Automatic screenshots on a Mac

September 19, 2009 1:03 AM

Can someone point me in the direction of a free Mac program that will run in the background, automatically taking screenshots at a set interval?
posted by ben5757 to computers & internet (5 answers total)

/usr/sbin/screencapture

Open up the Terminal utility and type in man screencapture for options.

You could run this periodically via crontab, running screencapture on set intervals.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:21 AM on September 19, 2009

InstantShot!
posted by plokent at 1:31 AM on September 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! InstantShot! is perfect.
posted by ben5757 at 5:05 AM on September 19, 2009

I used Automator to solve a similar problem.
posted by sudama at 7:26 AM on September 19, 2009

Not to suggest you may be using it for a naughty purpose, but note that taking a screenshot on anything short of a 4-processor supermighty Mac incurs a tiny hiccup that freezes the Mac for a moment (less than a second).

It might not be noticed most of the time, but when it happens in the middle of typing or performing some action like a drag, it is noticeable.

And I know that if I found my Mac freezing for a second every minute, I'd track down the problem and find InstantShot, or a cron script, or whatever was causing it....
posted by rokusan at 11:45 AM on September 19, 2009