Screenshots

[Nighted]

FastStone Capture is brilliant. Recently he added the ability to add numbered buttons, a feature I have long desired.

No one mentioned Cropper. Cropper creates a transparent area that you can move and resize. It can output to multiple formats including avi and gif.

[Borut]

Sorry for a slight OT, but this is my question:

I would like to capture a video as it is being played on screen (on a flash area in a web browser). Is this possible with some tool? Any experience with such a task?

Thank you for any hint!

[Regmos]

Any experience with such a task?

My personal favorittes.

Camtasia Studio Very good but also very expensive. They offer a 30 day fully functional trial.

Snagit Very good and a reasonable price. Video output is .mp4 which can be edited in AviDemux.

Jing (also Techsmith) Great little free recorder, but the output is .swf, which can be difficult to deal with, and the recording time is limited to 5 min.

You could also consider these free options.

CamStudio It takes a little practice, but if you manage to get the settings right, it's a very nice little app.

Screencast-o-matic It's free but if you sign up for an anual subscription, you will be able to edit your recordings.

[serendipity]

Sorry for a slight OT, but this is my question:

I would like to capture a video as it is being played on screen (on a flash area in a web browser). Is this possible with some tool? Any experience with such a task?

Thank you for any hint!

My favorite is Active presenter free edition.

[Borut]

My favorite is Active presenter free edition.

Thank you both, Regmos and serendipity! You helped me a lot.

Due to various factors, one of which was a relatively low processor power at my disposal, I settled down with the Active presenter, with which I have successfully accomplished my task in a rather straightforward and intuitive manner. I have found the pdf help to be very good and indeed helpful, when needed. This application is obviously full of potential, which I have by far not explored yet (and perhaps never will). A nice surprise!

[Regmos]

My favorite is Active presenter free edition.

Great find

Just put it on my "freeware" computer, and I suspect it's gonna steal a lot of my time.

[serendipity]

My favorite is Active presenter free edition.

Great find

Just put it on my "freeware" computer, and I suspect it's gonna steal a lot of my time.

Me too, I am using it for my presentations on a regular basis.

[binocular222]

It's amazing to see a Vietnamese software is so popular

[Regmos]

GifCam 3.0 is out

It seems that the annoying "Out of memory" bug is gone.

[admin]

Absolutely brilliant! I donated 5$. Everybody here should do that!

[binocular222]

Would have been perfect if he adds these things:
1) Hotkey to start-stop recording
2) Allow click-and-drag to select the region to record instead of constantly showing GifCam window ontop
3) Easier editing

Anyway, I made an AHK to solve 1) and 2) above. usage:
Save the scipt as *.ahk > complie to exe using complier here: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/download/file.php?id=2879
Ctrl+Shift+LMouse drag to select region
Alt+Shift+p to toggle recording (and minimize GifCam window too!)
Known limitation:
- Record button should be active for the Alt+Shift+p to work
- Cannot move GifCam screen off-window

Code: Select all

#SingleInstance force
;#notrayicon     ;Don't wanna see Autohotkey's icon in tray? Then uncomment this line
#NoEnv

#IfWinExist, ahk_class TGifCamForm
^+LButton::
SysGet, xborder, 32
SysGet, yborder, 33
SysGet, caption, 4
ControlGetPos, X, Y, ButtonWidth, ButtonHeight, TButton3, ahk_class TGifCamForm
DefineRegion("LButton", "Screen", left_x, right_x, top_y, bottom_y, region_width, region_height) ;Only need to supply 2 parameters "Trigger" (which key to stop DefineRegion) and "Mode" (result is relative to window or screen or client); then the function return the other 6 parameters, left_x, right_x, top_y, bottom_y, region_width, region_height, which is ready-to-use
GifCamX := left_x - xborder
GifCamY := top_y - yborder - caption
GifCamWidth := region_width + ButtonWidth + xborder * 2 + 10
GifCamHeight := region_height + yborder * 2 + caption
WinMove, ahk_class TGifCamForm, , %GifCamX%, %GifCamY%, %GifCamWidth%, %GifCamHeight%
return

