OBS Studio (a rewrite of the original Open Broadcaster) is a comprehensive open-source package for video recording and live streaming. The program supports multiple sources, including media files, games, web pages, application windows, webcams, your desktop, microphone and more. These sources can be combined. For example, you could include a…

Windows has always featured some kind of basic screen grabbing tool, from the incredibly primitive Print Screen key that copies the entire screen to the clipboard to the Snipping Tool of Vista and Windows 7, which enables you to grab selected parts of the screen or active windows, with or…

PicPick is a screen capture tool that comes with a host of useful options and extras. The program supports many different capture types, for instance: full-screen, active window, a window control, a scrolling window, a region on the screen, freehand captures and more. These all have their own hotkeys, which…

G’MIC is an amazingly powerful image processing tool for the command line (or via GIMP, if you install the plugin). It’s aimed very much at experts, but has features which can be used by just about everyone. At its simplest, you might use the program to view a series of…

Blender is a powerful, professional, and free open source 3D graphics tool that can be used to produce everything from single 2D stills, to full 3D movies in broadcast and cinema quality, and even interactive 3D content for stand-alone playback. The program comes packed with essential features. A comprehensive modeller…

It’s amazing how quickly manufacturers abandon support for older hardware devices. This is nowhere more evident than when it comes to scanners. The gradual shift from 32- to 64-bit computing threatens to leave even more perfectly serviceable scanners in the box marked “obsolete”, but there may be a future for…

Screenpresso is a lightweight screen grab tool that still manages to squeeze in some unusual and interesting features. And so the program doesn’t just grab your entire screen, individual windows or defined regions, for instance. It can also grab multiple images of a scrolled window and stitch them all together…

MPC-HC is an open source media player for Windows. The program opens just about any audio or video format, along with CDs, DVDs or DVDs, and standard playback controls ensure you’ll feel at home right away. MPC-HC is vastly configurable. The interface can be customised, keyboard shortcuts remapped, file associations…

Shooting your own videos has never been easier, especially if you’re equipped with a smartphone. Quality can be variable, of course, but a few minutes spent with Movavi Video Editor will fix many problems and give your footage a far more professional look. The program’s simple timeline helps to get…

When online you will encounter video which have been encoded using a variety of codecs. If you frequently watch different types of video you will generally have to have numerous different programs installed, each catering for different types of video – this can be an annoyance when you encounter a…