Copernicus is a solid screen capture tool which allows you to capture parts or your whole screen. You can also record small videos. Copernicus lets you set the frame rate and decide whether to rely on memory or hard drive.

I like how Copernicus includes a preview interface for batch handling your different screen grabs. When saving you'll notice you can adjust the quality of the image, however you won't be able to change the format from JPG.

I didn't really like how Copernicus worked with F keys, which I don't find the most comfortable to work with on a Mac. However other users might find them very handy for controlling the program.

Download Copernicus 1.5.2 in Softonic

CaptureIt! is particularly good at taking video screen shots and makes an excellent accessory for anyone trying to build tutorials. CaptureIt! excels in this area because it even allows you to export tutorials to iPhone and YouTube enabling you to share software operating instructions extremely quickly.

From the minute you execute CaptureIt!, it springs into action allowing you to select windows on your screen or drag the selection screen to the area that you'd like to capture. It gives you a selection of other options in a small box that you can drag around your screen including "Timed Capture" for something in between a screenshot and a video "Video" and "Screenshot".

There's also an option to adjust the preferences of the application and exit it. In the preferences, you can select a default image to save your images which is useful if you always use the same format. Exiting the program should be easier - why can't you just press the Escape key? You can however configure hotkeys for a few other operations such as quick screenshots or to start the video shots.

CaptureIt! is a hugely popular application because it makes taking screenshots easy, fast and is especially suitable for videocasts.

Download CaptureIt! 1.8.0 in Softonic

Skitch lets you take snapshots of your screen, mostly with the crosshairs, which make it a simple way of capturing exactly what you want. You can also take videos using your iSight camera. The canvas-like interface can be moved around anywhere on your screen and becomes a great focal point for working on images.

Although the editing tools in Skitch are fairly limited, in that you won't find a wide choice of pens and brushes, they're fun to work with. You can apply the typical text, paint, lines, shapes and arrows in any color. The size tool is a little imprecise though.

When you install Skitch you are also given a Skitch account. This can become useful once you decide to share your pictures with others. Just click the little "webpost" button on the bottom right to upload them.

Although fairly basic, Skitch remains an innovative screen capture and image sharing program.

Download Skitch 1.0.8 in Softonic

The answer to that is most definitely yes. SnagIt has a neat interface that sits at the edge of the screen, popping out when you scroll over it. Here you can take full screen, area or window captures. You can also zoom in to areas to capture too. If you don't want to use the SnagIt interface, you can use a hotkey command, which can be set to whatever you like. This already offers more than OSX alone, but there's more.

Once you've taken your screen capture. it is immediately opened in the SnagIt editor. Here you can resize, and reformat your image. You can also add highlights, blurs, arrows and much more - great if you want to create tutorials, or just add notes to a screenshot.

SnagIt is really easy to use, and the editor is great. While the effects in the interface are disabled in this beta, it's still an overall great product. Some people might find the side-hugging application annoying, but this isn't really an app you would run all the time, just when you need it. SnagIt beta is also unable to capture video.

SnagIt beta is a very promising application - it's stable, excellently presented and easy to use. This version is missing some capabilities but it's still very good.

Download SnagIt 1.0.3 in Softonic

Voila can capture any shape, such as Circular, Polygonal, Triangular, or Freehand objects. You've also got standard capture tool options, such as Menu Capture, Fullscreen Capture, Object Capture, Rectangular Capture and a Timed Capture as well. A lot of effort has gone into integrating Voila with other image applications and sites and so you can send and open files from iPhoto and Flickr. Voila is also integrated with Mail if you want to send your screen grabs immediately.

Voila features all the standard options you expect from a screen capture tool, including annotation tools that allow you to add text, arrows, lines, crop and even add watermarks. There are a few filters too, including blurred, torn and framed edges. Exporting from Voila can be done to PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, GIF and BMP formats.

The overall accessibility of Voila is what impresses the most. Easily accessible from either the menu bar or Dock, your hand never needs to leave the mouse to reveal it. Added to the fact that recent captures are easily visible along the bottom of the interface, you're never left searching your hard drive for captures.

The most recent useful addition to Voila is the ability to trim screencasts using QuickTime. The editing features could do with a little extending but it's sufficient for basic cutting.

If you've got a steady hand, Voila allows you to grab objects that would otherwise be limited to the square or rigid capture parameters of most general screen capture apps. An excellent screen capture application that's come a long way in a short time.

