explaingit

nickemanarin/screentogif

★ 26,950C#Audience · generalComplexity · 2/5ActiveLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Free Windows app to record your screen and save it as an animated GIF, video, or image with built-in editing tools.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Screen recording
      Webcam capture
      GIF export
      Video export
    Features
      Frame trimming
      Add captions
      Apply effects
      Watermarks
    Use cases
      Tutorial creation
      Bug documentation
      Feature demos
      How-to clips
    Tech stack
      C#
      Windows desktop
      Open source

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Create animated GIFs to demonstrate app features or bugs in pull requests and documentation.

USE CASE 2

Record tutorial videos showing step-by-step instructions for software or workflows.

USE CASE 3

Capture webcam footage or whiteboard sketches for presentations and training materials.

USE CASE 4

Generate quick visual demos to share on social media, Slack, or email without needing video editing software.

Tech stack

C#Windows Forms.NET Framework

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Free and open-source software; you can use, modify, and distribute it freely.

In plain English

ScreenToGif is a free Windows application that lets you record a portion of your screen and save it as an animated GIF, video, or image. You select an area on your screen, hit record, do whatever you want to demonstrate, and then edit and export the result, all within one lightweight tool. Beyond screen recording, it can also capture from your webcam or a digital sketchboard (a whiteboard-style drawing area), making it useful for tutorials, demos, bug reports, or any situation where you want to show rather than tell. The built-in editor lets you trim frames, add captions or watermarks, apply effects, and fine-tune the output before saving. For non-technical people: this is the kind of tool developers and content creators use when they want to share a quick visual demonstration, like showing a new feature on their app, documenting how a bug appears, or creating a short how-to clip. GIFs are especially popular for this because they play automatically in most apps and websites without requiring someone to click play. It's a Windows-only desktop app (not a web service), built in C#, free to download from the Microsoft Store or the project's website. It's entirely free and open-source, maintained by one developer, with nearly 27,000 GitHub stars, a testament to how widely useful it is for anyone who regularly needs to capture and share screen recordings.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I use ScreenToGif to record a specific window and export it as a GIF for a GitHub issue?
Prompt 2
Show me how to trim frames and add text captions to a screen recording in ScreenToGif before exporting.
Prompt 3
What are the best export settings in ScreenToGif to create a small file size GIF that still looks clear?
Prompt 4
How can I record my webcam with ScreenToGif and add it to a tutorial video?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.