Comparison of Scrolling Capture Screenshot between Longshot, Xnip, and iShot

Scrolling screenshot, also known as long screenshot, refers to a page area that needs to scroll within the current screen range to capture the needed content since the full content cannot be contained, and piece together different content captured through scrolling to obtain the complete page content. For example, when browsing webpages or chat contents, it is often necessary to take scrolling long screenshots. This involves scrolling the page area, capturing different content, and stitching them together to get the full screenshot.

Based on the current understanding, the tools that support scrolling long screenshots on the Mac platform, in chronological order of appearance, are: Xnip, iShot, Longshot. In the early days, Snip also had this capability. However, with iterative versions, the current version downloaded and installed from the Store no longer has this functionality. As for browser plugins that can only capture long web page screenshots, they are not within the scope of this discussion.

As for why scrolling long screenshots need to be discussed, stitching multiple images together through algorithms to achieve long screenshots without system-level API support will always have some flaws. I think this is also why Snipaste has been slow to introduce scrolling long screenshot functionality. Additionally, the image stitching algorithms, balance of system performance, and implementation methods differ between various long screenshot tools, leading to differences in user experience. Therefore, comparing how perfectly different software can achieve scrolling long screenshots in various environments has some significance. Through comparison, problems can be found and user experience improved.

All three of these software tools can be downloaded and used via the App Store. The versions used for this comparative review are: Longshot version 1.2.0, iShot version 1.7.7, Xnip version 2.2.0

Scrolling Capture Screenshot Operational Logic

For scrollable pages, select a certain area within a screenshot frame, click the scrolling long screenshot tool, and vertically scroll within the selected frame area on the page. A stitched long screenshot will appear next to the selection frame during scrolling. After finishing scrolling through the desired content, click save. The operation process is broadly consistent across the three software tools Xnip, Longshot, and iShot.

Scrolling Capture Screenshot Feature Comparison

Whether it’s Longshot, Xnip or iShot, all can basically meet general needs for scrolling long screenshots. However, issues like scrolling too fast or failed stitching of scrolling screenshots are commonly encountered during use, lowering user efficiency and impacting experience. This determines the advantages and disadvantages of a tool. The comparison below looks at aspects like scrollable area selection, offset of scrolling direction, content within scrollable areas, and ease of operation.

Scrolling Capture Screenshot	Longshot	Xnip	iShot
Scroll Area Adaptability	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️
Scrolling Direction Tolerance	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️
Non-solid Color Background Support	✅	❌	❌
Dynamic Content Block Adaptability	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️
Solid Color Content Block Adaptability	⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️
Solid Color Content Block Adaptability	✅	❌	❌
Dynamic Adjustment of Scroll Area	✅	❌	❌
Re-stitching During Scrolling	✅	✅	✅
Scrolling Speed Adaptability	⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Window Selection Scrolling Support	✅	❌	❌
Horizontal Scrolling Screenshot	✅	❌	❌
Panoramic Scrolling Screenshot	✅	❌	❌

Scrolling area selection

For content selection frames, the selection is generally within the scrolling area. However, in daily work that involves frequent and rapid frame selections, accurately selecting the scrolling area is not always easy, and the selection often exceeds the bounds of the scrolling area. In this case, if the scrolling long screenshot software has some tolerance for non-scrollable areas, it brings operational convenience for the user rather than strictly limiting the selection within the scrolling area. Once exceeded, stitching cannot be implemented and the area needs to be reselected. Test results show that Longshot performs better than iShot, and iShot performs better than Xnip. Among them, Xnip has the strictest requirements for the selection area.

Scrolling direction offset/adjustment

When scrolling to take long screenshots of zoomed-in images, it is difficult to achieve perfectly vertical scrolling. Therefore, long screenshot software needs to tolerate minor horizontal offsets to a certain extent, otherwise the image stitching cannot be implemented. Test results show that Longshot performs better than iShot, and iShot performs better than Xnip. Xnip performs relatively poorly and basically cannot stitch long screenshots. Its official website also introduces using the keyboard arrow keys to control vertical scrolling to avoid horizontal misalignment. Both Longshot and iShot have a certain degree of tolerance, with Longshot performing the best in smoothly implementing scrolling long screenshot stitching. It’s worth noting that for those who need to perfectly implement scrolling long screenshot stitching, horizontal movement should still be avoided, because even if the software stitches it, it is a tolerance-based stitched stitching, which generally does not matter for normal use because the naked eye cannot notice it.

