Skitch and Windows are finally together
If you are at least remotely interested in any kind of high-tech products, you may have noticed that Mac users always brag about their system's integrated features which other systems, including Windows, usually lack. More often than not, however, they actually mean certain exclusive third-party apps, which are indeed generally quite handy. And yet, one of such exclusive apps, has recently come to Windows.
I'm talking about one of the most popular screenshot taking and image editing tools, Skitch. Skitch is very simple and free, and it allows its users to draw and write on their photos, screenshots, and other images, thereby drawing attention of their workmates and friends to key elements in those pictures without wasting too much time on verbal explanation. More specifically, Skitch comes with a number of tools that allow for quick and easy image annotation, which makes communication much simpler.
Basic Tools and Features
In Skitch you can highlight important parts of images by annotating them with arrows, various shapes, and text in different colors. In addition to this, you can draw freehand shapes, crop images, and generally edit your images in the simplest way.
Skitch Tools: the marker and arrows
For me, the simplicity of the app is its main asset. Thanks to its bare-bone and straightforward interface, with only a few buttons on the side panel, annotating an image is no trouble at all. Each of those buttons refers to a particular tool: arrows, text, marker, crop, style, and pixelate.
Skitch Tools: pixelate
The latter is a new feature, and I daresay quite useful as it allows blurring out any sensitive or personal information from the image, something that you wouldn't like to share with anybody.
Additional Features
But those basic editing and annotating functions are not what we're looking for in a third-party image editor. Luckily, there are some nifty additional features in Skitch, which really do warrant choosing it over MS Paint.
One of them is “Drag Me Bar”, which provides a quick way to carry your masterpieces over into documents, emails, or other apps. You just click on the said bar and drag the annotated image right into your app; and Skitch will attach or import it automatically.
Drag Me Bar
Another one, probably the biggest new feature for me, is map integration (which is, unfortunately, only available in Windows 8). If you often have trouble explaining people where you'd like to meet them, feeling like your verbal instructions only make them even more confused, you can simply click on the map icon, search for the desired location, tap “Snap” to capture the image, and draw the route in whichever color you like. Then it's only a matter of sending your annotated map to your friend.
Maps
All in all, to me Skitch definitely looks like a worthy companion to MS Paint, complementing the standard image editing tool in all the right areas. I guess that Skitch will mainly be a nice choice for those who look for simple and light-featured apps, with some quick handy options and an intuitive interface. If you're interested, give Skitch a try and share your thoughts about it.