Download Voila 3.0.4 in Softonic

macVCR falls towards the latter end of this spectrum allowing you to record everything you see on the screen and output it directly to QuickTime format. Unlike many other such tools however, macVCR doesn't require any installation and you just simply double click the macVCR Icon to launch it. As soon as it's running, it's recording everything that happens on your screen including mouse movements and webcam activity.

You have a high degree of control over the codecs you want to use, the number of frames per second, the level of video compression, or the resolution and duration of the screencast. You've also got a limited number of annotation tools which allow you to draw objects on the screen or expand a small area of the desktop. If you have two monitors, it will also support use across both screens which is quite unusual for a screenshot tool. In addition, if you're not a big QuickTime fan, it will also permit you to output videos to Windows Media, iPhone, Apple TV, AVI etc.

macVCR does take some time to master as it's packed with so many advanced options and features but if you stick with it, you'll have a very powerful and lightweight screen capture tool.

Download macVCR 2.8.1 in Softonic

Screenshot Plus Widget hasn't left my Mac since the first time I've installed it, even though I've tried quite a few screen capture tools. It may not look as exciting as other programs yet it provides just what you need. Screenshot Plus Widget can take full screenshots, selections, timed screens and grab pictures of widgets.

If you flip Screenshot Plus Widget you can select the output format of your image from png, tiff, jpg, pdf, or gif, making it adaptable to your own needs.

Screenshot Plus Widget can take a bit of time to load up at start up, but that normally happens with most widgets. I have also had times when it didn't manage to grab a certain image, when making a selection. In this case I've resorted to using the timed screen, which always works.

Screenshot Plus Widget is a no fuss screen capture widget for Mac. Highly recommended.

Download Screenshot Plus Widget 3.2 in Softonic

Few Mac users know this, but using a simple keyboard shortcut, you can zoom in and out of your screen. What HotBox does is allow you to select a specific area and zoom into it, making it full screen. The item is really easy to work with once you know the keyboard shortcuts (which you can set yourself) to launch, zoom in and zoom out. You can also choose to fade out all other elements and focus on the one you zoomed into.

Despite being very easy to use, the application was a little difficult to configure. The disk image took time to mount and once the item was installed, we still had to go into mouse and keyboard preferences and set the proper keyboard shortcuts for zoom in and zoom out to get HotBox to work.

On the whole though, HotBox is a great preference pane item to have if you need to zoom in onto an area of your screen, like if you are working on design on photography.

Despite a confusing setup process, HotBox is a nifty little tool to zoom in on any part of your screen.

Download HotBox 1.0 in Softonic

DuckCapture lets you capture a window on your screen, a region of your screen a rolling screen or full screen. In addition, you can modify your captured area and add more areas to one image. There are some limited annotation tools. DuckCapture allows you to add annotations and informative text by highlighting target areas.

You can customize the output format as Bitmap, JPG or PNG and also assign shortcuts to captures. That's about all DuckCapture offers but if you have any scripting knowledge you can write your own scripts to extend its functionality. Although you can capture rolling screens, there is no way you can extend DuckCapture to capture video screenshots, however.

Although DuckLink is handy and easy to use, it can't compare with more professional tools such as SnagIt

Download DuckCapture 2.6 in Softonic

Fortunately, tools like Sharpshooter help bring some order to proceedings by giving you more control over how you label and store saved screenshots. In a nutshell, it lets you choose what to do with your shots when you take them. Note that it's not actually a screenshot utility in itself - it only helps you organize screenshots taken in a third-party app.

Sharpshooter consists of a renaming window where you can give your screenshots more descriptive names. This appears automatically as soon as you take a screenshot, if you configure it to do so. In addition, you can move the screenshots to another location, change the format, print them, or simply discard them. There are no preferences as such, except the ability to composite screens into a single image, or modify screen images as a group or individually.

Setting-up and getting Sharpshooter to work from the start isn't as easy as it should be. For such a simple app, there are too many instructions when you open it about how it works and how you can configure it to work with your default screen capture tool.

Overall, Sharpshooter is a useful tool for those that take lots of screenshots although those that take just a few, won't find much call for it.

Download Sharpshooter 1.0 in Softonic

You can make it capture all frames in a selected interval or make it skip certain ones.

We did find this tool a little imprecise as it's difficult to know what percentage you really need for your images.