Screen recording has become one of the best methods to create a footage of your desktop activity with ease. There might be several occasions when you want to capture your gameplay, record streaming videos, or either make some video tutorials or software reviews on your Mac. In case these circumstances arise, a good screen recorder is necessary. Actually, there are lots of screen recording software that are available online. However, most of these tools only offer paid version or have a poor recording quality. In this article, we will introduce the best free screen recorder for Mac.
- Screen Capture Software For Mac Free
- Screen Recording Mac Free Download
- Best Screen Capture For Mac Free
Screen Captures 2.2 for Mac is free to download from our application library. This Mac application was originally created by LUO RENTING. The most popular versions of the software are 2.2 and 2.0. The unique identifier for this app's bundle is com.seasoft.screenshots. The latest version of the program can be installed on Mac OS X 10.6 or later. The simplest way to capture the Mac screen, needless to say, is the macOS-bundled screen recorder – QuickTime. This very software not only plays the role of a media player but also serves as a versatile audio and video recorder. With it, you can record any specific region of your Mac screen, with sounds from your microphone.
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is a free but in the meantime very comprehensive program that you can use to create high-quality videos. With the help of this tool, you will have an easy access to the experience of using a brilliant screen activity recorder that doesn’t leave any watermark at all on your video after a successful registration. Moreover, this program can capture your desktop activity together with the audio coming from your system and microphone. Overall, there is surely no doubt that Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is one of the best free screen recorders for Mac available on the market. To utilize this program, you can follow the step-by-step guide below.
- Firstly, you need to visit the official website of Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder.
- On the main page of the site you can click the “Start Recording” button to launch the screen recorder.
- Once you launched it, you can set to record screen or webcam, custom recording area, and change audio input, etc. You can also go to settings and make some configurations.
- Once done settings, hit the red recording button to start recording. During the recording process, you can add a webcam to your screen, and you can even add some annotations to it.
- After you have finalized the recording, click the stop button to stop it. At this point, a preview window will pop up. On the preview window, you can save the video by clicking the “Save video” button, or even share the video with your friends by clicking the share button.
Monosnap
Monosnap is another mentionable flexible program specifically developed for Mac OS. You can use this program not only to record your screen but also to take quick screenshots in case you need to use it as a powerful screen recording software. In addition, this tool can be used as a storage software. This program can also offer the option of capturing your webcam, microphone or system sound as you can just set it before you start recording according to your need. Aside from that, the mentioned program can record in 60 fps. This means that you can record smoothly even you are playing high framerate games. If you want to use this free video recording software for Mac, you may follow the steps below.
- Download and install Monosnap.
- After successfully finalizing the installation, click the Monosnap’s drop down menu, then choose “Record Video” to start recording.
- In case you want to stop this program from recording, just click its drop down menu again then click “Finish recording” to end it. Afterwards, your recording will be saved automatically, and you can check it right away at the location of your choice of saving.
OBS Studio
The next free screen recording tool for Mac that you can rely on according to our list is OBS Studio. This is a free and open source screen recorder that is available on both Windows, Mac, and Linux. The suggested program will allow you to capture real-time activities and create excellent live streaming videos. Moreover, this program has the ability to incorporate footage from your previous recordings or add exiting videos. On the other side, this program is to some degree complicated, in the sense that you can take certain time familiarizing its interface and configurations. Here are the steps on how to use this program.
- First of all you need to have OBS Studio installed in your computer.
- Once you have it, launch OBS, then click “Scene” > “Source” > “Add Icon”, and then click “Windows Capture”.
- After the previous step is done, a pop up window will show and allow you to rename your video you are going to record. Once done, click the “OK” button to proceed.
- Next, select the window you want to record.
- Lastly, you only need to hit the “Start Recording” button to initiate recording. Once done recording, just click the top button to end it.
Jing
Another free screen recording software for Mac is Jing by Techsmith that has been very popular on the market for a long time. This program is very simple and easy to use that are the pillars of its popularity. It comes with a movable sun icon that can be placed anywhere on your display, which enables you to easily utilize its function. Aside from screen recording, you can use this tool to take screenshots and edit it right after capturing. However, this program can only record up to 5 minutes. If you are still interested to use this program despite its time limitation, you can follow these steps.
- First and foremost, download and install this program on your pc from the official Techsmith website.
- Hit the “Sun” icon and select “Capture”.
- Once you are inside the options panel, simply adjust the frame according to your preference then select “Capture video”.
- To stop the recording, simply hit the “Stop” button, and then the recorded file will automatically pop up for preview.
Quicktime Player
The last recording program for Mac is the Quicktime Player. This is an extensible multimedia framework that can be used not only to record videos but also to play, edit and share videos on Mac. This tool can be characterized with that it has a very intuitive interface which makes it very easy to use even for beginners. This program can create footage of your Mac screen with a web camera or iPhone screen. You can follow the instructions below to capture your screen using this best free screen recorder for Mac.
- To begin with, you have to launch Quicktime Player at the first hand.
- Once you see the interface, click “File” and select “New Screen Recording”, then a screen recording window will pop up. On this window, you can configure your recording settings. After configuring, hit the red round recording button to start recording your screen.
