Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with screenshot

Automatic screenshots on a Mac

ben5757 — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:03:55 -0800

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?

Can you take a screenshot of Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild for my book cover?

johnasdf — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:12:27 -0800

Wong Kar-Wai Screenshot Poetry Emergency! Can you make a high-resolution screenshot today or tmw from Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild so I can use it for the cover of my debut poetry book? (Or got any tricks for increasing the print resolution of a low-resolution image, which I know is impossible?) My poetry collection Juvenilia is coming out from Yale University Press next year. I've gotten permission from KINO, the US distributor of Wong Kar Wai's 1990 film Days of Being Wild for the cover of my book. I specifically want this image at the end, where Leslie Cheung is walking away from the house of his estranged mother and wandering off on this forest road into the future; it seemed like a very fitting image, and doesn't imply a specific narrative separate from my book since his back is to the camera, for a book called Juvenilia.

I took a screenshot, a Tiff file that you can see here, but it's too low resolution: the press says that if they print it out, it ends up being only about two-inches by two-inches. Because they're sending out their catalog soon, they need me to send them a higher resolution version of the same image ASAP--and I just flew to California, where I don't have my mac or any of my DVDs.

This may be a long shot, but: do any of you own this DVD and would it be possible for you to somehow take a higher resolution screenshot and send it to me? Is it even the case that a new screenshot would be better than the one I already have?

Alternately, is there a way to take what I already have and somehow up the resolution? I know there are scaling softwares that fake higher resolution (like this), but do these actually work? I've also thought about other ways to solve this program, such as using a filter or vectorizing the art to make the resolution issue moot (but how to do it w/o it looking cheesy?) or by actually recreating the shot myself (not enough time; not a good enough photographer). In case you're wondering, the Press and Kino can't really offer much more help on this.

Help identify this version of Monopoly for PC running in Virtualbox

mtphoto — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:22:41 -0800

What version of Monopoly for PC is being played here? I like the look of the classic board game and don't want to buy one of the "updated" versions of the game. Also, what is your favorite version of Monopoly for the PC? Have you played your favorite version online?

How should I make a video from pre-recorded audio and screenshots?

entropic — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:20:27 -0800

How should I go about making a video from screenshots and pre-recorded audio? I'd like to make a video using audio that I've already recorded and static images of my screen. I can take the screenshots and save them as an appropriate image type (I'm assuming .jpg), but I'm not sure about the best way to combine that with the audio. I want to be able to control how long each image is shown in the final video in order to match the images up with my recorded audio. Any control over transition effects and similar features is welcome but not essential.

My initial thought is to view my screenshots as a slideshow in the order I want them to appear, and use something like CamStudio to record what's on the screen while playing the audio, but I'm guessing there might be a better way to do this. I should probably note that I'd like these screenshots that I'm taking to fill up the frame of the video.

How to take a Kindle screenshot?

mark7570 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:06:02 -0800

How do you take a screenshot on the Kindle? I know the keystroke, but can't find the screenshot file anywhere. I have found Igor's description that says that Alt-Shift-G is the keystroke, and "due to an implementation bug, screenshots can only be stored on SD card, not the main storage. A gif file is saved in the card root." But that's all the documentation I can find online.

I dutifully inserted an SD card, took a screenshot, and then put the SD card into a camera to download the image into the computer... but iPhoto found no images on the card. Am I doing something wrong, missing a step, ...?

Do you know how to take screenshots of individual frames with Avidemux 2 for Windows? I can't find anything in the docs or the forum. Thanks.

sushiwiththejury — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:13:15 -0800

Do you know how to take screenshots of individual frames of video files with Avidemux 2 for Windows? I can't find anything in the docs or the forum. Thanks.

