Karen Sichler

In her foundational article on photography in digital gamespaces, Poremba interrogated the use of screenshots by players of online games such as The Sims or World of Warcraft. The use of photography/screenshots, along with its “strong link to the true event – the recording of the real,” also allows the user/player/designer to “own” the experience captured via digital technology.

The idea of ownership is at the heart of why this particular technological rhizome was originally developed. As Svelch enumerates, screen capture technology allowed for the creation of “a spatially and temporally independent image that could be shared and distributed without having to access the original machine and recreate the conditions under which it had been created.” For professionals interested in the hows and whys of efficient design, the screenshot seizes the moment for us and allows us to build a cache of data to improve the user and learner experience. 

Although devices (mobile, laptop, or desktop) have embedded capabilities for screen capture, multiple software options have been developed. I decided to dive into this realm in hopes of being able to upgrade what I can do with the many screenshots I collect in my digital wanderings. I decided to try ShareX. Unlike other software options, ShareX is Windows-only. It is completely free as well as open-source; therefore, the end-user has a lot of flexibility. You can find the repository on GitHub. Even if you are not going to delve into code, the flexibility of this particular tool has a lot to offer the user.

Users can get the application in a number of different ways: via the download link on the website, on GitHub, in the Microsoft Store, and on Steam. I downloaded it using the Microsoft Store and, for basic set-up, there was nothing out of the ordinary I had to do. It was click and go. However, as with many open-source products that have been in development for years (and ShareX was first introduced 16 years ago), users can customize their settings as little or as much as they want. One option you may want to configure before you wade too deeply into the settings is the destination settings. Users can connect multiple platforms and accounts to access their images wherever they are and not just on the original computer. This allows for easy sharing with others as well as not pinning you to a single workstation. 

You may also want to go in and set up your standardized capture settings. To do so, head over “Image” in the task settings:

• Fullscreen
• Monitor menu 
• Last region
• Scrolling capture
• Active window
• Region
• Custom region
• Auto capture
• Active monitor
• Region (Light)
• Screen recording
• Window menu (very helpful when you have multiple windows going)
• Region (Transparent) 
• Screen recording (gif)