Free-to-use E-Learning Development 17: Techsmith Jing Part 1 – Still Image Capture
Back to free-to-use software today as I take a look at Techsmith Jing. According to my trusty Book of Everything, ‘jing’ is the Chinese word for “essence.” Along with qì and shén, it is considered one of the Three Treasures of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
It’s also a pretty good description of the eponymous Techsmith product. Originally released in 
2007, Jing contains the essential features of TechSmith’s professional motion-based screen capture application Camtasia, and Snagit, their still image screenshooting product. Jing, then is a ‘lite’ application that enables users to capture images and video from their computer screen. Captured media can be saved locally to a client machine or uploaded to the web via FTP. By default, content is stored on TechSmith’s Screencast.com site.
Note: there is also a Pro version of Jing (the license costs less that $15 per annum as of November 2009), but as this series of articles is about open source and free-to-use tools, I won’t be discussing that version of the application here on the E-Learning Curve Blog.
So let’s take a closer look at Jing, a tool which in my view has seems to have great potential for training professionals who need to develop content using the Rapid E-Learning methodology. Today, I will discuss the still image screen-shooting capabilities of the tool.
Jing is designed to be an “always on” computer service. Once installed, its icon sits unobtrusively at the top center of your desktop (though you can move it anywhere you like by simply dragging it), like the bisected lower half of a beneficent Sun, ready to be used as and when you need to capture some visual content. Mousing over the icon activates the utility’s three feature areas (which extend like stylized sunrays from the demi-globe):
- Capture: selects the image capture area and opens the capture toolbar. Select still or motion-based image capture, redo selection, cancel, and edit in Snagit.
- More: allows you to set preferences, send feedback, get online help and turn the application off
- History: displays type, date and size of previously-captured media
Clicking on the Capture button launches the application – and if you’re my age it will immediately transport you in time and space to being a 10-year old in your local video arcade, because you encounter the biggest set of cross-hairs I’ve seen since I played Missile Command on the Atari console. Luckily, there’s less at stake using Jing: you merely have to select your capture area rather than defend six cities from thermonuclear oblivion. Once selected, you can modify the capture area using the ‘Redo Selection’ button on the toolbar, before choosing whether to capture a screenshot or initiate a screen capture.
Figure 1 Jing Cross-hairs: incapable of saving the planet from an atomic nightmare
[Click to Enlarge]
After selecting an image area, you have the ability to add various enhancements to your screen capture (see Figure 2) using the arrows, text boxes, borders, and highlight functionality. You may also change the colors of these features using the customizable nine-color palette. If you don’t like what you’ve done, use Undo and Redo to modify your additions to the screenshot.
Figure 2 Jing screenshot enhancement UI
[Click to Enlarge]
Once you’ve finished modifying your image and you’ve saved your screenshot, Jing offers a range of internet-based distribution channels including Flickr, hosted FTP sites, network and internet file directories, and Screencast.com. Screencast.com is an image and multimedia 
storage site similar to Flickr.
Users of the gratis version of Jing must register with Screencast.com to activate the product. At the time of writing, Techsmith offer 2GB of free storage as the carrot for signing up. The site is very tightly integrated into Jing – you’re even nagged prompted to create a Screencast.com account during Jing installation if you don’t already have an account.
Some of the source material I studied while undertaking my research for this article were quite scathing about Screencast.com. For example, in his July 2009 TechCrunch review of the product Duncan Riley considered that
…if YouTube was the United States of America, Screencast.com would be a tin pot failed African nation; it’s horrible.
Ouch! Actually, in my tests it works fine: I wouldn’t archive the master files for my Great American Movie on Screencast.com, but it’s good considering it’s a free-to-use hosted webspace.
The third feature available via the Jing bifurcated Helios icon is History. While the History pane’s value isn’t immediately apparent, over time most users will upload a substantial number of media assets to their preferred distribution channel, and this feature enables you to manage and track your media assets. More usefully, it enables you to store and instantly access your content for reuse at a later time.
Next time: I look at Jing’s screen capturing capabilities
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References:
Riley, D. (2009) The Jing Project: The 3 Legged Dog Of Screen Captures And Screencasting. TechCrunch. [Internet] Available from: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/the-jing-project-the-3-legged-dog-of-screen-captures-and-screencasting/ [Accessed 20 November 2009]
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December 02 2009 04:00 pm | e-learning
4 Responses to “Free-to-use E-Learning Development 17: Techsmith Jing Part 1 – Still Image Capture”
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