Quickly Annotate Graphics With FastStone Capture

Sometimes I just need to draw a quick circle around something, draw a red arrow and type a couple words. I don't want to whole Gimp scenario or even Paint.net for additional formatting.

FastStone Capture to the rescue (the old free version from here). Start FS Capture and drag/drop the graphic onto FS. Choose "draw" and do it. On Win7 I need to turn off anti alias in the draw module to keep FS from freezing (small check box on lower right). The "off" sticks so you only need to set it once and FS will remember the setting. I previously thought I would need to re-capture and only just discovered I could drag and drop the graphic to open it in FS.

Another handy thing FS can do is take a scrolling capture of an entire web page (6th icon over on the FS bar).

FS Capture of all the capture programs I have tried still remains my default capture utility. With Launchy running, I type alt-space, fs and bingo the little FS bar is up and running. How could beat that? You see, I don't like more things running than necessary and like to keep them closed unless I really need them.

PicPick is more robust but also not as slick and quick.