WinSnap is a screenshot capture and editing program for Windows. It captures complete screens, individual windows and selected interface elements, then adds annotations and visual effects to the resulting image. Its window capture preserves details such as rounded corners, transparent title bars and shadows. WinSnap is paid software with a free trial; purchased licenses are perpetual and include free updates.
Choosing what WinSnap captures
WinSnap’s Object mode lets you select a dialog, button, popup menu or another interface element rather than enclosing everything in a rectangular screenshot. A border identifies the object under the pointer. Holding Ctrl allows several objects to be selected together, so a window and a separate menu can appear in one image without capturing the desktop between them.
For a popup menu, you can open the menu in its application and trigger capture with Print Screen. This keeps the capture operation available without switching back to WinSnap and dismissing the menu. The same selection approach can capture tooltips and other temporary interface elements.
Region mode gives you control over the boundaries instead of selecting recognized objects. You can choose multiple regions or enable Fixed Size when several captures need matching dimensions. Full-screen capture includes the whole screen, while the delay control gives you time to arrange the target before the screenshot is taken.
Transparent edges and shadow effects
Transparent space is part of WinSnap’s captured image. Gaps between selected windows or menus can remain transparent, while shadows and reflections retain partial transparency. This allows an isolated window to sit on a document or slide background without a rectangular patch of desktop around it.
After capture, WinSnap can keep the native window shadow or replace it with a custom shadow. The replacement has controls for color, size, direction and opacity, allowing the edge treatment to change without taking the screenshot again. Presets apply shadow and other effect settings; outlines, reflections and watermarks provide further ways to format the captured image.
Screenshot markup
Arrows, lines, shapes and text comments add explanations directly to the screenshot. Arrow and line properties include endpoint styles and line styles, with curved arrows available when a straight pointer would cross other content. Double-clicking an arrow opens its properties for adjustment. The pen tool smooths freehand strokes into curves.
WinSnap also lets you highlight text or rectangular areas in different colors. Pixelation obscures details within the image, while colorize and blur effects change the appearance of selected areas. Undo and redo cover annotations, effects and crops, so changes to the marked-up image can be stepped backward or restored during editing.
Image export
WinSnap saves screenshots as PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF or BMP images. PNG retains transparent backgrounds and partly transparent shadows without lossy compression. JPEG provides a different output choice when transparency is unnecessary, but it cannot retain an alpha channel.
With Microsoft Office installed, WinSnap can also copy an image with transparency to the clipboard for pasting into Word, PowerPoint, Outlook or OneNote.
