Unlike other applications, Snap does not immediately show a program window after launch. Instead, you can access its features by moving the mouse pointer over the bar at the top-center of your screen to expand it. Alternatively, you can also right-click the program icon in the system tray next to the clock to access most features. Depending on your Windows settings, you may have to click the arrow first to reveal the icon.

Capture

There are three ways to activate the capture process: through the capture bar, through the program symbol in the system tray, or through keyboard shortcuts.

Capture bar

Once Snap is launched, the capture bar will be automatically displayed as a marker at the top of your screen by default. Move your mouse over the marker to expand the capture bar. Move it outside the bar to hide it.

Functions

1. Capture screen region

2. Settings

3. Open editor

4. Capture all displays as screenshot

5. Open the current screenshot output directory in Windows Explorer

6. Exit program

Context menu (system tray)

Once launched, you can access many capturing tools through Snap's context menu. Simply right-click the program icon in the system tray next to the clock.

The context menu also allows you to reopen the video editor, e.g., to make additional changes to existing videos. This option is only available, when the output folder you specified contains at least a single valid video file.

Capture screen region

1: Create selection

2: Select target

3: Capture pointer

4: Fast screenshotting

5: Switch color scheme

6: OCR texts

7: OCR language

8: Palette

The toolbar always appears at the top of the screen that currently has the mouse.

Create selection

Use the cursor keys to move the crosshair in 1-pixel increments for added precision. Click the X or hit Esc to stop capturing.

The toolbars are auto-hidden during drag operations so they don't obstruct your view. Hit Space to temporarily hide the toolbars before drag operations. They will then reappear once you release the mouse button.

Selection mode

Automatic (window detection)

In this mode, the progam auto-highlights windows below the mouse pointer and creates a rectangular selection on clicking.

Hold down the left mouse button and drag to instantly create a rectangular selection, ignoring any detected window.

Rectangle

Hold down the left mouse button and drag to create a rectangular selection. Drag the edge markers to adjust its size. Drag inside the rectangle to reposition it.

Ellipse

Hold down the left mouse button and drag to create an elliptical selection. Drag the edge markers to adjust its size. Drag inside the ellipse to reposition it.

Hold down shift while dragging the edge markers to equalize the height of a rectangular/elliptical selection to its width. Hit Shift without dragging to instantly set the height of the selection to its current width.

Freeform

Hold down the left mouse button and drag to draw a freeform shape. The shape is always closed automatically.

If you've already created a selection, switching modes will auto-apply the position and dimensions to your new selection, whenever possible. For example, when you switch from a freeform shape to "Rectangle", the new shape will reuse the existing size and position properties.

Eye dropper (Color recognition)

Move the pointer over a pixel and left-click to extract and copy its color value to the palette.

Create selection (presets)

Current display
Creates a rectangular selection around the display area that currently has the mouse pointer.

All displays
Creates a rectangular selection across all connected displays.

Custom
Allows you to input width/height manually to create a value-based rectangular selection. See Custom selection

Repeat last
Recreates the most recently confirmed rectangular/elliptical/freeform selection.

The label reflects the most recently confirmed selection. If you confirmed a rectangular selection at the location 100,100 with a size of 320x240, the new label will be "100,100 320x240".

Select target

Select the desired output target for your captures here.

Editor: Shots are automatically opened in Snap's built-in editor upon creation.

Folder: Shots are only stored a image files in the output folder.

Clipboard: Shots are immediatly copied to the system clipboard.

Other application: Shots are sent to custom application. You can specify the application in the program settings.

The icon of the button changes depending on the selected target so you can always see what will happen with your shots.

Capture pointer

Enable this feature to capture the mouse pointer as part of your screenshots.

Fast screenshotting

If enabled, the selected area will be captured as soon as you release the mouse button without the need for manual confirmationn and without the ability to readjust the position/size of the selection.

Switch color scheme

You can toggle the color of the crosshair and guidelines here to adjust their display for best readability.

You can also use the mouse wheel to switch between colors.

