I just love this video thing too damn much.
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Raghu said 2:48PM on 7-20-2007
That is SnagIt, not SnapIt. I can't live without that tool on a PC.
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Tony Bowman said 9:05PM on 7-20-2007
i've been using Jing for a few days now, and I have to say it's pretty awesome. Can't wait to see what they have in store for it, and I hope it stays free!
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Noel said 12:17AM on 7-21-2007
Agreed- In fact, let's all plead with the Skitch team to implement video capture too. Skitch has the best of both worlds... awesomely easy interface, fun to use, AND (currently) free hosting. What more could you ask for?
PLEASE SKITCH TEAM!!! CAN YOU DO VIDEO CAPTURE TOO??? PLEASE? :D
-N
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Paul said 2:48AM on 7-21-2007
Am I missing something? It seems to me that to use Jing, you need a Screencast.com account, which actually costs money. The "free" account is only for 60 days.
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willyboy said 5:41PM on 7-21-2007
You can save the swf as a mov file in QT pro...Works great! to to the above reply, you do not need a screencast account that I can see anyway... Installed it and now am making video screen captures...Easy and pretty freakin sweet!
Cheers!
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James said 7:38AM on 7-24-2007
I'm really interested in Jing but no matter how I try to access the site (through the above link in comments or going through a Google search for Ju#ing) it causes Safari to quit unexpectedly!
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James said 7:38AM on 7-24-2007
Me again, looks like it's a problem with Safari. Firefox opened it fine. Hmmm...
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DanileSmith said 3:43AM on 7-29-2007
i think different users like different product, i have uiesd snagit before, nut now i am using ACA Capture, maybe i will try this one later.
http://www.acasystems.com/en/screencapturepro/
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reddogco said 8:38AM on 7-29-2007
Jing is elegant, simple and great at what it does. Just like all TechSmith products. Techsmith's entry in the Mac arena is fantastic news.
I switched to Mac 8 months ago. The screencapture program - Snagit from TechSmith - is the only application for which I found no equivalent on the Mac.
For those who are not 100% convinced with Jing... stay tuned. There will be more to come from TechSmith.
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