Guide to Editing & Copying Images with Windows Snipping Tool

If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, there is a very useful tool or utilitiy that's included as part of the Operating Systems. I've not seen this tool in Win XP.

The tool that I mean is the Snipping Tool. If you can't find it in your start menu or quick launch buttons, you definitely can find it under C:\Windows\System32\SnippingTool.exe. The tool is used to copy or capture the screen or part of the screen with ease. If previously, we used Alt- Print Scrn to capture the active window an ctrl-print scrn to capture the whole screen, with the Snipping Tool you can cut out or select a part of the screen to capture.

By using the Snipping Tool, you can actually copy anything that you see on the screen or website. This will help you capture what you need and skip the hassle of editing the image.

The Snipping Tool will also be most helpful when copying images from websites that are copy protected by the author. However, when the author copy protect their stuffs, that means they don't like you to copy. Please get the author's permission before using such images.

In my example below, I am using a demo site of a company that provides tools for copy protection. The demo doesn't allow you to click on the picture as it will disappear. However, with the Windows Snipping Tool, the picture can easily be captured.

With Windows Snipping Tool, you may not need to edit the picture in Photoshop or Fireworks anymore as you have captured only what you need. Unlike previously, you have to capture the whole Window then open it in your image editing software to cut out the pieces that you want. However, you still need to use the software if you want the picture in other than rectangle shape.

Another trick in using Windows Snipping tool is how to get a bigger picture or bigger focus of the certain aspect or part of the picture. Here is how to do the trick.

When the picture has been captured and saved, you can open it with Windows Paint, another tool that is given with Windows. Zoom the view to 200% and then capture the part that you want to focus on.

Using this great tool helps me to do this hub faster than it used to be. Thank you Microsoft for such an excellent tool. Who would have thought that this very useful tool exists within Windows?