Jing: Desktop Capture – Photo & Video

Luis Sandoval — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:28:51 +0000

Not that long ago I wrote a review for Firefox’s Fireshot, and downloadable plug-in for the Fire fox browser. It’s a great tool while surfing online to capture and save items that interest you, but most effective with sharing with others. Jing is similar in that it will do screen captures, but this capture software lies outside the Firefox browser, so you can capture items from your desktop.

Jing was created by TechSmith, creators of SnagIt and Camtasia. I found the name a little awkward, but the application proved it’s worthiness by being able to capture screen shots AND video from your computer, and even share them directly from the same interface with little to no problems at all.

To start off Jing installs and appears as a yellow half circle at the top of your screen, this is your interface. The options show up as tentacled spheres extending from the main half circle. Whether you’re surfing the net, trying to record motions on your computer, or remember how to do something, Jing will capture it. A grid will appear with an x&y axis being where your pointer is. Once you’ve selected a start point you simply drag and highlight the area you want captured. It’s that easy, and you’ll always know what you’ve captured. Once you’ve made your selection, you have editing options to the side that will allow you to markup your capture similar to the tools that FireShot offers with their app.

Capturing video is just as easy, only you don’t get a grid. What you do see is a play/pause button and the time elapsing. You can mute volume if need be, but the more you record, the longer it will take to share with others, due to file size.

Overall Jing was a decent application with it’s uses. If you don’t already like the settings, too bad, because changing settings is pretty sparse when it comes to the program. Other than making selections on the functions you want Jing to have, there is not much altering you can do.

Jing offers online storage, and in celebration of their one year birthday, they are now offering up to 2 GB of storage plus 2 GB of transfer. Premium versions of the application will be coming soon!

Crenk » Computer software

Jing: Desktop Capture – Photo & Video