Best Screen Capture Tools for QA Engineers

Feature-rich screen capture tools are something software testers need on a daily basis. It is much easier to describe and understand a bug if a QA engineer attaches a media file – an image or a video. And the more exquisite the defect is, the more important visualization becomes.

Some of the free online screen recorders allow taking screenshots of the whole desktop, yet other screen capture tools are browser-based and capable of capturing only web pages opened in the browsers. There are tools that allow you to customize screenshots and edit them before saving.

To simplify the task of choosing a multifunctional Windows or Mac screenshot tool, or powerful screen recorder for PC, the QA Madness team has put together a list of the best screen recorder apps. Our team uses many of them, too. If a tool is available on different platforms, we put it in a category where it is one of the top choices.

Jing

We’re starting the list with a free screen recording tool. It can capture both screenshots and videos for you to save to the built-in cloud service. Being free and easy to use, Jing is recognized as one of the best free screen recorders for Windows 10 in the market.

In addition to making screenshots and screencasts, Jing also allows software testers to annotate and label captured images. It supports a wide range of file formats and types. Moreover, it allows uploading images and URLs to social media like YouTube, Flickr, etc. Jing also offers a paid version with additional features and more storage space.

SnagIt

SnagIt is definitely one of the most popular Win 10 screen recorder tools among QA engineers. It is great for creating screenshots of web apps for bug reports. Besides, the annotation features are fantastic.

SnagIt has a quick toolbar that speeds up the screen capture process. It also provides a preview window, where you can see a zoomed image of an area where the cursor is hovering. Also, the tool can boast editable images in terms of size and special effects.

Greenshot

It’s time to welcome an open-source (and free!) screenshot tool as functional similar paid solutions.

For example, when you capture a screen in SnagIt, the program automatically opens an image in its full-featured editing tool. Greenshot, in turn, offers a choice: to save the image, open it in Outlook, Word, Excel, Paint, or Greenshot’s image editor, copy to the clipboard, send it to your printer, upload to Imgur, etc.

One of the many useful features of Greenshot is a memory utility that remembers the region which was lastly captured.

Camtasia

If you need to make screenshots on MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, Camtasia is an all-in-one simple screen recorder, webcam, and video editor you should probably have on your laptop.

Speaking about its key features, we couldn’t help mentioning the support of a bunch of different file formats, such as MP4, MP3, Avi, MPEG, JPG, BMP. Camtasia automatically identifies a mouse or a cursor, and you can set up an effect to make it more visible. There are options of added annotations, callouts, text, and shapes that altogether make Camtasia a must-have video screen recorder on Mac.

OBS

Here is a free and open-source screen capture tool you can use on Mac. OBS provides encoding, scene composition, recording, and broadcasting. Open broadcaster software supports a variety of plugins to extend its functionality. OBS lets you effortlessly blend different sources and audio tracks, packing in features you’d heavily find on Mac screenshot tools.

LightShot

You’ve probably heard about this app more than once. LightShot is available on Windows or as an extension for Firefox and Chrome. Software testers like this tool because it allows easily uploading an image to a cloud, copying to a buffer, or saving on your PC. One more feature that QA engineers value is remembering the position while you’re taking a screenshot and actioning the pointer.

Screenpresso

Software testers claim it to be one of the best screen recorders for PCs. Yes, it’s standard and simple yet functionally-rich and easy-to-use. Describing the key features, we need to mention tons of different modes: full screen, user-defined area, scrolling window capture, a built-in image editor, and the ability to convert images into documents – HTML, PDF, Microsoft Word, etc. Basically, that’s all you need for productive work.

FastStone Capture

It is a powerful computer screen recorder that can assist you in capturing multiple windows and objects. What else? It allows you to draw annotation objects easily (watermarks, arrowed lines, highlights, rectangles, etc.) and capture menus, full screen, and rectangular/freehand instantly.

Record It!

This tool is a great enhancement to your iPhone’s built-in screen recorder. Through the video editing feature, you can trim the beginning, change the aspect ratio and background color of your video.

Two more wow-factors include adding audio commentaries to existing videos and making picture-in-picture face reaction videos. Just remember that there is no interface for editing, it’s just a recording tool.

Web Recorder

If you are eager to record the activity in your iOS browser, Web Recorder is an application you’re looking for. It behaves like a browser and records only what’s happening on the web page. In other words, there is no need to worry about notifications, other interruptions, or icons at the top.

AZ Screen Recorder

This is a popular Android screen capture app that requires no root access, has no watermarks or time limits for recording. Moreover, it offers a small built-in video editor. The tool is highly customizable. You can set video resolution, bit-rate, frame rate, screen orientation, customize timer to stop, and share or delete recorded videos.

ADV

This screen capture tool is an alternative to the above-mentioned application. It has the same features and offers similar features, including recording using both front and rear cameras.

Bottom Line

A perfect screen capture tool helps to ensure that a QA engineer, developer, project manager, or any other specialist looking through the documentation are on the same page. But which would be the best solution?

Different software testing companies, teams and professionals will tell you different names. In the end, it is a matter of preference. But what we can say for sure is that visual feedback facilitates reporting and speeds up bug fixing. If you are choosing a screen recording tool, try several options and go with what works best for you.