ShareX is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

screenshot screenshot (also known as screen capture or screen grab) is a digital image that shows the contents of a computer display. A screenshot is created by the operating system or software running on the device powering the display. Additionally, s ...

and screencast program for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. It is published under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

. The project's source code is hosted on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...

. It is also available on the

Microsoft Store Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps ...

and

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Features

Screenshots

ShareX can be used to capture full screen or partial screenshots (which can be exported into various image formats), such as rectangle capture and window capture. It can also record animated GIF files and video using

FFmpeg FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At its core is the command-line ffmpeg tool itself, designed for processing of vid ...

. An included image editor lets users annotate captured screenshots, or modify it with borders, image effects, watermarks, etc. It's also possible to use the editor to draw on top of the windows or desktop before taking the screenshot.

Sharing

After capture, a screenshot can be automatically exported as an image file, email attachment, exported to a printer, to the

clipboard A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. Th ...

, or uploaded to a remote host such as many popular image hosting services or via

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...

. If the image is uploaded to a remote host, the URL generated by it can be copied to the clipboard. Dragging other file types into the program will upload them to a destination based on type, such as a

text file A text file (sometimes spelled textfile; an old alternative name is flatfile) is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists stored as data within a computer file system. In operating ...

being saved to Pastebin and a

ZIP file ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is th ...

saved to

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...

Other tools

There are a variety of desktop image capabilities including screen color picker and selector,

checksum A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data ...

tool (hash check), on-screen ruler, image combiner, thumbnails for images and video, and many more. The program also includes some basic automation. For example, taking a screenshot, adding a border and watermark, and then saving to a specific folder.

Development

Work on a project called ZScreen began in 2007, hosted on

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirrorin ...

and moved to

Google Code Google Developers (previously Google Code) , application programming interfaces (APIs), and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs—including discussion groups and blogs for developers usin ...

in 2008. In 2010, a parallel project called ZUploader was started to rewrite ZScreen's core from scratch. In 2012, all of ZScreen's features had been ported to ZUploader which was subsequently repackaged and released as ShareX. In 2013, the project was moved to GitHub due to Google Code dropping support for hosting downloads.

Reviews

* TechRadar gave the program 4.5 out of 5 stars and listed it among their 2021 Best Screen Recorders. * The Guardian's 2018 article on the "best replacement for the Windows 10 Snipping Tool" lists ShareX first, with the caveat that it's powerful and probably "overkill for most users". * The Verge's article listed ShareX among the 2021 great apps to have for Windows 11. * Lifehacker made a 2022 article about ShareX being the Best Screenshot Tool for Windows with a complete usage guide. * Microsoft listed ShareX as the best Utility App in the 2022 Microsoft Store Community Choice Awards.

References

External links

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ShareX Review
Free raster graphics editors Free software programmed in C Sharp Free utility software Screencasting software Screenshot software Utilities for Windows Windows-only free software {{software-stub