ScreenToGif — The Complete Guide: Recording Short Clips to Show Software Steps
ScreenToGif is a Windows tool that records an area of the screen and opens the recording in a frame editor. A ten-second GIF showing how to define a load case or export results explains more than a page of instructions — and drops easily into an email or an internal guide.
ScreenToGif
Nicke Manarin
Record short screen clips as GIF or video — to show software steps in tutorials and emails.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Three sources — a screen area, a webcam or a sketch board.
- Frame editor — delete and trim frames.
- Extras — text, keystroke display and effects.
- Export — GIF, APNG, video or images.
- Open licence — MS-PL, free including commercial use.
What to know
It requires the .NET desktop runtime. It is also available from the Microsoft Store and Chocolatey. The old website now redirects to N-Studio, the same developer’s successor product, but ScreenToGif itself still receives maintenance releases on GitHub.
Related tools
For recording longer tutorials — OBS Studio. For capture and recording in one place — ShareX. For video editing — Shotcut.
OBS Studio
OBS Project
Screen recording and streaming — software tutorials, model walkthroughs and recorded lectures in high quality.
Get it from the vendorShareX
ShareX team
Screenshots and screen recording for Windows — annotate with arrows and labels, and extract text with OCR.
Get it from the vendor
Shotcut
Meltytech
A free video editor — cut, caption, add callouts and export tutorial and site-inspection videos.
Get it from the vendorGreenshot
Greenshot team
A lightweight Windows screenshot tool with arrows, highlights, blurring and export to file, printer or Office.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
For short clips that explain a single action, ScreenToGif is quicker and simpler than any video program.