Clip2Net takes your clipboard, files online
Free screenshots and image uploading/hosting with Clip2Net.
I use TechSmith's Snagit screen-capturing tool (review) on a daily basis to gather all sorts of shots for posts and archival purposes. It works great at getting those pixel-precise sizes you might be going for, along with taking a step or two out Windows' less-than-stellar built-in print screen function. Today I've been playing with a small download called Clip2Net. It's a free and simple screenshot program with built-in Web uploading for screenshots AND image files. It's not at all as advanced as Snagit, but if you're in the market for a relatively easy way to take and host screenshots, or share a roll of pictures with friends, Clip2Net is a promising hybrid solution.
Setup is simple: Just download and install the less-than-1MB file and you're good to go. You can start capturing right away, either in regions or the entire screen at a time. Registering and plugging in your login credentials lets you upload your shots to a Web folder that saves all your shots. Likewise, if you'd like to stay anonymous, Clip2Net will provide you with a URL where your shot is being hosted--although keep in mind that if you lose that URL, you won't be able to track it down again.
What's really neat is that Clip2Net has file sharing built in, too. It's not just one at a time either--you can select several files at once and the service will group them together into a Zipped folder, and give you a URL and embed code to stick on your blog or Web site as a download link. Just keep in mind it's only for image files, so uploading anything else is against the terms of service and could get you kicked off. I couldn't seem to find any documentation of whether these files are made available for indexing by search engines, so on a security note you'd be wise to limit sharing to photos you wouldn't mind the whole world seeing.
There are a few shortcomings compared to more powerful screen capture utilities. There's no hot-key support, or zoom tools to let you get exact precision for your screenshots. There's also no post-shot editing tool, which can often be quite helpful for making last minute tweaks. For those reasons I'm not quite ready to give up Snagit just yet, but for no hassle publishing Clip2Net is dead simple, and off to a good start.
