Shotty is a cute, fast, free screenshot tool, uploads included

What you see in the screenshot isn't Shotty; it's Shotty's home page. This used to be tacky, but I haven't seen it in a while. Shotty took a Windows 7-style window frame and created their whole site to resemble an application. This is a great metaphor for a screenshot application, and the execution is perfect. The buttons change correctly when you hover them, etc. It's very, very cute.

Having been impressed by the site, I went on to take Shotty for a spin. The application is fast and simple, and the built-in editor is interesting; you get blur, highlight, and text "labels." The text labels are unique in that you configure the text once, and then you use the label like a "stamp." You can click anywhere on your image, and Shotty's editor adds another instance of your text right there. I couldn't figure out how to edit the text, though.

Once you finish annotating and editing your screenshot, it's time to upload. There are four different uploaders that are configured right from the box. I tried the default one (which is on Shotty's own servers). It worked very well, and it gave me a BBCode-style link directly to my image (perfect for forums). You can also configure image expiration dates, with the default being three months.

One very interesting omission is that you cannot capture an arbitrary area (selection). Shotty only works with the whole desktop or with the current window. In other words, you can't take just part of the window. This is a key feature for many users (me included) and is very easy to add, so I can't help but wonder why Shotty's makers chose to omit it. For the sake of simplicity, perhaps?

Tags: cute, design, hosting, screenshot, shotty, utilities, web