Windows 10 includes a handy tool called Snip & Sketch that allows you to take screenshots and annotate them. The quick snip feature allows you to easily and quickly take screenshots without opening the full Snip & Sketch app.
What is Quick Snip?
Quick snip is a fast way to take basic screenshots using a keyboard shortcut. When you initiate a quick snip, your screen will dim and your cursor will change to a crosshair. You can click and drag to select the area of your screen that you want to capture. As soon as you release your mouse or trackpad, the screenshot will be captured and saved to your clipboard. You can then paste the image into a document, email, paint app, etc.
How to Use Quick Snip
Using quick snip is very simple. Here are the steps:
- Make sure you are in the application or have the window open that you want to capture.
- Press the Windows logo key + Shift + S on your keyboard. This keyboard shortcut initiates quick snip mode.
- Your screen will dim and your cursor will change to a crosshair.
- Click and drag your mouse to select the area you want to screenshot.
- When you release the mouse or trackpad, the screenshot will be captured and copied to your clipboard automatically.
- You can now paste the image into any document or app using CTRL+V or by right clicking and selecting “Paste”.
Tips for Using Quick Snip
- If you want to capture a specific window or frame, hover your cursor over the window and it will automatically highlight – then click and drag to snip just that window.
- You can press the Esc key while in quick snip mode to exit without capturing a screenshot.
- The screenshot will be copied to your clipboard, so you need to paste it somewhere before taking another quick snip or it will be overwritten.
- You can set a delay before taking the screenshot by clicking the windows key and selecting the time from the overlay menu.
- Try using CTRL+V to paste into an email or document right after taking a quick snip for fast and easy sharing.
Customizing Quick Snip
You can customize a few options for your quick snips in Windows 10:
Keyboard Shortcut
If you don’t like the default Windows logo + Shift + S keyboard shortcut, you can change it to something else:
- Open Settings and go to Accessibility > Keyboard.
- Scroll down and select “Print Screen shortcut”
- Change the shortcut to whatever key combination you prefer.
Snip Delay
You can set a delay before the quick snip is captured. This gives you time to set up the screenshot:
- Press Windows + Shift + S to put your system in quick snip mode.
- Click the notification that pops up from the action center at the lower right.
- Choose your desired delay time (in seconds) before capturing.
Snip Type
When you right-click on the quick snip icon in your system tray, you can choose between two snip types:
- Rectangular Snip – This is the default mode where you click and drag to select a rectangular area to capture.
- Freeform Snip – This allows you to draw any shape around the area you want to snip.
Snipping Tool vs Quick Snip
The main Snipping Tool app offers a few additional capabilities over quick snip:
| Snipping Tool | Quick Snip |
|---|---|
| Capture full screen, active window, or custom snippets | Rectangular or freeform custom snippets only |
| Annotate your snips before saving | Captures snip directly to clipboard |
| Save snips as images or MHTML | Saves snip image to clipboard only |
| Set up multiple customized snipping modes | Keyboard shortcut initiates basic snip |
So Snipping Tool gives you more options, but quick snip is faster for basic screenshots. Use quick snip for quick captures and snippets you want to paste somewhere instantly. Open Snipping Tool when you need to annotate, save, or customize your screenshots.
Conclusion
Here are some key points to recap on using quick snip in Windows 10:
- Use the Windows + Shift + S keyboard shortcut to initiate quick snip mode
- Click and drag to select a rectangular area or freeform section to capture
- The screenshot is copied instantly to your clipboard
- Paste into any app using CTRL+V or right click Paste
- Customize your shortcut, delays, and snip shape in Settings
- Quick snip is for fast captures to your clipboard, Snipping Tool offers more editing features
With just a simple keyboard shortcut, you can easily capture screenshots on the fly with quick snip in Windows 10. It’s great for quickly sharing snippets, funny images, instructions, or anything else you want to paste into documents or emails.
Some example uses for quick snip include:
- Capturing a funny meme or image to share
- Grabbing a snippet of text or code to paste somewhere
- Creating fast how-to screenshots for instructions
- Sharing an error message with tech support
- Highlighting something on a webpage to paste into a document
So next time you need to quickly copy a screenshot to your clipboard on Windows 10, use the handy quick snip tool for the fastest way to snip and share images!