Powertoys: GIF / Video Screen Recorder

[pilcherd]

I love the idea of this PowerToy. It's something I've wanted in the Snipping Tool for ages.

My use case would be recording software interactions for the purpose of making tickets or training etc.

To that end, saving in more formats that are better (higher fidelity) than GIF would make the tool more useful. E.g. save as MP4/HEIC etc.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[vexvoltage]

https://www.screentogif.com/

Just in the meantime this is a great product.

[johnnliu]

I'm mainly thinking about using the GIF for sharing on Twitter - so a size that's good for sharing, but not tripping the default dithering algorithm (which makes the GIF unwatchable) would be wonderful.

[mikemaccana]

TBH I think this belongs in Windows itself, not as a powertoy.

Capturing a video (inc GIF) should be as easy as pressing Print Screen (note, I am aware of Gamebar, but Gamebar is complex and weird to use for desktop apps)

[asjones987]

Curious why put too much time and effort in to this as opposed to link to or see if Nicke Manarin would like to integrate for long term support his great tool ScreenToGIF.

https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif

[pilcherd]

Curious why put too much time and effort in to this as opposed to link to or see if Nicke Manarin would like to integrate for long term support his great tool ScreenToGIF.

https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif

I had never seen that. A very useful tool along the lines of what I was after. Thank you for the link.

[bdbch]

From my original issue:

Windows still doesn't have a good way to record the screen as a video or gif file. That is why I always rely on third party tools like ShareX.

For MacOS there is a tool called Kap which allows you to record a fullscreen video, a window or a specific region in forehand and afterwards allows you to change the video output resolution, fps and format (MP4, WebM or GIF).

I think implementing this in some way would be awesome for people doing a lot of quick videos. (I for example do code handovers with video examples so it's easier to see my feature or change in action).

I could even see this tool in some form in combination with the new Snipping Tool.

In the meantime I'd suggest ShareX, it's a really good Screenshot tool but it's always a hassle to setup.

[dprice809]

Hi, It looks like there have been a lot of great alternatives suggested. If the project is still looking to add this to PowerToys, I would be interested in contributing.

I talked to @crutkas a little offline and it was suggested that I reach out on here. @crutkas suggested reaching out to ScreenToGif devs to look into integration.

I do not have extensive experience with video formats. Basic things like capturing, cropping, or adding text should be reasonable. If not I can always work on the UI and integration with PowerToys UI/Configuration.

Would the first step be to reach out to ScreenToGif?

[bdbch]

@dprice809 @crutkas what do you guys think about ShareX by @Jaex?

[crutkas]

@dprice809 i will reach out

[crutkas]

@bdbch without a doubt, i bet working with @Jaex and the ShareX team would be great but the license their project uses would cause an issue with our license.

[GoodClover]

GIF is a very outdated format, and dosen't have very good compression or quality.
I recommend making it use support video formats and it becoming a general screen recorder or using something like APNG or the GIFV metaformat.

Ideally all of them could be supported, but I don't think having its main focus as GIF files is a good idea.

[bdbch]

GIF is still the most supported format of all of them (all browsers, all kind of apps they can be shared to, etc.)

I agree options for APNG, WEBP/WEBM or GIFV could be added on top but GIFs should be the most basic implementation for this.

[robsonsobral]

I just discovered this is already available on Wind10. May it be moved from the ridiculous tools hidden behind WIN+G?

[crutkas]

video recording kind of is but Win+G really is aimed at gaming, not the scenarios we're trying to discuss here. I think a good question is why isn't that more accessible to non-gaming scenarios

[robsonsobral]

video recording kind of is but Win+G really is aimed at gaming, not the scenarios we're trying to discuss here. I think a good question is why isn't that more accessible to non-gaming scenarios

Oh, I agree. My point is that the tool is already there. Maybe it's an easier starting point.

[Blakeinstein]

A point to note is the availability of steps recorder. Allowed users to build html based steps as a series of images with instructions.

[eguif]

I liked the screentogif for being simpler to use compared to screenx

Will you use screentogif as a base?

[checkdigits]

Another vote from me for looking at ScreenToGif and somehow merging that functionality with PowerToys. For me ScreenToGif is ridiculously easy to use with a few quirks (exporting the video could be better, for example). I've used it for a whole bunch of purposes and it's rock-solid, has a great feature set with superb functionality.

[crutkas]

@checkdigits, we want to propose what we're going to build, not the underlying tech. that comes after everyone gives what we are proposing a green light 👍

[mdtauk]

I just wanted to add, that I think the ability to choose a region of the screens to "capture" would be useful. (If only for making gifs for GitHub repos to demonstrate things.)

You could also consider conversion and cropping of WIN+G videos to create an animated gif from it. At the moment I have used this site for converting video mock ups to embeddable gifs.
https://ezgif.com/video-to-gif

Snip and Sketch / Snipping Tool allows you to drag to select the bounds - in addition to this, I would like to suggest you display the width and height being selected during this process.

[Blakeinstein]

Can we also integrate the Steps Recorder that windows already has? It generates HTML but It would be great if the screenshots could be small gifs, that the user can press hotkeys to record and then break into a new step.

[vrubleg]

It makes sense to support APNG. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge support it properly, and it has better quality and better compression. Comparison APNG vs GIF vs WebP: http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html

[Yecats]

I love having this built in! I record gifs all the time for tutorials and to show off work. Will this have the ability to edit frames? I do that all the time to erase mistakes / speed up footage if needed.

[eguif]

@checkdigits,queremos propor o que vamos construir, não a tecnologia subjacente 👍.

I believe that people recommend ScreenToGif because they have great tools and those same tools are very easy to use