15-Minute Reviews :: TNT Screen Capture v2.1.0b383

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is TNT Screen Capture version 2.1.0 build 393 by EC Software -

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Create dazzling graphics on the fly with TNT Screen Capture! While you capture it, TNT enhances your screen shot and applies a professional, photorealistic touch.

And despite its many features, it is so simple to use that you can’t do wrong. 3 different screen capture modes cover everything from application interfaces to popup menus. What makes TNT stand out from the myriads of capture tools available, is the quality of the built-in image filters and add-ons. TNT Screen Capture is a very versatile tool, helpful in many situations. What you can do with this software is only limited by your own imagination.”

Quick Pros

• Interface fairly easy to run but does feel awkward sometimes
• Wizard-style help interesting twist for using helpfile
• Way to select window areas intuitive and not limiting
• Has some interesting shapes and fades, but could use more
• Built-in painting tools including caption boxes
• Image-altering features such as 3D perspective, resize and flip/rotate

Quick Cons

• No full-screen, scrollbox or other common capture modes
• Many settings have to be preset before taking screenshot
• Can’t leave background truly transparent
• Bug that doesn’t change the save settings until next save

Expansion

While I’ve been running with Gadwin PrintScreen generally for much of my printscreen needs, resorting to Screen Grab! for my website captures; I’ve tested many more but none have really made it into my bag of tools.

First off, the interface is easy to get around for the most part. The main capture settings are on the left of the screen; The working area where the screenshots come in is in the center, and the small paint palette is on the right. I found that the working area sometimes got away on me; The fact that if you take a screenshow of a window, and then it sits inside a windows-styled window wasn’t too bad; It was when I had a couple screenshots on the go that I started to get lost, though wasn’t too bad. The layout is good; Keeping the common options front and center in the main window, and putting less common settings in the menus. A cool part of this application is the unique wizard-style help setup that will even launch your first screenshot as well as congratulate you when you’ve completed it, all from a Windows helpfile. (Good advertizing for their Help & Manual product.)

Taking your first screenshot is rather easy. You can either click the button in the main window or hit Print Screen key (Which will hide the application’s window) and bring into effect the capture mode you chose; You can also use the PrintScreen button when the application is minimized as well with your preset settings. If you use the button in the main application, each mode will bring up a quick help on the process, though all modes it is very straight forward to set up. My favorite part of this application is how it handles capturing a window or menu. When you start a window screen capture, it will display a red box around the area your mouse is over. There are tons of selection options too; I found that I could mouse over almost anything using the Windows interface to get a specific item; Pop-up menus; drop-down menus; main window portion or entire window; Task bar or system tray icons and much more. The fact that the little red box has a helpful reminder what key you need to hit in combination. I do feel that the screen capture modes could expand further to support other capture options; The one I specifically miss is the full screen option, though there are others that I might use that I’ve seen in other applications and aren’t available here such as the ability to capture the entire contents of a scrollbox (Useful for a web browser).

There are a lot of interesting features in this application. The image shapes and fade outs are quite useful, though I did hope for a little more selection, such as adding a ‘picture frame’ to a screenshot or customizable fades, all-in-all most of the settings here would be the most common. The built-in painting and captioning tools are very handy for making modifications, adding commentary (Using what is called a ‘Callout’ box) and much more. Another interesting set of functions is what is found in the Image menu. Resizing; Flipping and rotating; Color options; Effects and 3D perspective. 3D perspective is likely my favorite feature here; You can make a screenshot look really cool by making it look like a 3D object, reflection and all.

While there are a lot of capture settings, one thing I did wish was different is that many of the options could be applied after the screen capture, such as choosing to remove the cursor after, dynamically change the image shape and fade and whether each item has shadows. As it stands, all the options that are seen in the main window on the left have to be set correctly before the screen capture; If you don’t get the settings right the first time, you have to take another entire screenshot. This application has the power for supporting objects (Seen with the painting tools)—Why not extend that to this part of the application as well.

Another concern I did have is that I did not find true transparency. While not an issue with the rectangle and the shadows, it does affect the other shapes and all of the fades. I would rather have the application be able to do alpha transparencies for when saving to PNG format rather than having to choose a background color. While most of the time this is likely not to be an issue (White will be the common usage and not be visible at all) – If I were to embed the picture on a non-white background, it will be clearly visible that it doesn’t use true transparency.

One bug I did find was with the save dialog: If I change the format I wish to save as, the options box does not change until the next time I open the save dialog box. A bit of an annoyance for sure, but not a show-stopper, especially if you don’t change often (or at all.

Final Verdict

All-in-all this application works well and would suit my needs very well. Besides the small bug and other ‘feature’ lacking issues, the application is good. While free, this application would make a great addition to someone’s toolbox. As for paying $44.90, I feel that for many individuals or even some professionals, $44.90 for a tool like this likely is too steep of a price tag and may end up being passed up for cheaper (or free) alternatives, though if someone does take a lot of screenshots, it still may be a good deal.

Posted by BladedThoth on Friday, August 17, 2007