Here are 3 free screen recording tools and one not free, screen recording tool. Two of them are online web apps and two of them are Windows programs. Each product will record your screen as well as capture it as an image and provide sound recording.
If you’re providing a quick tutorial or anything else that requires a screen recording tool, these tools work well. TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio is a powerful screen recording program.
1. ScreenToaster – Toast Your Screen is the tag line. ScreenToaster is an online screen recording tool that allows you to make screen casts or videos of your screen. You’ll need Java to run ScreenToaster.
ScreenToaster allows you to upload your video to the ScreenToaster site as well as to YouTube or download to your computer.
2. Jing – Jing is a free online screen capture tool that also has a pro version you can buy. Jing is made by TechSmith, the same folks who created Camtasia Studio.
Jing requires a small piece of software that you download and install. It allows you to capture the screen as an image or record the screen as video. On my tablet PC there was a lot of flickering going on while mousing over the controls. I did not take the time to investigate the flicker issue.
However, I did record the screen just fine after I memorized the hot keys to start and stop the video. Even the icon that was placed in the task bar was a bit different. I right-clicked on the icon to pop-up the menu, so I could stop Jing and it was a clear menu that did not take my mouse click right away.
Jing works with Windows and Mac OS X.
3. CamStudio – CamStudio is free screen recording software for Windows. It allows you to create .avi files as well as turning those .avi files into streaming flash (SWF) videos. CamStudio is free and doesn’t offer nearly the functionality that Camtasia Studio does but Camtasia Studio is rather pricey and a nicely done piece of software.
4. Camtasia Studio – Camtasia Studio is not a free Windows program. There is not a free version other than a 30-day trial.
Camtasia Studio is the rock star of screen recording tools. Allowing you to produce videos for a lot of different formats, detailed sound recording settings as well as creating videos to upload to YouTube and other media like DVDs or other websites.
Make sure you subscribe to my blog because I’ll be using one of these tools to create a screen cast.
