Apowersoft Free Screen Capture vs Lightscreen

Apowersoft Free Screen Capture captures visible screen content, including selected regions, active windows, drop-down menus, webpages, video frames, and gameplay. Users can start with the camera icon or Print Screen key; the tool detects application windows as the pointer moves over them. A quick editor adds lines, arrows, text, shapes, or blur to cover sensitive information. Captures can be saved as JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, or PDF. Sharing options include copying to the clipboard, emailing, uploading to Screenshot.net, or sharing to listed social networks; uploads receive links, and the product page says free cloud space is provided. The web-based tool does not need Java Applet, but first-time users must install a launcher. It is listed as free, with a free plan for unlimited screenshots after launcher installation. The listed platforms are web, Windows, and macOS. Apowersoft Free Screen Capture is headquartered in Hong Kong, and the maker was founded in 2010.

Lightscreen automates screenshot capture and saves and catalogs images on disk according to user preferences. It can run as a hidden background process and respond to global hotkeys, with six configurable capture actions. Users can resize or adjust the capture area, then review an image in a preview window with an integrated viewer. Captures can be named sequentially or with customizable date and time formats. For sharing, Lightscreen uploads to Imgur and compatible pomf clones; users can also add other compatible hosts manually. Imgur uploads are anonymous, and the help page describes account uploads as planned for a later version. Portable mode stores preferences in config.ini so settings can move with the installation. Lightscreen supports Windows and Linux, and the site lists version 2.5 with improvements to area capture and fixes for cursor capture, crashes, and SSL issues. Uploads may require OpenSSL support on either platform. The code is licensed under GNU General Public License version 2, and the listed Free plan costs nothing.