Fastest way to get a screenshot attached to a new gmail message?

scarabic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:04:37 -0800

Is there a one-click way I can 1. press a key combo shortcut 2. select a rectangular area of my screen 3. snap a screenshot of that 4. immediately get that screenshot attached to a new gmail message ? #4 seems to be the tricky bit - particularly since Gmail is not a "program" I can send screen cap output to. I do a lot of screen-snapping and emailing daily. A simpler way to do all this would save me quite a bit of time. Getting something attached to Gmail seems to necessarily involve saving it as a file and going through a file-browse dialog box. Faster way out there?

MUST work in Windows. Would be great if it worked in Windows and Mac.

Bonus points if the method includes a way to quickly get multiple screenshots attached to one gmail message!

screenshot batch processing script or application

sunlightfoundation — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:46:55 -0800

Looking for a recommendation for a free / open source script or application to batch capture/process screen shots of web sites, ideally from a list of urls. (python, ruby, perl, php, processing, etc. all acceptable options. OS ambivalent. Command line ok, too.)

How do I take a paged-down screenshot in Internet Explorer using Vista for free without watermarks?

adi — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:34:57 -0800

How do I take a paged-down screenshot in Internet Explorer using Vista for free without watermarks? I tried using IE Screenshot Pro, but the trial puts a big watermark on everything. I need the screenshot to page down and stitch it all together.

The page does not render correctly in FireFox, so no extension for the fox will work for me -- had to be IE.

Name that screenshot

acorn1515 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:05:21 -0800

What song is this screenshot of a 1970s video taken from? I embedded the video on my team's softball blog after a win last fall, and now YouTube's taken the actual video down for copyright violations. All of the songs I'd post were soul/R&B stuff from the 1970s. Possibly the early 1980s. It's safe to say this is probably an upbeat song, and one that was pretty popular for me to know of it 20+ years later.

It's not anything by Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Tavares, or McFadden & Whitehead -- cause I used those guys in other postings. This has been haunting me for days, and the teammates I've asked about it are no help.

How to fix cmd-shift-3 screenshot damage

judybxxx — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:55:12 -0800

MAC OS 10 (.4) problem - cmd-shift-3 keyboard shortcut has screwed up my page up/down and arrow up/down functions, varying in different apps and places on web pages -no response from Apple Support discussion boards. I'm stumped. I think there is something I don't understand about this screen shot shortcut. I tried cmd-shift-3 and it worked. (Once I figured out that the results are on the desktop that was ok) but now, in different ways and combinations in various applications, my page-up/down keys arrow keys have no effect. For example, typing the post on the discussion board, the arrow up key worked in the text field, but the arrow down leads to a crosshairs symbol and nothing happens till I click. page up/down don't work at all. If i'm reading a discussion there, page up/down work but arrows do not. In Word, arrows up/down don't work, page up/down does.
The crosshairs appears whenever the up/down arrows don't work.

I tried shutting down, and tried changing prefs in firefox to stop restoring the previous session, but nothing changed.

It seems that something about the screenshot needs to be completed or turned off, but what? how?
I can work around this, but what a hassle! I use the keyboard as much as possible to navigate. All help appreciated.

I just checked the "missing manual" - it shows shift-cmd-3 instead, but I think that's equivalent, just thought I'd mention it. I press cmd and shift at the same time.

G4 Mac OS X (10.4.10) Firefox 2.0.0.12,Word for Mac 2003,

Harry? Harry Bailey!

roomthreeseventeen — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:36:52 -0800

I need a random screenshot from "It's A Wonderful Life" I need a screenshot of the Bedford Falls Sentinel announcing "PRESIDENT DECORATES HARRY BAILEY"... are there websites that have movie screenshots literally frame by frame?

Screenshots of URLs from RSS feeds?

Herr Fahrstuhl — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:34:32 -0800

I'm looking for a tool that takes an RSS feed and makes a screen shot of every URL referenced therein. I got hooked on fichey.com, which automatically takes screen shots from all the URLs in certain RSS feeds and presents them in a lovely Flash-interface. This makes browsing the del.icio.us popular feed much more like... watching tv.

