ZScreen is now a more kick-ass screenshot tool, especially on Windows 7

I haven't bothered with a dedicated screenshot app for a while - the Snipping Tool in Windows 7 is pretty decent, and I'd become comfortable with my inefficient image-creation workflow. Then suddenly I realized how dumb that is, and I went back to an app that used ages ago: ZScreen.

The developer's description on Google Code doesn't begin to tell the story here. Brandon Z says "ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program for Microsoft Windows. It can upload screenshots, pictures, text & files and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke." That's just the tip of the iceberg, though.

It now handles more than just images on your clipboard - URLs, text, files - ZScreen can send them a dozen different places with the tap of a hotkey. And like any connected app, it also has the ability to (sigh) update your Twitter status following an action.

ZScreen has become so configurable and integrates with so many online services that it's in a class by itself. On top of that, Windows 7 superbar integration has been built-in. If you're looking for a seriously kick-ass screenshot app, keep reading after the break!
Apart from auto-saving images using your pre-defind specifications, ZScreen now supports even more destinations online: FTP servers, RapidShare, SendSpace, Flickr, ImageShack, TinyPic, ImageBam, even a Mindtouch Deki install. You can also set up captures on a timer and configure hotkeys for each individual capture type: full screen, region, window, freehand.

On the text side, Pastebin, Paste2, and Slexy are supported - making it easy to upload text snippets. You can also zap URLs directly to shorteners including bit.ly, is.gd, TinyURL, and more.

Best of all, you're in full control over what types of content ZScreen monitors. Just want to use it as a screenshot tool? No problem. It's just a matter of digging in to the programs laundry list of options.
Brandon has also added Windows 7 shell integration features. Mouse over the superbar icon and buttons appear for crop shot, selected window, and clipboard upload. The ZScreen jump list includes recent captures, the same three tasks, and folder shortcuts to your ZScreen images, settings, and log files.

One note about the Twitter integration in ZScreen: this is one of the first desktop apps for Windows I've used which bothers to use OAuth. Thank you, Brandon, for not asking me for my username and password.

If your clipboard contents and screenshots routinely end up being uploaded somewhere, you owe it to yourself to check out ZScreen.

Tags: capture, clipboard, flickr, opensource, screen, twitter, zscreen