Another year, another new version of Camtasia. Newly dubbed “Camtasia 2018”, this yearly iteration doesn’t seem to be ending soon. After merging their PC and Mac products into a single version in their last release, I wasn’t sure where else the screen capture software needed to go. As it turns out, the 2018 version moves further from “screen capture software” and more towards an all-in-one production tool.
The main feature in the new release is the incorporation of the “Library” which allows a user to keep a collection of graphics, clip art, and various stock animations and video. In the past, Techsmith has offered collections of assets as downloadable resources, but here they are baked right into software itself. The customization of the assets is fairly limited (can’t change the colors of the icons for example) but they would be handy for folks who quickly want something professional, if not original. For those who do create their own icons and design, the Library allows your organize imported graphics as well.
Additionally, simple animations and graphics built within Camtasia can now be saved as Themes. So if you plan on making a series of videos with a snazzy intro title, that animation can be saved within Camtasia and applied in other projects with no need to export a video or copy/paste assets.
After years of screen recording Keynote/Powerpoint animations with Camtasia and then importing that recording into FCPX, I can see the benefit of being able to edit those animations and graphics from directly within the software. Putting the entire production workflow into one tool would save a lot of time but Camtasia 2018 just isn’t yet built to support the kind of customized animations our content would need. However, I think it’s all-in-one approach would be a great tool for a one-person-band video producer who needs to do a little of everything.
Other upgrades are some improvements to performance, support for 60fps, and some general bug fixes. Overall, I’m not sure this amounts to a value increase of $50, as the new base price is now $249 (150% more than Camtasia for Mac just two years ago). It does make it a little easier to separate from Screenflow, its Mac-only competitor, which goes for half the price and is a bit leaner on features.