The problem is that fichey.com only provides a small number of feeds. I want a tool that takes an arbitrary RSS feed and gives me screenshots that I can browse later. I don't care if it's a web based service, locally installed software, Firefox extension or something else. I would even pay a small-ish amount for a tool like that.

There are several previous threads on related questions, particularly this one, but none of the posters mention solutions as easy and automated as what I would be looking for.

Any ideas, dear MeFites?

Utility that uses OSX-like keyboard shortcuts for screen captures in Windows?

pants — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:22:14 -0800

Best utility for taking screen captures (of user-defined areas, not just of active windows) on WinXP. There are a ton of posts about screen captures and screen shots. I've also found software like Window Clippings and SnagIt through Google. However, I'm not sure if I've found the *perfect* utility yet, and I want to know if it's out there.

In Mac OSX, I've set up my Keyboard Shortcuts so that with command-shift-4 I get crosshaired mouse which can be used to define an area of the screen and save it as a JPEG to my desktop. (Note - some command-line tweaking necessary to change the file type to JPEG from the default PNG.) Also, command-control-shift-4 copies the defined area to my clipboard.

This is the exact behavior I'm looking for in a Windows XP utility. Free would be nice, but low CPU usage is a priority - don't want an average system to freeze up when this is activated along with lots of other stuff running. The behavior I'm describing is all I'm currently looking for, so lots of other bells and whistles aren't going to sway me much.

Am I on the right path with SnagIt? It seems like a big piece of software for what I'm trying to do... maybe I've just been spoiled by Apple. TIA.

Need screenshots for LG9900 and Treo in use!

micketymoc — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:13:14 -0800

Where on the web can I find screenshots of email and calendar user interfaces for devices using Wireless Sync? Specifically, the LG9900 and the Treo 700w? I don't have access to either device, and screenshots on the web for these devices are rather sketchy (lots of screenshots for the Motorola Q, but not a lot for the rest). Screenshots need to show the inbox for the email UI, a typical UI for a message being written, and a calendar UI (for the LG9900 only).

We need this for a project we're working on - client insists that the interface should be the same one as Wireless Sync users use, God knows why.

Help me, hive mind!

Extracting a vector image from a .pdf file

PercussivePaul — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:10:50 -0800

How can I extract a figure from a .pdf file and save it as a vector image? I need to include a figure in a latex file. It must be a vector image - either .eps or .pdf or another format from which I can convert to one of those two. I have a .pdf file of a paper that includes the figure and it is a vector image, but I don't have the original source. (don't worry about copyright issues, what I have in mind is fair use. also I don't have time to contact the authors and ask for the original source.)

My supervisor suggested printing to postscript and copying and pasting the figure from the postscript source. I tried this and was able to locate the figure based on some of the figure's text appearing, but I don't know enough postscript to figure out where the figure starts and ends.

Acrobat has the little screen-cap tool of course but my understanding is that this is not a vector image - and in any case I tried pasting the result into GIMP (running Linux) and it didn't work.

I have access to typical Linux tools and I can probably find a Windows workstation somewhere too. Oh yeah, and it has to be free, too.

Better plasma screenshots

PenguinBukkake — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:30:42 -0800

Help me take better screenshots on my plasma. I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01, and probably my settings are bad. Screenshots are either too noisy (at high ISO ratings) or blurry (100 ISO). Exposure is often whack. I see great screenshots online, taken on big LCD or plasma. How do they do that? Thanks!

Copyright in screenshots? Who owns it?

baylink — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:53:09 -0800

Can anyone explain, in some detail, precisely *how* the taking and use of a screenshot of a program running on a computer can infringe the copyrights or trademarks of others? There's a foofaraw going on just now on one of the Wikipedia mailing lists about the fact that Wikimedia Commons has what I, personally, feel is *entirely* too strict a policy concerning screenshots (where, by too strict, I mean that in the example of a screenshot of a website in a browser, they're concerned with infringing on the copyright not only of the website and it's designers and copywriters -- which I could just barely understand -- but also the trademark of the browser creator (for its logo) and the copyright of the creator of the desktop manager design -- Apple's Aqua, by example).

