Riter is a small, open-source screen annotation tool that allows users to draw directly on their computer screens. Built with Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), this portable application is ideal for users looking for a simple yet powerful tool for screen annotation. Unlike full-featured screen capture programs, Riter focuses purely on annotation without the ability to save or capture the screen.
Ease of operation
When launched, Riter opens a small, draggable toolbar that can be freely moved across the screen. The toolbar includes several essential features:
- Drawing with a pen
- Selecting different pen colors
- Drawing basic geometric shapes like rectangles or circles
- Going forward or back one step to undo or redo actions
- Erasing individual strokes or clearing the entire screen
- Toggling the visibility of drawings
- Minimizing the toolbar to the taskbar for an uncluttered view
This simplicity makes Riter highly suitable for situations where instant annotation is required, such as in presentations, tutorials, or brainstorming sessions where users want to highlight specific points without needing to save or edit the annotated screen.
Comparison with Windows’ Snipping Tool
While Windows’ inbuilt Snipping Tool offers the ability to capture screenshots, edit them, and save them to a file, Riter focuses exclusively on screen annotation without capture capabilities. The Snipping Tool’s features are oriented toward capturing static images, allowing basic annotation after capture, while Riter allows real-time annotation on the active screen. This makes Riter a great choice when the need is to annotate live or interactively, while Snipping Tool is more useful for capturing screenshots to share or archive.
Possible uses of Riter
Riter’s live annotation features make it perfect for:
- Interactive presentations
- Online teaching or video demonstrations
- Technical discussions, where on-screen highlighting is needed
- Design and feedback meetings that require quick sketching over interfaces
Conclusion
Riter’s lightweight design, portability, and ease of use make it a great tool for instant, real-time screen annotations. While it lacks the ability to capture or save screenshots like the Snipping Tool, its focus on pure annotation provides a useful alternative for users who want to interact directly with their screens without the clutter of additional features.
You can download Riter from https://github.com/mohammadKarimi/Riter.