Capture screenshots without an extension

Until recently, if you wanted to take a screenshot of a web page in Chrome, you had to use an extension such as Nimbus Capture ( www.snipca. com/40113). This made the browser feel rather oldfashioned compared with Edge and Vivaldi, which offer built-in screencapture tools. Chrome 96, which was released last month, introduced the option to take screenshots without an extension, but

- like many of the browser’s most useful new features - it’s currently tucked away on its Experiments page.

To activate the new Screenshot function, type chrome:flags into

Chrome’s address bar and press Enter. Search for the entry Desktop Screenshots and select Enabled in the dropdown menu next to it. Do the same for Desktop Sharing Hub in Omnibox, then relaunch the browser.

You’ll now see a new ‘Share this page’ icon in the address bar - this looks like a right-pointing arrow in a box. When you want to take a screenshot of a web page, click this icon and choose Screenshot from the menu that opens (see screenshot left). Drag your mouse over the area you want to capture and the screenshot will be copied to your clipboard. Click Download (see screenshot below left) in the preview that appears in Chrome’s top-right corner to save the image to your Downloads folder in PNG format.

When the Screenshot feature is officially available in a future version of Chrome, it will let you edit your captured images directly in the browser. The tool will also appear in Chrome’s new integrated Share menu – see our Workshop below to find out how to try this experiment.