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Comment by DocG | Hacker News Reader

I did the same until I discovered that windows has built in snippet tool. Try it out.

You can't draw circles and arrows, etc in that tool though. I need to point out the obvious sometimes. Well, actually most times.

There is no built in circles or arrows but there is a pen and an highligher tool.

http://imgur.com/a/0oDU7

The top 'arrow' looks like a sideways J, I assume it's an arrow based on context, but it's not that clear. Which is why it's nice to have a good tool for the job.

PS: If you actually do the same thing in paint they have a lot of useful shapes and you get a preview of how they look. Which is nice if you don't want the chicken scratch look.

Well, for anything serious, paint is not good enough. You can't rotate your arrows, for example.

If i need to do something well, then I use Paint.net (which is best parts of Paint and Photoshop combined in a free and super fast package).

If I need something quick, then I can use the snipping tool.

I literally have not turned on paint ever since I discovered windows snipping tool and paint.net (which is couple of years now).

You can rotate them 90 degrees which is good enough for what I need.

Workflow is generally Screenshot, crop, highlight with text / arrow / circle past into email. Paint.net is useful, but not on every windows box and often not worth the download when I 90% of the time I just want to send something to a coworker who might email it to a customer.

There's a huge middle ground between "serious image editing" and "quick one-off screenshot that looks professional."

You're being completely disingenuous, that's absolutely terrible.

My use case for Paint is highlighting one off screenshots for clients and the like. Nobody is going to send your sort of screenshot in a professional environment, it looks like it was marked up by a kindergartner.

My workflow: I open up snipping tool, take a screenshot, copy it, paste it in Paint, mark it up quickly (arrow tool or circle/rounded corners tool usually), and either save it or (usually) copy it and paste it into an email or Word Doc. Super easy and quick, I can do this in the time it takes GIMP to load or another program to download, its also always there. I do this on a monthly basis at least.

I've never had to do anything more advanced.

It sounds like you could really take advantage of Greenshot. http://getgreenshot.org

Why though? Paint is already perfect. It's ubiquitous, doesn't require a download and install (there's locked down machines), loads instantly, and the UI is incredibly simple and intuitive.

Though if I ever need "advanced" screenshotting I'll keep this in mind.

I too find greenshot to be very useful, its just that bit quicker than paint for easy snippeting

How is it different from the built-in snippingtool.exe?

Snipping tool doesn't have shapes or text input, all the tools are freehand. I don't want to email a client with chicken scratch that looks like a child's doodle, that's unprofessional.

It's too sloppy even if I could draw that well with my mouse or highlight in a somewhat straight line. Nevermind the regular employee, sometimes I'm sending it to Directors and C-levels, etc.

That is true. Personally the thing I miss the most is simple text insert. Writing with mouse is horrendous, but the ease of use beats functionality for me.

Yes you can. It has a pen tool built into the Snippet app.

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