My assertion is that if I create a screenshot, *I* own a copyright in it, and that any infringement could only be by defining it as a derivative work. I thought I understood "derivative work", but they're trying really hard to convince me I'm out of my mind.

To be clear, they don't require that the program be a browser: they're just as happy to claim these infringements about screenshots of other types of running programs.

Certainly any of those party's lawers could convince them to sue, whether they have clear and reasonable grounds or not, and they have more money than you do -- though WMF certainly has a legal budget these days after a $1.5MUS pledge drive last month.

So, in the real world, can a screenshot -- given that screenshots are almost uniformly made either for identification, illustration, or educational purposes -- *actually* infringe any of those things?

(Extra points for case law; I'll be happy to look up the citations myself.)

I know we have some lawyers, I know this won't be legal advice, I also know it's federal jurisdiction, so the usual "I'm in another state" reply will matter less. Any thoughts?

Uploading screenshots to a blog

Uno — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 12:49:19 -0800

What blogging software can I paste an image from the clipboard that will then automatically upload it to wordpress? Basically this is my blogging pattern:
I browse the internet, or whatever, find something interesting, take a screenshot, crop the image in Irfanview, copy that image for the posting.

At the moment I need to save the image, then open the posting in Wordpress (can't do it in Performancing), then upload it, then resize it. Then click post. It's a tedious process

I want to: Copy straight from Irfanview, paste into the blogging software. It then automajically uploads the image to the wordpress site. I'm hosting at wordpress so I don't have the FTP access.

How do I take screenshots of tall windows on a Mac?

gilgamesh — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:22:27 -0800

Is there a program for the Mac that will scroll a window to capture a screenshot of its entire contents? Years ago before I switched I used SnagIt to take screenshots on my Windows machine. One of its most useful features was that you could select a window and it would vertically scroll it for you to capture it's entire contents as one tall image. I have been unable to find a Mac utility that does the same. Now when I need to take a screenshot of a tall window (like a long web page) I take multiple screenshots and stitch them together by hand.

Screen grab from the back end?

pompomtom — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 20:59:43 -0800

Can I get a screenshot of the GUI desktop from an ssh login? If I'm connecting to a linux (Ubuntu, if it matters) machine over ssh, and that machine also has me logged in to a gnome session, is there any way to grab a screenshot of the gnome session?

How can I legally publish game screenshots in a book?

aceyprime — Thu, 04 May 2006 09:54:17 -0800

I'm considering writing a book about game systems in the 80's and would like to be able to include screenshots of many of the games. What do I need to do to be able to include those screenshots without being sued? Does this fall under the copyright law's "fair use"? Does the fact that they are older games make any difference? Apologies if this has been asked before - I couldn't find anything related to publishing game screenshots.

How do I schedule web screenshots from a Linux box?

rjt — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 10:40:15 -0800

I want to take a screenshot of a particular web-page every 15 minutes from a Linux server (no running X server). Ideally, I would like a command-line application, but a free or very cheap and reliable web service might work for me. What are my options?

single button for print screen

Dag Maggot — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:04:54 -0800

Is shift-control-apple-3 really the only way to take a screenshot and put it in the clipboard? I miss my single "print screen" button on a PC. It's a minor annoyance - but the key combination is cumbersome.

How can I get screenshots while I sleep?

BradNelson — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:11:36 -0800

Is there any freeware that will allow me to schedule screen captures? There is a dynamic website that I want to capture images of, but at times when I am not awake. Software like these two seem to do what I want, but not really for free.

A 30-day full-capacity trial will work for the time being, but I would also like recommendations, if possible.