What makes Free Snipping Tool so great? Because it takes screenshots, rather than just saving an image, you can grab pictures from sites where images aren’t selectable, or downloadable. You can also take screenshots of other images or text you have in other applications via the tool, and all will be saved in the online storage drive of your choosing.

Not only does it allow you to save pictures, but you can also add text and draw on images you find. You can highlight sections, circle others, or use shapes and arrows to emphasize a particular spot in the image.

The only downside is this Tool is only available on Windows computers, or computers that can open .exe files. If you have a Windows computer, learn how to get and start using Free Snipping Tool below, and have all the pictures you could ever need, absolutely free!

Note: This does not remove copyright and using some images may violate copyright law. Please use this tool wisely.

How to download Free Snipping Tool

  • Go to Free Snipping Tool’s website.
  •  Click the “Download Now” button in the top left menu, or on the left side of the page.
  • You’ll be taken to a loading page, then automatically redirected to another site that contains the download file. If you aren’t, click the “Restart Now” link offered to start the loading again.
  • Once you’re on the new site, click the “Download Now” button you see there too.
  • Your download should automatically begin. If it doesn’t, click “save” when prompted.
  • Once the download is complete, go to your Downloads folder, and double click the Free Snipping Tool installer. It will be a .MSI file.
  • Follow the prompts from the installer to completion.
  • You now have Free Snipping Tool on your computer!

How to use Free Snipping Tool

Now that you have Free Snipping Tool downloaded, you can start using it to screenshot select portions of your computer screen. Let’s go over the basic functions of the tool first.

To save an image or take a screenshot

  • Hit the “PrtScr” key on your keyboard, or double click the Free Snipping Tool application icon
  • Your cursor should become a black cross. Click and drag over the area you want to screenshot.
  • Release your click. That area should now have a box of dotted lines around it, and the area outside that box should be darker. You should also be able to see the dimensions of the box in the top left corner.
  • Didn’t quite get the area you wanted? Click and drag the black squares in the corners and sides of the dotted line box to adjust the area you’re capturing, or shift the entire selection by clicking and dragging inside the box when your mouse is a white cross of arrows.
  • In the bottom right corner of the dotted line box, select the “Upload” button, which looks like a cloud with an arrow going through it. That will copy the image, and send it to whatever cloud drive you prefer to use, like Google Drive, or Dropbox.
    • To use Free Snipping Tool with Google Drive, check out instructions here.
    • To use Free Snipping Tool with Dropbox, check out instructions here.
  • From there, Snipping Tool will offer to let you copy the image so you can paste it into another program, or save it to your computer hard drive. Click “Save Image” to keep a copy locally, in any format you want, as well as a copy in the cloud.

To draw on your image or screenshot

  • Activate Free Snipping Tool, and select your picture per the instructions above.
  • On the right of your box is a menu of tools. Select the pen icon, or the highlighter icon, to draw freehand in the box you’ve selected with your mouse.
  • Use the arrow, line, circle, or rectangle tools to insert those shapes where you want them in the selected box area.
  • Move shapes and drawings on the selected area by clicking the mouse cursor button at the top of the right menu bar.
  • Change the color of shapes by clicking on the square of color above the “Undo” and “Redo” buttons (it defaults to yellow), and selecting something new.

To write on your image or screenshot

  • Activate Free Snipping Tool, and select your picture per the instructions above.
  • Select the “T” icon from the bar menu on the right of your selected area.
  • Click where you’d like the text to be; a new dotted line box will appear inside your selected area.
  • Type whatever message you’d like inside the box.
  • Move the text box by selecting the mouse cursor tool at the top of the right menu bar, and clicking and dragging the text box.
  • Change the color of the text by clicking the square of color above the “Undo” and “Redo” buttons (it defaults to yellow), and selecting something new.

Other great Free Snipping Tool features

Free Snipping Tool allows you to share screenshots straight to social media; in the bottom right menu that appears when you’ve selected an image or area, just click the “Share” button to the left of “Settings,” and upload an image or screenshot right to your favorite accounts.

Free Snipping Tool also allows you to upload snips straight to FTP (File Transfer Protocol), for easy sharing on a computer network, and via WebRequest, should you need that too. These features are not available in the built in Windows snip tool, nor are the abilities to draw and write on the pictures, so Free Snipping Tool has a lot more features you might find useful.

For sites whose images you cant download directly, or that have text you want to save as an image, you need a great screenshotting tool. Download Free Snipping Tool now to have a great one that allows direct uploading all over the internet, from your favorite cloud drives, to your social media accounts, plus the ability to write and draw on screenshots before you save. You’ll get all the images you want, and you’ll get them absolutely free! Free Snipping Tool is the tool for us all.

Note: Some images are not downloadable for a reason. This tool does not circumvent copyright violations.