Screensaver Screenshot

January 22, 2004 7:20 PM

I'm using OS X and I want to take a screenshot of my screensaver in action. Obviously though, whenever I press the key to take a screenshot, my screensaver disappears. How can I take the screenshot I need to take?
posted by teem to computers & internet (8 comments total)

If you're comfortable with AppleScript/command-line scripting and you can find a screenshot tool that supports it, you could schedule a screenshot at a specific time. You might even be able to simulate the screenshot key with native AppleScript.
posted by lbergstr at 7:26 PM on January 22, 2004

How about enabling the screen saver with a hot key and then using Grab (found in Utilities). After you enable the hot key, go into Grab and use the ten second timer to take a screen shot. In between the 10 seconds when you click on the timer and when it goes off, enable the screen saver with the hot key. There are better screen shot utilities out there but Grab is the one included in the Utilities folder.
posted by anathema at 7:47 PM on January 22, 2004

another thing you might try if you have two OSX machines networked together is to connect to the Mac in question through an SSH session. Once you are logged in via the terminal type:

screencapture /path/to/where/you/want/the/file.pdf

This is especially good for capturing things that you normally can't access, like the logon screen.
posted by machaus at 8:16 PM on January 22, 2004

machaus: It's worth clarifying that you don't need two OSX machines but a second machine of any sort whatsoever with an ssh client. You could use a Palm Pilot, even.
posted by majick at 8:23 PM on January 22, 2004

true, dat
posted by machaus at 8:31 PM on January 22, 2004

SaverLab, from Dozing Cat Software. It's a screensaver test tool, allowing you to run savers at arbitrary sizes, pause/resume, capture multiple frames to a movie or series of stills, etc. I use it for my screensaver screenshots. [self-link resisted with main strength]
posted by dsandl at 8:57 PM on January 22, 2004

Another choice -- Snap-n-Drag, a freeware OSX screenshot utility, can do a timed screenshot that can be dragged from the app to your desktop or into any photo editing utility. If you use hot corners to activate your screensaver, you can set the timer on the Snap-n-Drag app then activate the screensaver, sit back and wait for the sound of the photo shutter. This presumes, of course, that there isn't a precisely timed moment of your screensaver's operation that you need to capture. I just tested this approach and it worked quite well.
posted by Dreama at 8:00 AM on January 23, 2004

"Grab" has a timed screen option in the capture drop-down menu. It will grab the screen 10 seconds after you activate it.
posted by sharksandwich at 5:30 PM on January 23, 2004