Skitch leaps out of beta, 1.0 available now
Since it debuted in beta form at Macworld Expo in 2007, Skitch has become a favorite Mac utility for many, many people. It's great at grabbing screenshots, adding annotations and notes, and sharing them on Skitch.com, Flickr, Mobile.me or even your own server.
We've waited three years for a 1.0 release while the beta kinks got worked out, and now the wait is over. Skitch has burst out of beta with a ton of new features and an entirely revamped web app geared toward social image sharing. It's aiming to be the Flickr of screenshots, with a full-featured desktop app to back that up.
Most of the features that have made Skitch so popular are still free, including screen capture, image editing and annotation, and online sharing of images. If you want to go "Plus," you'll pay a yearly subscription fee of $14.95 (that's a discount right now; it will go up to $19.95 soon). The Plus subscription adds a range of new features, from the ability to grab full-length web page captures to additional editing capabilities. It will also remove ads from the online experience and provide more storage and options.
One of the best features in the Plus package, in my opinion, is automatic copy of direct image links after upload. Yes, you can get that for free using something like Droplr or CloudApp, but when combined with all of the other features, it adds some value to the subscription price.
The online experience looks like it's going to be pretty cool, and all of the public images gathered over the last three years are already part of it. Every user gets a blog-like profile page with their latest images, and you can browse galleries and have discussions on the images. It's not all that different than Skitch.com was before, but it's geared up a little to compete with sites like Ember.
For the developers, Skitch is working on an API to be released in the relatively near future. They're looking for input, so if you have an idea for Skitch integration in a desktop or web app, contact them and let them know what you need.
For a full list of features available in the Plus package, see Skitch.com's feature comparison page. For more information on changes in the app and the website, you can check out the version history, too. If you're not already a Skitch user, download the app and sign up for a free web account ... you just might like it.
