Capturing Screenshots

From PluginWiki

Windows

Gadwin PrintScreen

The easiest way to capture screenshots, particularly if you're going to do it regularly, is to use a dedicated program such as Gadwin PrintScreen - Note: Windows only. No fees are received for this endorsement - I just like it.

Alternative

Alternatively you can do it the clunky way. You can use your keyboard and any other program which will accept having pictures pasted into it such as your email program, perhaps, or a word processor. Microsoft's built in wordpad, for example, will do this. Here's how:

When the page you want to capture is showing on your screen press the "Print Screen" button, which may have "Prt Scr" written on it for example, and should be located here:

Open up your word processor or other program that you know will show pictures. Click on "Edit" and you will see either "Paste" or "Paste special" (or both) available on the drop down menu. Click on "Paste special" for preference if it is active.

Save the file as normal.

Macs

You can take screenshots in a number of different ways:

using default shortcut keys
using specific software like Grab, Preview (both pre-installed)
installing third-party applications like Jing, SnapProX, SnapNDrag and InstantShot!

Shortcut Key combinations

Entire screen:         Apple, Shift, 3 (saves shot of entire screen to your desktop)
Selected area:         Apple, Shift, 4 (changes mouse to cross-hairs; click & drag to select area - let go to save shot to desktop)
Specific window:       Apple, Shift, 4 (then press space and click desired window to save image of it to desktop)

More detailed info (like saving directly to clipboard to allow immediate pasting into other applications) can be found here.

Screenshot formats

A default setting in your operating system governs the format of screenshots taken with these key combinations.

   * Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar): jpg
   * Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther): pdf
   * Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and later: png

Simplest way of saving in a different format is to open your screenshot with Preview and then choose File > Save As. In the resulting window you can choose from several Format options.

A more complicated (and less flexible) method would be to change the default setting in Terminal. See http://tinyurl.com/r5ddg for an overview of 'how to' - but if you don't know what Terminal is then best not to try! It can get a bit scary in there at times.

Preview & Grab

Grab comes pre-installed on most recent Apples (Applications/Utilities/Grab). It allows shots of the screen, selection, window or timed window through its Capture submenu. Shots will be saved to your desktop as "Picture *.*"

Some of Grab's features can also be used through Preview (Applications/Preview). Click File > Grab and chose from Selection, Window or Timed Screen. The resulting pic will be saved to your desktop as "Snapshot yyyy-mm-dd hr-min-sec.tiff". Preview will most likely open it immediately upon which, of course, you can do File > Save As to convert it from what might be a rather large-sized .tiff format to a lighter format of your choosing.

Third Party software

There are quite a few options out there. Some are free (open-source). Some are shareware (usually free demo with limited life-span or watermark - both of which are removed upon payment). Some are professional grade. Here's an overview of one those pieces of software.

InstantShot! 2.5. It's very easy to use and freeware to boot! (No fees are received for this endorsement, either!) --Lfigarcia 23:30, 27 June 2008 (CEST)

When you install InstantShot! you will see the following drop-down menu: