Ashampoo Snap 14 : A ‘limited-comparative review/test’

[jasonX]

B. SCROLLING MOUSE CAPTURE

Scrolling mouse capture or “scrolling window capture” is a feature that is not present in all screenshot applications. On me, I prefer an app which has “scrolling window capture” and I expect it to perform as advertised --100% (or even 90% depending on the endeavor at hand). For these comparative tests I selected everyday office applications which are, (1) MS Word, (2) Foxit Reader and PDFXChange Editor, (3) Web Browsers (Edge Chromium, Google Chrome and Firefox -- these are favored in Snap 14 settings), and the built-in Windows Explorer. The comparative results are below. 



Ashampoo Snap 14.0.1
The previous "named-features" re: -- (1) Scrolling Window (Website), (2) Scrolling Window Freestyle, and (3) Scrolling Window (Text) is now history (I think it started in Snap 12) and you will not find anything resembling the former. The “Scan screens” carries all that features now and is used for such. This is where Snap 14 gives you an option to scan the screen content and select what type of capture you like. You can use “Scans screens” at the widget or from the tray icon (right-click). Almost all “scrolling capture” done with Snap 14 are "hit-and-miss" and end results are "almost often all incomplete captures" except for two captures. They are (1) Foxit Reader capture shots --re: “Snap 14 Foxit Reader Scrolling Capture 2.png” and “Snap 14 Foxit Reader Scrolling Capture 3.png” (-- complete scroll captured), and in (2) MS Word capture shot --re:  “Snap 14 WORD Scrolling Capture 4 top.png” (-- complete scroll captured). Kindly see images and videos below.  

 

Snap 14 Foxit Reader_PDF Scrolling Capture Images



Snap 14 WORD Scrolling Capture Images



Snap 14 Web Browser Scrolling Capture Images




Snap 14 Explorer Window Scrolling Capture Images

 

Snap 14 Scrolling Capture WEBPAGE Test

 

Snap 14 Scrolling Capture PDF_WORD_EXPLORER_Test

Ashampoo Snap 14.0.2
Using the new Snap 14.0.2 there is an improvement in scrolling window capture for MS Word document. The two attempts to scroll-capture all 4 pages of the selected document was successful. Both attempts gave good clean / render end-results. The rest, except the Foxit Reader PDF doc (PDFXChange Editor - PDF doc, Explorer window and browsers) had the same end-results. Poor capture and render. See video below. 
 

Snap 14.0.2 Scrolling Window Capture Test

Ashampoo Snap 11
Here in Snap 11 the features, (1) Scrolling Window (Website), (2) Scrolling Window Freestyle, and (3) Scrolling Window (Text) are still present but the result is also hit-and-miss and end results are (almost often) all incomplete captures except for one lonely Foxit Reader capture re: -- “Snap 11 Foxit Reader Scrolling Window Text M1.png” (-- complete scroll captured). As mentioned, the rest of the tests were all incomplete captures. Kindly see images and video below.  

 

Snap 11 PDF Scrolling Capture Images



Snap 11 Web Browsers Scrolling Capture Images



Snap 11 MS Word and Explorer Window Scrolling Capture Images

 

Snap 11 Scrolling Capture Test

Snagit 2020
In Snagit 2020 “Scrolling Window Capture” is smooth except for the capture with PDFXChange Editor. Snagit 2020 has issues with scrolling capture in Tracker Software’s PDFXChange Editor thus an error pop-up surfaced. See image of error pop-up below. 
 

Snagit 2020 Scrolling Capture Error

The “Panoramic Capture” is an alternative / workaround to “Scrolling Window Capture” (in cases such as this) where you can manually scroll down as the images are captured by Snagit 2020. The end result is similar and complete as what is reflected in Foxit Reader. All the Snagit 2020 “Scrolling Window” and “Panoramic” captures are complete and with good render. See images and video below. 
 

Snagit 2020 Scrolling Capture Alternative_Panoramic Capture



Snagit 2020 Web Browsers Scrolling Capture Images



Snagit 2020 PDF Scrolling Capture Images



Snagit 2020 MS Word and Explorer Window Scrolling Capture Images

 

Snagit 2020 Scrolling Window Capture Test

FastStone Capture
With FastStone Capture I did not encounter any issues and all it took was a couple of minutes to finish all tests. All “Capture Scrolling Window” captures are complete and with good render. No issues! Very nice!