- Once done with the complete recording process, click the “Stop” button in the menu bar, then your recorded file will automatically pop up.
Conclusion
As you can see, the aforementioned programs are the currently best free Mac screen recording software you can find on the market. You can decide which program you will use for your recording. I highly recommend Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder. Compared to the other programs above, this program can be used to quickly record your screen, audio, as well as a webcam as it is a web-based application. Aside from that, it has an easy interface and even beginners can use it.
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Screenshots come in handy to show something that’d be harder to explain in words. You may have spotted them in tutorials, software reviews, tech support troubleshooting, or when you want to share your screen image and save snippets that you can’t easily print.
While you can take a screenshot on your computer using the native screen capturing tools and keyboard shortcuts, a time comes when your requirements get more advanced. That’s when you turn to specialized screen capturing tools.
Most free screenshot tools are available for Windows. That's why we are going an extra mile to get a few good ones for Mac owners as well.
We have compiled the five free screenshot tools you can use to get you started.
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How to Easily Take Screenshots and Video Recordings of Your Desktop Using Snip
Read More1. Skitch
This screenshot tool from the folks at Evernote performs screen capture and markup among other tasks, and edit the image too.
You can annotate screenshots with arrows, shapes, text, and stamps, perform basic cropping without using an external image editor, and save them in eight formats, which includes PNG, JPEG, GIF, and more.
Also included is the camera mode feature for taking selfies with your webcam, and then dress it up with a host of editing tools including call-outs, highlights, pixellation to blur personal information and more.
Screen Capture Software For Mac Free
After that, you can share your creations via social media accounts, AirDrop, FTP, or Notes.
Skitch isn't without its drawbacks, though. From my time with this tool, I've found that I can't open more than one image at a time to annotate or edit.
For Mac, it's also not possible to save snaps to the local drive; the export command is used instead.
2. Monosnap
This free screen capturing program only lets you snap full screen or a selected area, and it comes with a few good enhancements. So what if may not have capture options as robust as Skitch? It's still mighty useful.
The few of the coolest features are a timer, auto upload selection that captures screenshots and sends them automatically to FTP or cloud storage, screen recording captures, and selfie mode.
Its powerful editor lets you annotate your image using text, lines, arrows, cropping, drawings, and even redact personal or sensitive information. If you want a sneak peek of your snaps, the Preview feature lets you do that with the click of a button.
You can also rename your snaps and keep them in order before saving them as JPG or PNG files, and share them if you want on social media.
Monosnap is available for Windows and Mac, or you can download the Chrome extension and use it in your browser.
Download MonosnapAlso on Guiding Tech
#screenshots
Click here to see our screenshots articles page3. ShareX
ShareX is a free screenshot tool (for Windows), but it isn’t as simple as using the native options for Windows or Mac. If you’re able to work your way around its interface though, you’ll find an extensive array of useful tools buried somewhere in its slightly messy interface.
Besides the different capture techniques like choosing specific regions, windows, or monitors, you can select from a variety of shapes and capture the particular area you want.
Once you’re done, you can edit using the in-house image editor. Apart from that, the editor lets you annotate, pixelate, add text, shapes, and more to your snap.
The “Scrolling Capture” option so you can screenshot a long document in any application, or capture any web address using the Webpage Capture tool.
ShareX also lets you add watermarks, blur personal or sensitive information, copy, upload, and even shorten and share the links to the images wherever you want.
It integrates with a spread of cloud storage services, and online services like Flickr, Imgur, and more than 80 other destinations.
Download ShareX4. Lightshot
Like Monosnap, this tool lives in your system tray until you’re ready to use it.
The app packs a miniature editor for adding notes, annotations, and highlights to your snaps. After that, you can upload them to printscm.com where you can backup and share them via links.
Monosnap is an easy to use, and lightweight but is heavily loaded. The only drawback I found is that all screenshots uploaded to the cloud are open to the public. So it’s easy for others whom you shared links with to access your snaps with a few tweaks to the URL.
Download Lightshot5. Nimbus Capture: Screenshot
Nimbus Capture is a free, browser-based screenshot tool you can use on Chrome or Firefox, but also as an application for Windows and Mac.
It can capture fullscreen, an entire webpage, or selected region depending on what you want. Like other tools listed here, Nimbus Capture also offers annotation and editing tools. Also, you get a special markup tools like number stamps which can be useful for tech support tutorials or other things.
After editing the screenshots, you can print them or save to your clipboard, drive, or cloud storage for easy sharing.
A desktop version is available that offers screencasting for video recording based on the desired section of your screen, which you can access from your iOS device or the web.
Download Nimbus CaptureAlso on Guiding Tech
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Read MoreTake Better Screenshots
Windows and Mac may have their native screenshot tools, but when you need more advanced features to annotate and edit your snaps, you can always choose any of the five listed here. The best part is they’re free to download and use, so you’re sure to find something that’ll fit your needs.
We’d love to hear your recommendations on other free screenshot tools you use that didn’t make it to our list. Tell us in a comment below.
Next up: Want to capture scrolling screenshots on your Mac? Here are some of the best apps to take scrolling screenshots on macOS.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
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