Secret Tips For… Picpick

Add a time delay to screenshots, measure what’s on your screen and annotate any website

Set screenshot time delay

Picpick ( http://ngwin.com) is a handy tool when it comes to taking screenshots in Windows, but it can sometimes be tricky to position open windows where you want them, expand any dropdown menus you want to include in the shot and hit the print screen key all within a split second. To help, it’s possible to add a time delay between when you press Print Screen and when the screenshot is taken. Just as a camera lets you delay the shutter to give you the time to get into the photograph. To set the time delay, open Picpick and click File, Program Options, Capture and use the arrows in the ‘Delay before capture’ section (see screenshot below left). The time delay is measured in milliseconds, so set it to 5,000 for a five-second delay.

Measure what’s on screen

If you’ve tried to design a pamphlet or a website, you might have wanted to be able to physically measure digital images. Picpick has a virtual ruler that can be dragged across any open window on your PC. To use it, open Picpick and click File and Pixel Ruler. Once the ruler appears, use the left-hand icon to change its orientation from vertical to horizontal, and the left and right arrows to shorten and extend the ruler.

The unit of measurement on the ruler is pixels (px). To change these to centimetres or inches (so you can better tell how large the image will be when you print it), right-click the ruler and select Units, then your preferred measurement.

Annotate anything on your desktop

Whether browsing the web, or collaborating on the design of a poster, there could come a point when it would be handy to be able to annotate what you’re looking at before sending it to a friend. You can do this in Picpick using the Whiteboard tool. To activate it, click the Picpick icon in the bottom-right of the taskbar and then click Whiteboard (you might have to click the small up arrow to see it; if you can’t see it, first open Picpick from the Start menu). Now click on your screen and you’ll see that you’ll be able to draw across anything on your display (see screenshot above).

You can use the Pencil, Line, Arrow or Shape tools to edit anything as you need to and can record an image of your efforts using the ‘Capture the screen’ button. While the Whiteboard is in effect you won’t be able to interact with your open windows (you’ll only be able to draw). To make things go back to normal, click the ‘X’ at the top-right of the Whiteboard menu.

Apply a watermark to images

A watermark is a great way to make sure no one else will want to steal or re-use any images you share online. Picpick has a great tool to easily add one. Open an image you want to add a mark to and click Effects, then Watermark. Use the Position panel to place the watermark wherever you want it, change the transparency using the slide bar at the bottom of the screen and click OK to apply the effect. You can automatically add watermarks to any screenshot you take by ticking the ‘Add a watermark automatically when capturing image’ box.