 

FSCAPTURE Scrolling Capture Web Browsers



FSCAPTURE Scrolling Capture on MS Word, PDFs and Explorer Window

 

FSCapture Scrolling Capture BROWSER Test

 

FSCapture Scrolling Capture WORD PDF EXPLORER Test

ShareX Portable
ShareX Portable scrolling capture has given the user some settings that any of the alternatives do not have. In ShareX you can adjust the, (1) Scroll method, (2) Scroll Delay and (3) Maximum scroll count. These settings were especially useful when I encountered issues with "unfinished-scan-scroll" captures for Google Chrome and Edge. The “Maximum scroll count” default was set at 20. When I adjusted it to 60, there it is, the scrolling capture of ShareX was flawless and rendered good. Infrequent users who just rely on the default settings will miss this (if they do not tinker more) and will just dismiss the “incomplete scrolling scan” as the apps flaw. These settings/options gives ShareX users added mileage in scrolling capture. 

In Firefox it is different. Even if I adjusted the “Maximum scroll count” to the max -- 100, ShareX cannot still complete the capture to the end of the web page. So I just adjusted the “zoom” of Firefox from “80” to “67”. Problem solved! Of course the screenshot will be a bit smaller but you can just use the zoom in your preferred image viewer to see the intricate. The rendering is still good and the screenshot is complete to the last detail of the web page. 
 

ShareX Scrolling Capture Option

The “Scroll method” proved to be another great option for MS Word and Explorer. The default, “Automatically try all methods until one works” did not give me the end result I needed so I used “Simulate mouse wheel scrolling” to get a decent scrolling capture end-result. This can be accessed via the drop-down arrow (see again image above -- ShareX Scrolling Capture Option). This is somewhat similar to the “Capture Scrolling Window” of FastStone Capture.  You will need to place the mouse pointer inside the doc or, inside the explorer window so as the “mouse scroll” will finish. Scanning PDF docs are a bit different as ShareX seems to favor Foxit Reader than my preferred PDFXChange Editor. The end result for ShareX scrolling capture for a Foxit Reader doc was clean and rendered good. The one with PDFXChange Editor had the “overlapping lines” present. It finished the scroll scan but the end result was not good. 
 

ShareX Scrolling Capture on PDF docs

 

ShareX Portable Scrolling Capture Test

Screenpresso PRO
Screenpresso PRO’s scrolling capture which is “Screenshot using auto-scroll (Win + Shift + Print Scr)”, is still under “beta”. I sent Screenpresso support an email about it and it is "still" an on-going endeavor for them. They are offering an alternative via their Google Chrome extension though. But then again, it is only for browsers. How about for the built-in Windows Explorer window, or MS Word doc? Anyway, they are still working on it and I will be testing it (personally) when it is ready. 


So beta, in other words it’s still buggy. The video will show how buggy it is and cannot be relied upon for scrolling capture of any kind. You will have to exert patience when doing the scrolling capture as it is literally “manual” scrolling + manual capture”. Screenpresso PRO’s scrolling capture also cannot completely capture the whole length of the scroll -- even if it is you who scrolls and captures for him. When you come toward the end of the page length, the “manual capture is often “terminated” prematurely! The video will also show the “scroll bar” does not get to the end of the page being “manually” captured. 

This beta version has something wrong with its scroll-count or something (getting a hint from my experience using ShareX). Perhaps because the scroll is done manually...Screenpresso PRO also cannot stitch (merge) the images properly because most of the end result shows that bottom parts of the page are “stitched/merged somewhere else”. There wasn’t anything in all the end results that you can actually use! This is really STILL in Beta! Well, I don’t know if I am doing it wrong or something but I repeated it all over again and same end results surfaced (I also did not bother to use their Google Chrome extension). Anyway, as mentioned it is still in beta so still unpolished. I will be waiting on the feature when it comes out as stable. 
 

Screenpresso PRO SUA Beta Scrolling Capture Test

 

Screenpresso PRO Scrolling Screenshot Beta_version pop-up



Screenpresso PRO Capture Scrolling Window Pop-Up 1




Screenpresso PRO Image Stitching / Merging Issue