The selected color will initially be used for the selection rectangle and live annotations during video capturing. You can always change it there later.

OCR texts

Extracted texts are stored here. Move the pointer over an entry and use the buttons to delete or copy its content to the system clipboard. Click a text entry to edit it.

More (…)

Clear
Deletes all text entries.

Export TXT
Exports all texts as a single text file.

The most recently recognized text gets always copied to the system clipboard automatically.

OCR language

Use this menu to quickly switch between OCR languages. Click "Add language" to add additional OCR languages.

Ashampoo Snap relies on language packs provided by your Windows installation. Adding new OCR languages therefore means installing the associated display languages through Windows' display language settings.

Palette

Colors that have been extracted using the eye dropper tool are collected here. Move the pointer over a color and use the buttons to delete or copy its value in different notations to the system clipboard.

More (…)

Clear
Deletes all color entries from the palette.

Export CSS (Photoshop
Exports the current hex values as CSS file prepared for Photoshop. Use "Import swatches" via the "Swatches" tab in the palette tool to add the colors to your Photoshop project.

Export PNG (Affinity)
This function exports all colors as single pixels to a PNG file. Use Affinity's "Create Palette From Image" to import the colors into a project.

Confirm selection

Use the context menu (…) to confirm your selection and apply an operation. Alternatively, right-click the selection to access the menu. The most frequently used operations are also accessible through dedicated buttons below the selection.

If all you need is a simple screenshot, you can also left-click into the selection or hit Enter to confirm it.

Scroll-capturing

If you use window detection, e.g., to capture a website, make sure to adjust the selection rectangle to only include the content you wish to capture. Titel bars, tool bars, and scroll bars must not be included in your selection!

Snap can capture scrolling content vertically or horizontally. This is achieved by taking multiple screenshots between scrolling and assembling them into a coherent image at the end of the process.

During capturing, the mouse pointer will snap into a predefined location and should not be moved.

Here's a few pointers for a successful scroll capture:

Your selection must not contain window elements, like scrollbars, because these will interfere with the assembling of the screenshots.
Make sure your selection does not contain sticky elements. These are elements that move with the content to stay in a fixed position, like web banners.
If you need to capture a website that dynamically fetches new content during scrolling, make sure to manually scroll the bottom of the page before you start capturing from the bottom. This will ensure the content is instantly available.

Example

A browser window was detected and selected in the image above (red box). The selection contains multiple window elements (title bar, top/right toolbar, right scrollbar, window border). In addition, the website contains a navigation element at the bottom right that stays fixed during scrolling (white upward arrow on dark circle). For a successful scroll-capture, the selection has to be adjusted to only surround website content without window and navigation elements (green box).

Hit Alt+Esc to stop a running scroll-capture operation. The operation terminates automatically when the content stays unchanged for a predefined time.

Websites in particular can be long, and scroll-capturing can lead to massive images in these instances that push even modern PCs to their limits. The maximum supported width/height is therefore internally limited, with content that exceeds the limit being ignored in the assembled image.

Timer-based capturing

This function allows you to capture one or multiple shots after a custom time period specified in seconds. Use the buttons to adjust the time span or use your keyboard.

Hit Alt+Esc to stop a running operation.

Capture video

See Capture video

Customize selection

This dialog allows you to create or modify a selection based on the specified width/height. Use the buttons or your keyboard to adjust the values individually.

Custom presets

Click "Add preset" to create a preset based on the current width/height. Click an existing preset to apply its values to the current selection. Click the trashcan to delete a preset.

Clear selection

Aside from the menu item you can also hit Backspace to delete an existing selection.

Capture video

To record audio and webcam feeds, you first need to select the corresponding devices in Snap's program settings.

If you intend to record everything you hear, you'll need to select "Stereo Mix" or "What U Hear" as audio device in Snap's program settings. These devices will only be available, if your sound card supports them and they have been enabled in Windows' audio settings.

