Howpaper by MalvatechHow to make step-by-step guides with screenshots, for free
You need to show a colleague, a client or your future self how to do something in a web app: twelve clicks, a screenshot for each, a sentence under every picture. The tools that do this well — Scribe, Tango, Guidde — keep the useful parts (PDF export, blurring, your own branding, more than a handful of guides) behind subscriptions of $19 to $35 a month. Here are the four ways to get the same result without paying monthly, with what each one costs you in time.
1. By hand: screenshots plus a document
Print Screen (or Shift+Cmd+4 on a Mac) after each click, paste into Word or Google Docs, write a line under each image, crop, blur the account number with a rectangle. It works, it is free, and it takes about three to five minutes per step: a twelve-step procedure is an hour, and the next time the interface changes you start again. This is the honest baseline every tool is measured against.
2. The free plans of Scribe, Tango and Guidde
All three record clicks and produce the guide automatically, and all three have a free plan. The limits, as of October 2026: Scribe free records web apps and shares a guide as a hosted link, but PDF, HTML and Markdown export, blurring and branding are in Pro ($25–35 a month). Tango free allows five shared workflows per workspace; PDF export and blur while capturing are Pro ($22–26 per user a month). Guidde free allows 25 videos with a watermark; exports and watermark removal are Pro ($19–29 a month). If a link is all you need and you make few guides, the free plans are fine. If you need a file, or more than a few guides, they are a trial. Details in our comparisons: Howpaper vs Scribe, vs Tango, vs Guidde.
3. What Windows and macOS already include
Windows has Steps Recorder (psr.exe, still present in Windows 10 and 11 though deprecated): it records every click with a screenshot and saves an .mht file. It is free and built in, but the output is a single archive with tiny, uneditable screenshots and no blur, and it only runs on Windows. macOS has no equivalent; screen recording to video is not the same thing as a numbered guide.
4. Howpaper: record once in the browser, export the file
Howpaper is a free Chrome and Edge extension that does the recording part the way Scribe and Tango do — every click becomes a numbered step with a screenshot — and keeps the result on your side: the guide stays in your browser, there is no account, and HTML and PDF export are free, with a small “Made with Howpaper” line at the bottom. Passwords and card numbers are hidden automatically before the screenshot is saved. Markdown with images, Word export and your own logo are in Pro, for €24 once. It does not do hosted links, desktop apps, AI prose or team analytics; if you need those, the subscription tools are the right choice.
- Install Howpaper from the Chrome Web Store.
- Click the icon, press Record, do the task as you normally would.
- Press Stop. In the editor: rename steps, add notes, reorder, blur anything the automatic hiding missed.
- Export as HTML or PDF. Attach it, put it on the intranet, print it. Done in about five minutes for a twelve-step guide.
Which one should you pick?
| You need | Use |
|---|---|
| One guide, once, and you have an hour | By hand |
| A hosted link inside a team workspace, few guides | Scribe or Tango free plan |
| A video with a voice-over | Guidde |
| A Windows-only record for a support ticket | Steps Recorder |
| A PDF, HTML, Markdown or Word file, as many guides as you like, no subscription | Howpaper |
Prices and limits as shown on the vendors’ pricing pages on 11 October 2026; they change. Scribe, Tango and Guidde are trademarks of their owners; we are not affiliated.