Screenshot database LittleSnapper

LittleSnapper has a name that does not fit its usefulness. LittleSnapper is closer to an image manager than it is to a traditional screenshot program. It has some surprising features and uses. Whereas Layers focusses on giving you control over what the OS draws on the screen --including hidden elements-- LittleSnapper focusses on management.The first time I took LittleSnapper for a ride, I wondered what all the fuss was about. I was soon to discover. But let’s first describe LittleSnapper. LittleSnapper is a development by RealMac Software, the company that develops RapidWeaver. LittleSnapper has an iTunes sort of organised browser, with a sidebar holding folders, sets, collections, and smart folders.

The main window obviously holds the screenshot as soon as it’s created. Screenshots can be created the usual way—although snapping an area gives you a nice measurements info HUD, which is pretty unique by itself—but you can also create a timed screenshot of the entire screen. Once screenshots have been taken, they appear in the bundle file that represents LittleSnapper’s Library in the Finder. All your screenshots—no matter how many collections or sets you make within LittleSnapper—are kept together in that library.
That’s also the first thing that got my attention big time: LittleSnapper actually lets you have as many libraries as you want, keeping all shots within one library together. With the offered capabilities to tag each screenshot, create smart sets for them, and have some basic metadata attached to screenshots, I’d call LittleSnapper more of a modest desktop based digital asset management tool—one of the next generation if you wish—than a screenshot program pur sang.

LittleSnapper has a built-in web browser and the capability to “catch” web pages from Safari, Firefox, etc. If you have a web page open in Safari, for example, you can select to open that page in LittleSnapper from LittleSnapper’s menu bar entry, and the page will appear in LittleSnapper’s own browser. You can then click to either get a shot of the complete page, including those elements that are only visible in the browser after scrolling down. Websnaps can be exported afterwards as PDFs.

Another one of LittleSnapper’s great capabilities in my opinion, is that you can import at least Photoshop, PNG and JPEG images into LittleSnapper, and that you can edit LittleSnapper images from the application’s context menu in one of your preferred image editing tools (and web snaps’ source files in a HTML editor of your choice). This allows you to also manage some photos and web pages with the application.
Annotating screenshots for collaborative purposesThere are annotation capabilities in LittleSnapper and a Publish feature that enables you to upload shots to FTP, Flickr, or their own online image service, Ember. Small workgroup collaboration might be easier with LittleSnapper than with iPhoto or Aperture.

Except for annotation features, LittleSnapper also has some basic image editing features, with all of them (cleverly) aimed at either presenting or ‘making a point’—e.g. the blur feature, or the arrow tools. And even here, RealMac Software has done a unique job: annotation blobs can have a number added to them—the blob itself will get that number shown in a corner while you’ll also you’ll get a freeform-movable circle with the same number to place on the image in the spot that you want to draw the attention to.

Another hint at LittleSnapper’s ambitions to be more than a screenshot program is the ability to drag an image in another application and get the annotation tools automatically added to the result, and the ability to ‘enrich’ each snap with a type category in the Inspector—types can be “Screenshot”, “Websnap”, Photo”, “Illustration”, “Mockup”, “iSight”, “iPhone”, and “Other”.
I had LittleSnapper running for a couple of weeks before I accidentally hit upon what I believe to be its greatest attraction: its drag-and-drop capabilities extend to applications like InDesign and QuarkXPress, i.e. you can actually use LittleSnapper as if it were a media manager for those applications too.

Together with its web snap functionality, that alone makes LittleSnapper the most useful screenshot
and light-weight image management application I know of. It’s simply the most efficient and pleasurable program to use when writing a manual or web page, explaining how some software works, or not! It’s also indispensable if you comment or teach web design, due to its unique combination of features.

Does it lack features? In my opinion, it would be even greater when LittleSnapper had some more metadata capabilities like having a date as well as a time field, perhaps even the ability to add IPTC data. I also would like to be able to minimise LittleSnapper so it becomes even more integrated with InDesign or QuarkXPress. But other than this, I find LittleSnapper to be an indispensable tool for anyone who creates screenshots or web snaps.