1: Reposition toolbar

2: Start/Pause recording

3: Stop/Cancel recording

4: Show/Hide mouse clicks

5: Enable/Disable drawing mode

6: Switch color scheme

7: Show/Hide webcam

8: Open video settings

9: Minimize controls

Reposition toolbar

Drag the grabber to reposition the toolbar.

Any part of the toolbar that is inside the selection will also be recorded.

Start/Pause recording

Click the button to start or pause a recording. The icon changes depending on the recording status.

Stop/Cancel recording

Hit the button to end a recording in progress or cancel recording altogether.

You can always end a recording with Alt+Esc.

Show/Hide mouse clicks

Enable this setting to visualize mouse clicks via animations. Their color is based on the currently selected color scheme.

Enable/Disable drawing mode

This mode allows you to draw arrow via left and rectangle via right mouse clicks. Their color is based on the currently selected color scheme.

While the mode is active, mouse clicks are not visualized and you cannot interact with program windows.

Use the mouse wheel to switch the color scheme while in drawing mode.

Draw arrow

Left-click the selection area to auto-create an arrow pointing in the direction of the click. The starting position is based on the previous mouse pointer position.
Left-click and drag to manually draw an arrow from start to end. The arrow will appear once you release the mouse button.

Draw rectangle

Right-click and drag to draw a rectangle around an area. The rectangle will appear once you release the mouse button.

Switch color scheme

You can select the color of the selection, arrows, and rectangles here.

While in drawing mode, use the mouse wheel to quickly switch between colors.

Show/Hide webcam

Hit the button to show or hide a live feed from your webcam inside the selection area.

This button is only visible when you have selected a video device in Snap's program settings.

Open video settings

This button leaves the video capturing mode and opens the video-related program settings. The video caturing mode will resume automatically once you apply your changes.

You can only adjust video settings for captures that have not yet been started/paused.

Minimize controls

This button hides the toolbar.

Minimizing the toolbar disables the drawing mode.

Click the status icon in the taskbar to unhide the toolbar.

Custom file names

You can adjust the file naming scheme that will be used for exported images/videos in the program settings. Simply place the cursor at the desired position under "Output file name" and click the below buttons to add the associated placeholders.

Example

Input	Output
Screenshot$sc_$ds_$t_$wn	Screenshot72_2022.02.03_9h26m27s_Document1 - Word.png

Supported placeholders

Type	Input	Output
Date (short)	$ds	2022.02.03
Date (long)	$dl	Thursday, February 3, 2022
Time	$t	9h15m52s
Session counter	#	1
Sceenshot counter	$sc	1
Window name	$wn	Document1 - Word

Edit image

Ashampoo Snap differs between project and image files. Project files contain both image and object data (arrows, shapes, ...). They are stored in a separate "projects" subfolder that lives in the output folder you selected and show up as thumbnails in the preview bar.

When you manually delete image files (e.g. MyImage.png) in your output folder, this will not affect the associated project files so the associated images will still show up in the preview bar.

Only project files from the current output folder appear in the preview bar. Any time you select a new output folder, only projects files inside the new folder will be visible the next time you open the editor.

Toolbar
Workspace
Tool/Object properties
Zoom bar
Preview bar

Use the arrow buttons near the edge of a pane to expand/collapse it. You can also expand/collapse individual categories in the tool/object properties pane.

Context menu

Right-click into the screenshot to open the context menu.

Copy to clipboard
Copes the current screenshot and all objects to the system clipboard.

Insert image from clipboard
Pastes the clipboard image into the screenshot as an object at the current mouse position.

Insert object from clipboard
Pastes the most recently copied object into the screenshot at the current mouse position.

Insert image from hard drive
Inserts an existing image file into the screenshot as an object at the current mouse position.

Select next/previous object
This entry is available, when there's already an object selected and moves the selection to the next/previous object.

With object

The functions in this submenu affect the object that belongs to the given index.

Select object
Selects the current object.

Move object to front/back
Moves the object to the first or last position in the object hierarchy so that is either visually sits above or below all other objects.

Move object one level up/down
Moves the object one level up/down in the object hierarchy.

Copy project
Copies the object to the system clipboard.