!+p::
ControlSend, TButton4, {Enter}, ahk_class TGifCamForm
WinGet, ExStyle, ExStyle, ahk_class TGifCamForm
if (ExStyle & 0x8)  ; 0x8 is WS_EX_TOPMOST.
{
  Winset, AlwaysonTop, Off, ahk_class TGifCamForm
  Winminimize, ahk_class TGifCamForm
  Loop, 4
  {
    Gui, %A_Index%: -Caption +ToolWindow +ToolWindow +AlwaysOnTop
    Gui, %A_Index%: Color, Green     ;can state any Hex code i.e: 0x00ff
  }
  Gui, 1: show, % "x" left_x   " y" top_y    " w" region_width    " h1 NoActivate"
  Gui, 2: show, % "x" left_x   " y" top_y    " w1"                " h" region_height   " NoActivate"
  Gui, 3: show, % "x" left_x   " y" bottom_y " w" region_width    " h1 NoActivate"
  Gui, 4: show, % "x" right_x  " y" top_y    " w1"                " h" region_height   " NoActivate"
  TrayTip, ,Recording...
  sleep 2000
  TrayTip,
}
Else
{
  Loop, 4
  Gui, %A_Index%: hide
  Winset, AlwaysonTop, On, ahk_class TGifCamForm
  Winrestore, ahk_class TGifCamForm
  TrayTip, ,Stop recording
  sleep 2000
  TrayTip,
}
return

DefineRegion(Trigger, Mode, ByRef left_x, ByRef right_x, ByRef top_y, ByRef bottom_y, ByRef region_width, ByRef region_height)    ;ByRef means the variable will be returned to caller with the same variable name
{
   CoordMode, Mouse, %Mode%           ; relative to window or screen or client (window title bar, menu and borders)
   MouseGetPos, start_x, start_y             ; start position of mouse

    Loop, 4                                             ;Create 4 lines of a selection rectangle (display as 4 GUI)
    {
      Gui, %A_Index%: -Caption +ToolWindow +ToolWindow +AlwaysOnTop
      Gui, %A_Index%: Color, Green     ;can state any Hex code i.e: 0x00ff
    }

 Loop                                                     ;Can use settimer to reduce cpu usage (although less smooth)
 {
      MouseGetPos, start_x_2, start_y_2
      If (start_x_2 > start_x)        ;Update the selection rectangle
      {
        Gui, 1: Show, % "x" start_x " y" start_y " w" start_x_2 - start_x " h1 NoActivate"
        Gui, 4: Show, % "x" start_x " y" start_y_2 " w" start_x_2 - start_x " h1 NoActivate"
      }
      Else
      {
        Gui, 1: Show, % "x" start_x_2 " y" start_y " w" start_x - start_x_2 " h1 NoActivate"
        Gui, 4: Show, % "x" start_x_2 " y" start_y_2 " w" start_x - start_x_2 " h1 NoActivate"
      }

      If (start_y_2 > start_y)
      {
        Gui, 2: Show, % "x" start_x " y" start_y " w1 h" start_y_2 - start_y " NoActivate"
        Gui, 3: Show, % "x" start_x_2 " y" start_y " w1 h" start_y_2 - start_y " NoActivate"
      }
      Else
      {
        Gui, 2: Show, % "x" start_x_2 " y" start_y_2 " w1 h" start_y - start_y_2 " NoActivate"
        Gui, 3: Show, % "x" start_x " y" start_y_2 " w1 h" start_y - start_y_2 " NoActivate"
      }
      ToolTip, % "Width: " start_x_2 - start_x " - Height: " start_y_2 - start_y
      ;ToolTip, % GetOCR(left_x, top_y, region_width, region_height)

      If (GetKeyState(Trigger, "P") = 0 )       ;Trigger (i.e: Left mouse) is Physically up
      {
      MouseGetPos, end_x, end_y
      ToolTip
      Loop, 4
      Gui, %A_Index%: Hide
      break
      }
  }

       left_x := MinMaxAvg("min", start_x, end_x)
       right_x := MinMaxAvg("max", start_x, end_x)
       top_y := MinMaxAvg("min", start_y, end_y)
       bottom_y := MinMaxAvg("max", start_y, end_y)
       region_width := right_x - left_x
       region_height := bottom_y - top_y
Return        ;End of Define Region
}

P.S: Anyone know a good lightweight GIF editor?

[serendipity]

Absolutely brilliant! I donated 5$. Everybody here should do that!

Just did! Totally worth.

[Nighted]

P.S: Anyone know a good lightweight GIF editor?

GraphicsGale is good and updated often. I don't think the freeware version supports GIF though.

GIF Movie Gear is good also. I made a many a banner using this software back in my web dev days.

[Regmos]

Perhaps RealWorld Paint

http://www.rw-designer.com/image-editor

Or this one, if the size doesn't fit

http://www.ashongsoft.com/product/gif-resizer.html

[Regmos]

Would have been perfect if he adds these things:
1) Hotkey to start-stop recording......

Screen to Gif can do that.

The quality is fine, but the resulting file size is huge compared to camtasia, Gifcam and LiceCap. You must also be patient when rendering. There's no progress bar, you just have to wait for the window to become active again.

It's still early days, and it needs some work, but it seems very promising.