Best Practices for Saving Your Snagit Files

Learn best practices for saving your files for future editing, supporting transparency, and opening across platforms.

3d Snagit icon

In this tutorial:

SNAGX – Cross Platform File Format

Open and edit the same Snagit files on both Windows and Mac computers. Snagit’s SNAGX file format replaces the former SNAG format for Windows and SNAGPROJ format for Mac and is compatible with both platforms.

Individuals and teams who use Snagit on both Windows and Mac computers can open, edit, and share SNAGX files with ease.

  • Edit vector-based objects (text, callouts, stamps, shapes, pasted images, cursors, etc.).
  • Create a draft image for future revisions or improvements.
  • Update graphics and text to support multiple languages.

Note: To open and edit captures from previous versions of Snagit for Windows, see Convert Your Previous Captures.

Save SNAGX Files

Snagit automatically saves your image captures and any edits as a SNAGX file in the Library. See Introduction to Snagit Library.

To save a SNAGX file to another location:

  1. In Snagit Editor, click to select the image in the Recent Captures Tray or Library.
  2. Select File > Save As.
  3. In the Save as type (Windows) or Format (Mac) dropdown, select SNAGX – Snagit Capture File.
  4. Click Save.
    Open the SNAGX file on Windows or Mac to edit the image at a later time.

Note: The SNAGX file format can only be opened in Snagit version 2022 or later.

To share captures to previous versions of Snagit, save your image as SNAG (Windows) or SNAGPROJ (Mac). For details about feature compatibility between versions, see Snagit File Format Compatibility.

Save to Another File Format

Snagit always saves image captures to the default SNAGX format. To save to another file format, such as JPG or PNG, for use in a different application:

  1. In Snagit Editor, click to select the image in the Recent Captures Tray or Library.
  2. Select File > Save As.
  3. In the Save As dialog, enter a filename and select the preferred file type and location.
  4. Click Save.

The new file and the SNAGX file both appear in the tray. It is possible to continue editing both files.

  • On Windows, if you exit and then reopen Snagit Editor, you can continue editing both files and any annotations.
  • On Mac, when you quit Snagit, the non-SNAGX file is flattened. It is not possible to edit annotations made to the non-SNAGX file before it was flattened.

Tips

  • Complete all your edits to the SNAGX file before saving to another format.
  • To maintain transparency in your image, save to a file format that supports transparency: CUR, GIF, ICO, PNG, TIF, or SNAGX.

Automatically Save Images to a Specific Format (Windows)

During Capture

Set up your image capture to save directly to a specific file type.

  1. In the Capture Window, select the Image tab.
  2. In the Share dropdown, select the File option and then click the gear icon.
  3. Select the desired Image file type and file name and location preferences.
  4. Click the Capture button.
    • If Preview in Editor was selected in the Capture Window, your capture appears in Snagit Editor. Complete any desired edits, then click Finish.
    • If Preview in Editor was not selected in the Capture Window, your file saves automatically or you will be asked to enter a file name.

In Snagit Editor

To set the default file format from the Save As dialog, select Share menu > Save As Preferences.

Supported File Formats

Images

File FormatsWindows Mac
SNAGX – Snagit Capture File checkmark checkmark
SNAG – Snagit v8-v2021 Capture File checkmark
SNAGPROJ – Snagit v1.0-v2021 Capture File checkmark
BMP – OS/2 Bitmap, Windows Bitmap checkmark checkmark
CUR – Windows Cursor checkmark
EMF – Windows Enhanced Metafile Format checkmark
EPS – Grayscale Encapsulated Postscript checkmark
GIF – CompuServe GIF checkmark checkmark
HEIF – Apple High Efficiency Image Filecheckmark
ICO – Windows Icon checkmark
JPG – JPEG Image checkmark checkmark
MHT – Web Page with Image checkmark
PDF – Adobe Portable Document Format checkmark checkmark
PNG – Portable Network Graphics checkmark checkmark
PSD – Adobe PhotoShop checkmark
RAS – Sun Raster checkmark
TGA – Truevision Targa checkmark
TIF – Tagged Image File checkmark checkmark
WFX – WinFax checkmark
WMF – Windows Metafile Format checkmark
WPG – WordPerfect checkmark

Videos

Note: This tutorial is for Snagit version 2024. Previous versions may look or function differently.