Our verdict: ksnip is a good middle ground between the Windows Snipping Tool and ShareX: it captures the usual areas and opens a capable annotation editor with tabs. It works the same on Windows, macOS and Linux. The last release dates from 2023 and the author is looking for co-maintainers, so do not expect quick fixes.
About ksnip
ksnip is an open-source screenshot tool built with Qt by Damir Porobic. It captures a rectangle, the last selected area, the current screen, all screens or the active window, with an optional delay and with or without the mouse cursor. Each capture opens in the kImageAnnotator editor, where you can draw with a pen or marker, add arrows, rectangles, ellipses, text and stickers, blur or pixelate areas, crop and add watermarks.
Captures can be saved, copied, printed to PDF, pinned as frameless windows that stay on top, or uploaded to imgur, an FTP server or through your own script. Global hotkeys work on Windows. OCR is available through a separate ksnip-plugin-ocr based on Tesseract. The latest release, 1.10.1, was published in March 2023.
What it does well
- Capture modes. Rectangle, last area, current screen, full screen and active window, with delay.
- Annotation editor. Pen, marker, shapes, text, stickers, blur, pixelate, effects and watermarks.
- Tabs. Keeps several screenshots and images open side by side for editing.
- Pinned captures. Shows a screenshot in a frameless window that stays above other windows.
- Upload and actions. Uploads to imgur or FTP and runs custom actions after capture.
Who it is for
Good fit
Users who want a cross-platform screenshot tool with a solid annotation editor and no account.
Look elsewhere
Users who need screen recording, scrolling capture or a tool with frequent updates.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free and open source
- Strong annotation editor with tabs
- Pin screenshots on top of other windows
- Same app on Windows, macOS and Linux
Cons
- No release since March 2023
- No screen recording or scrolling capture
- OCR needs a separate plugin
How to install ksnip
The button downloads the official MSI installer from the ksnip GitHub release. A ZIP with the portable EXE is listed on the same page. After installation, set your hotkeys under Options > Settings; for OCR, download the separate ksnip-plugin-ocr and place it in the plugins folder next to ksnip.exe.
Questions about ksnip
Is ksnip free?
Yes. ksnip is open source under the GNU GPL v3 and has no paid features.
Can ksnip capture a scrolling web page?
No. It captures areas, screens and windows only. ShareX offers scrolling capture on Windows.
Does ksnip have OCR?
Yes, through the separate ksnip-plugin-ocr, which uses Tesseract. Once the plugin is detected, OCR appears under Options.
