Screen grabs and screencasts made easy, with Jing

The team behind the screen recording utility Camtasia have released a simplified, experimental version of the technology, packaged into a nice downloadable application called the Jing Project (download).

This blob is the Jing UI.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Jing makes it very easy to grab screenshots and videos straight from your PC, and then save them or share them on the Web. For me, the coolest part of this experiment--in theory--is Jing's integration with Screencast.com, a hosting service for videos recorded off your computer. Once you've recorded a video, you can save it to your Screencast account, and from there you can get an embed code to put it in a blog or other page.

The experimental Jing is great, but oddly, the well-established Screencast.com site is the weak link in the chain. It's unattractive, and the links you need (the embed codes) are nearly impossible to find. Plus, after 60 days, the free trial service expires--so don't get hooked if you can't stomach the $6.95 a month fee for screencast hosting. What I'd really like to see is a quick and easy way to upload Jing files to YouTube, Blip.TV, Viddler, or other free sharing sites. That would kill part of TechSmith's revenue model, though.

If you need to do serious screencast editing, the full Camtasia product is worth looking at. And, of course, you can grab graphics from Windows without any download at all (shift-PrintScreen). But for a clean, flexible, and almost fun way to grab pictures and onscreen videos, Jing really can't be beat.

Update: Chris Pirillo raised a good point via Twitter: Jing has less than no YouTube support. It produces Flash SWF files, which YouTube doesn't read. That's a colossal omission in a video product these days.

The following video was made, of course, with Jing.

[brooksandrus]

Free Screencast.com Account

A complimentary Screencast.com account is being provided for the length of the Jing project. To reiterate that's a free, as in beer, hosting account that is not limited by the normal 60 day Screencast.com trial account. Content uploaded to Screencast.com remains the property of the owner and can be downloaded at anytime.

Also keep in mind that you are not limited to uploading to Screencast.com. You have the option to save your Jing file locally and do with it as you please.

Regards,

Brooks Andrus
Senior Flash Developer
TechSmith Corporation

[rafe]

Err, not so much

Ok, but my screencast account just ran out of bandwidth. I just got this message: "Your account has reached the bandwidth limit. Viewers will no longer be able to access any media in your account."

You're right about being able to save vids locally and put them where you want. I'm just saying it'd be cool if Jing did it for you.

-Rafe

[rafe]

I bought more bandwidth

Ok, to keep the video online for this demo, I bought more bandwidth.