Viola is a Mac OS X application that makes taking screenshots a cake walk. What sets this apart from other software in its class are the several editing features that are part of the suite. One of the features you notice when you first launch the application is that Viola is integrated with Mail and iPhoto. You can send your screenshots to anyone in just a few clicks, and the same goes for importing/exporting to iPhoto. In the same area, you will also find a View Options button that allows you to set the display as you see fit. There are three options available. Another nice feature is the ability to zoom in and out on the screen shot itself, which allows you to do some really nice editing. It’s not as powerful as Photoshop, but for screen capture software it can zoom in quite close, allowing you to get quite detailed.

Screenshots seem to be all the rage nowadays; Realmac Software realized this and started building an app designed specifically for screenshots, LittleSnapper. Although the app was in beta for a good amount of time, LittleSnapper seems to have had (most) of its bugs fixed and has been released to the public in a 1.0 non-beta more »

If the two criteria for Mac-ness are “it just works” and being “insanely great,” then Skitch has to be the most Mac-like program I’ve seen in quite some time.

Skitch is a screenshot program, and while there’s nothing wrong with the screenshot capabilities built into OS X (other than it’s deliberately disabled when DVD Player is running), Skitch does everything Grab does, does it better, then adds labeling features you’ll wonder how you ever lived without, along with built-in sharing features that “just work” to allow you pass your pictures on via e-mail, web, and chat.

Currently a free beta from the mad geniuses at Plasq (best known to Mac users as the creators of Comic Life, a program I admire but haven’t found much practical use for), Skitch is a small program that waits in the background until you need to take a screenshot and/or do simple editing to a photo.