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Screencapture Instructions
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How To Create A Screen Captured Image
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This page of instructions hopefully will teach computer users how to create a screenshot of any web page or capture any screen event. Step by step instructions are given for Windows Paint but will work with Adobe Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Paint and many other imaging programs. You may also be able to import the screenshot into a word processing or publishing program that also has graphics capability, such as but not limited to, Word, Publisher or WordPerfect. (Text editors will NOT work!) Instructions are also given for alternative computer operating systems.
Screenshots have been used since the 1970s to help market video games. Many game players have come to expect to turn over the game box in order to find out what the game looks like when you are playing it. They were never as widely used for computer applications, instead people relied on lists of features to determine if the program was interesting. Throughout the history of screenshots, there have been some intentional or unintentional deceptive practices, such as using a screenshot from a similar computer platform with better graphics on the box. Due to many valid complaints by consumers, software companies began putting descriptions of the equipment used in the captured image.
Today, screenshots are used in advertising for application software as well as games. Especially when downloading software online that is graphical. More than before, decisions to use a piece of software are based on screenshots. However, most of the situations where USERS create screenshots are in attempts to get support. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when trying to talk to someone that does not speak your own language well, as is the norm in Support and HelpDesk assistance now in the computer industry.
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General Information And Instructions For Windows
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Pressing the Print Screen key captures a screenshot of the entire desktop area, and places it in the clipboard. That may or may not be what you want to do. Pressing the combination of Alt-Print Screen captures only the current active window, which is more often what users want. Screenshots captured this way do not include the mouse pointer. By default, Windows does not save the screenshot to an image file; the user is required to paste the image into a separate imaging program (such as Microsoft Paint which is built-in) for saving. Some programs, however, particularly multiplayer online games, will automatically save screenshots in a specified folder. Since the release of Windows XP, it is no longer possible to take screenshots of full-screen DOS windows without other software.
The print screen button uses the programming call “keybd_event” API to capture the screen. Windows Vista includes a utility called Snipping Tool that was first introduced in Beta versions of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, then release with all versions of it. It is a screencapture tool, that allows for taking screenshots (called snips) of windows, rectangular areas, or a free-form area. Snips can then be annotated, saved as an image file, save as an HTML page, or E-Mailed. For access from within a program, application developers can use GDI, DirectX or the Windows Media Encoder API to capture the screen as needed. Disposition of the image is the option of the developer's program control.
The following instructions are not specific for ONLY one browser and related to Internet applications. Open the target web page in the web browser. Press the Print Screen, (the Prnt Scrn button on most keyboards) key on your keyboard, found generally at the upper right of the keyboard. This key will capture the entire screen. If your monitor resolution is set to 640x480, that's the size of the screen capture. If your monitor resolution is set to 800x600, 1024x768 or greater, that will be the size of the screen capture, etc. To capture ONLY the active window, press Alt-Prnt Screeen. Open up the system Paint program, or you can use virutually any paint-like program, including PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, Corel PhotoPaint, or SuperPain. Microsoft's Paint is usually found on Windows systems in the Start Progrmas, Accessories, Paint. In the program, select File/New, then Edit/Paste.
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| General Instructions for MAC |
On a Mac, press Command-Shift-3. With MAC OS X, pressing Command-Shift-3 takes a screenshot of the entire screen, and Command-Shift-4 takes a screenshot of a chosen area of the screen. Optionally, if you press Space afterwards you can choose a window on the screen to capture in the screenshot. These images are saved to the desktop, but if you hold down the control key with the rest of the keyboard shortcut, the pictures are copied to the clipboard instead, allowing you to put the capture into the utility of your choice for further processing. These shortcuts also work in MAC OS Classic. You can also use the Grab application to take screenshots.
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| Other Capture Utilities |
There are many utilities available for any of the operating systems. We mention a few here; there are probably MANY more. We make no recommendation on any of these and the order has no significance. If you would like a particular product listed here, Contact Us.
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| Links |
SnagIt
MWSnap
Gadwin PrintScreen
ScreenHunter
FastStone
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Version 1.8.1
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