Cut object
Copies the object to the system clipboard and deletes it from the project.

Delete object
Deletes the object from the project.

Working with objects

Left-click objects to select them. There are three types of objects:

Type 1

Objects of this type display a selection rectangle around them. Drag the icon to reposition them. Drag the icon to rotate the objects freely, e.g. to display text at a 45° angle. Drag the edge markers () to resize the objects.

Type 2

These objects also display a selection rectangle around them, once selected. Unlike type 1, type 2 objects can be dragged directly for repositioning but support neither resizing nor rotation.

Type 3

Type 3 objects do not display a selection rectangle when selected but can also be dragged directly for repositioning. Drag the edge markers () to resize or realign them.

Hold Shift during object resizing to adjust width and height proportionally. For example, this allows you to scale down a clipart without distortions.

Toolbar

Select

Left-click an object to select it.

Frequently used

Frequently used tools are automatically added to this category for quick access.

Transformations

These functions allow you to adjust the size of the screenshot/canvas to your needs.

Crop

Resize screenshot

Hold down shift during dragging to preserve the current aspect ratio.

Resize workspace

Combine layers

This function merges the current objects into the image, rendering them uneditable afterwards.

Frame

Watermark

Enable "Use as default" in the right properties pane to add a watermark to all future shots automatically. This is especially useful in tandem with the "File name" option, that always includes the name of the image file.

Pencils and markers

Highlighter / Pencil

Simply drag to highlight or draw over an area in your image.

Highlight area

Arrows

Straight arrow

Curved arrow

Blur/Pixelate

Blur pencil

Use this tool to obfuscate sensitive areas in your screenshot. This will only affect the screenshot and not added objects.

Blur area

Drag to create a selection that will automatically blur/pixelate the underlying area. This will only affect the screenshot and not added objects.

Documentation

Text

Left-click the workspace to add a text object. Once added, start typing to modify its text content. To edit an existing text object, select it and left-click its content.

Note

Note objects are created and edited the same way as text objects but additionally display a background clipart, e.g. a speech bubble. You can pick the clipart from the properties pane on the right and even modify its transparency. You can also pick a new clipart for an existing note object to modify it.

Numbering

This tools helps you visualize consecutive steps, e.g. when you're creating a tutorial. Each time you left-click the workspace, a new object will be created with its index automatically incremented sequentially. You can either use numeric (1, 2, 3, ...) or alphanumeric (A, B, C, ...) characters. See "Current number" in the properties pane on the right to adjust the initial value. This way, you can also alter the value, and the background clipart, of existing objects. The cliparts listed on the right behave like toggle buttons and allow you to enable/disable the effect completely or for individual objects.

Shapes

Left-click and drag to create a shape with the desired size. Use the edge markers to readjust its size. Drag the centered arrow icon, if available, to readjust the shape's position. If the icon is not available, drag the shape itself. Drag the arrow icon above the shape, if available, to rotate it.

Curved line

Multi-point line

This tool allows you to insert multiple connected lines. Click to create a start point. Afterwards, each click adds a line from the last to the current mouse position. Hit Esc to finish the drawing process.

Erase

The eraser replaces pixels in your original screenshot with either transparent or colored pixels. This allows you to quickly remove unwanted elements from your screenshot. This will only affect the screenshot and not added objects.

Erase / Erase area

Fill area

You can fill regions in your screenshot with a solid color or color gradient using this tool. This will only affect the screenshot and not added objects.

Clipart

Left-click a clipart in the right properties pane to add it as a centered object to your project. While you can move and resize the object, you cannot alter the clipart design of an existing object. Click "Add graphics" to add existing images to the clipart library. Click the folder button to open the location for custom cliparts in Windows Explorer, e.g. to delete custom images. You can also copy and paste images to the folder directly to add them to Snap's clipart library.

Hold down Shift during resizing to preserve the clipart's aspect ratio.

Project management

Save project
Applies the current changes to the project.

Export image
Saves the current project to a separate image file. Use "Save as" to manually adjust output location and file name and "Quick Export" to use the current output folder and projekt name instead.