Scrolling area content

Essentially, scrolling long screenshot software implements stitching of image content according to the current approach. Therefore, in the usage process, various types of area contents will be encountered. The universality for various area contents is an important metric for evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of long screenshots.

Non-solid color background

Chat windows often have non-solid color backgrounds, such as WeChat and Telegram. Test results showed that only Longshot supports long screenshots with non-solid color backgrounds, while iShot and Xnip do not support it.

Dynamic content blocks

Scrolling content areas for long screenshots often contain dynamically changing content, such as videos, web animations, which also pose challenges for image stitching. Test results show that Longshot performs better than iShot, and iShot performs better than Xnip. When testing page links: https://giphy.com/trending-gifs, it needs to be noted that although Longshot can stitch them, sometimes it is an offset stitching.

Solid color blocks/areas

For long screenshots containing large solid color blocks/areas without obvious feature points, how do the three software programs perform? Test results showed that Xnip performs better than iShot, and iShot performs better than Longshot, but none support it very well. Longshot performs the worst, directly prompting that the selected area is invalid or stitching fails. When iShot encounters a large solid color area, it terminates the stitching. Xnip can skip over solid color areas and continue with subsequent stitching.

Ease of use

Ease of use and operability is very important for productivity tools. Even saving 0.1 seconds per operation can help improve overall efficiency. If a tool is difficult or slow to operate, it loses some of its core value.

Scroll direction adjustment

iShot and Xnip only support stitching long screenshots by scrolling down, while Longshot](https://longshot.chitaner.com/) supports scrolling both up and down directions for long screenshot stitching. It also allows adjusting the direction during the stitching process. For example, after selecting an area for initial screenshot, stitching begins by scrolling down, but during the scrolling process it is realized that the area above also contains content needed. At this point, it can directly scroll up to stitch. This brings tremendous usability in that it saves the step of preparing the screenshot area each time scrolling starts for long screenshots. With iShot and Xnip, the long screenshot area needs to be adjusted and scrolled to the intended initial position, while Longshot](https://longshot.chitaner.com/) allows basically mindless scrolling for long screenshots.

Scroll area adjustment

iShot and Xnip do not support adjusting the vertical capture area after scrolling starts, while Longshot allows readjusting the vertical capture area during the stitching process. This is also a feature that improves usability. In daily screenshots, the entire scrollable page is usually not captured in the initial selection area, and it’s often only when stitching nears completion that one realizes the bottom portion cannot be scroll-stitched because it’s not included. This would require adjusting the area and restarting the long screenshot process. However, with Longshot, there is no such hassle - the area can simply be dragged to adjust and finish stitching everything in one go, which is incredibly convenient.

Scroll speed adaptability and restitching

During long screenshot stitching, if the scrolling speed is too fast, screenshot software will usually prompt to slow down the speed and go back to the unstitched point for another stitching attempt. Test results show that Xnip, iShot and Longshot all have the ability to restitch, but in terms of scroll speed adaptability, iShot performs best, Xnip second best, while Longshot requires the lowest scrolling speed. iShot is most adaptable to different scrolling speeds during the stitching process, followed by Xnip, and Longshot needs the scrolling speed to be slower.

Window selection scrolling

Longshot supports taking scrolling long screenshots of the entire window by simply clicking on it, which is more convenient than selecting the scrolling area of the window after taking a normal screenshot. Considering Macs with M1 chips can now run iOS apps natively, this feature of Longshot is quite interesting. In contrast, Xnip and iShot do not have this and require carefully selecting the entire scrollable window area. During testing, it was found that Longshot was not able to take scrolling screenshots of some windows by clicking, and the reason is unknown. Overall, being able to directly take long scrolling screenshots of full windows with a single click is a useful capability.