Use the "…" button to select a target application (.exe) for the "send to" feature. If no application is specified, you'll be prompted to select an application when you first use this feature.

"Ashampoo Web" allows you to upload your image to Ashampoo web space and share it with others via a simple link. Once uploaded, the link is opened in your browser and also copied to your system clipboard.

Copy to clipboard
Copies the current project as an image to the system clipboard.

Delete project(s)
Deletes the current project permanently.

Zoom bar

1: Resolution of the current image

2: Displays the current image in its original size

3: Zooms in/out to show all of the current image

4: Drag the slider for seamless zooming

Preview bar

The preview bar displays a miniature preview of your projects. A yellow marker indicates that the affected project contains unsaved changes. Click the trashcan button to permanently delete the affected project.

To delete more than one project, hold Ctrl and left-click the affected thumbnails to (de)select them. Then, click either the delete button in the toolbar or one of the delete buttons associated with a thumbnail to delete the selected projects.

To rename a project, hit F2.

Combining projects

Use the plus symbol to combine several projects into one. This will append the selected project to the currently open project, expanding its workspace as needed. Objects contained in the added project remain fully editable.

Edit video

Tools
Video Settings
Export
Timeline

Tools

Add Time Range for Cutting at Current Position
Adds a cut mark at the current position.

Cut Video Now!
Cuts all current selections from the video.

Export Current Time Range Marker as WMV Video...
Exports the selection as a WMV video.

Export Current Time Range Marker as GIF Animation...
Exports the selection as a GIF animation.

Append Video File...
Appends an existing video to the current project.

Open help
Displays the program help.

Working with the timeline / cut marks

Left-click the timeline to set the current position and click the "Add selection" button to add a selection.
Drag the start/end markers to adjust the beginning/end of the selection.
Click the "X" to remove a selection. Click the scissors to cut all current selections out of the video. You may have multiple selections at once if needed.

Video settings

Use these button to undo/redo your actions or to rename your current file.

Export

These functions allow you to save and share your video captures withn others.

Keep video
Applies all changes and saves the file.

Reject/Delete video
Delete the current recording.

Send video by email
Launches your default email application and creates a new email with your video as attachment.

Send video by webmail
Enables you to send your video through Google Mail, Yahoo Mail or Mail.ru.

Upload video to the cloud
Uploads the recording to DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive. To use a service you need to have the standalone client provided by each file hoster installed on your machine.

Upload video to Ashampoo Web
Uploads the recording to Ashampoo Web and opens it in your web browser. You may share this link with others to enable them to view your recording.

Export video
Exports the video to a separate file.

Export video as GIF animation
Exports the video as a GIF animation, e.g. for use with websites.

Open local video file
Opens an existing video file.

Open help
Displays the program help.

Keyboard shortcuts

Apart from the capture bar and the context menu, you may also use various keyboard shortcuts to access different capturing tools, some of which you can customize in the program settings.

Capture

Scan screens	Alt + Ctrl + S
Capture rectangular region	Alt + Ctrl + N
Capture fixed-size region	Alt + Ctrl + A
Extract text from screenshot (OCR)	Alt + Ctrl + P

Editor

Deselect tool	V
Hand tool (move workspace)	Space + Drag with mouse
Undo	Ctrl + Z
Redo	Ctrl + Shift + Z
Cut	Ctrl + X
Copy	Ctrl + C
Copy image to clipboard	Ctrl + Shift + C
Paste	Ctrl + V
Delete object	Del
Open/Load	Ctrl + Shift + O
Close	Alt + F4
Save	Ctrl + S
Export	Ctrl + Shift + S
Zoom in	Ctrl + Plus or Ctrl + Mouse wheel
Zoom out	Ctrl + Minus or Ctrl + Mouse wheel
Clear selection/Cancel	Esc
Rename project	F2

When resizing objects by dragging their edge markers, hold Shift to resize their width and height proportionally. For example, this allows you to scale down a clipart without distortions.