A screenshot, screen capture, or screen dump is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor or another visual output device. An image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact usually two-dimensional that has a similar appearance to some subject &mdashusually A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. A visual display unit, often called simply a monitor or display, is a piece of Electrical equipment which displays images generated from the Video Usually this is a digital image taken by the host operating system or software running on the computer device, but it can also be a capture made by a camera or a device intercepting the video output of the computer. A camera is a device used to capture images either as still Photographs or as sequences of moving images ( Movies or Videos.
Screenshots, screen dumps, or screen captures can be used to demonstrate a program, a particular problem a user might be having or generally when computer output needs to be shown to others or archived.
All three terms are often used interchangeably; however, some people distinguish between them as follows:
- Screenshot
- Outputting the entire screen in a common bitmap image format such as BMP, PNG, or JPEG. In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels The BMP file format, sometimes called bitmap or DIB file format (for device-independent bitmap) is an Image file format used to store Portable Network Graphics ( PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs Lossless data compression.
- Screen dump
- The display system dumps what it is using internally upon request, such as XWD X Window Dump image data in the case of X11 or PNG in the case of Mac OS X. Portable Network Graphics ( PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs Lossless data compression. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently
- Screen capture (screencaps)
- Capturing the screen over an extended period of time to form a video file. Video is the technology of electronically capturing, Recording, processing storing transmitting and reconstructing a sequence of Still images (see video capture)
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Game screenshots
Screenshots are used on packaging video games. Video capture is the process of converting an Analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital form A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Throughout the history of screenshots, there have been some deceptive practices, such as using a screenshot from a computer platform with better graphics. Due to complaints by consumers, software companies began putting captions below games such as "Screenshot from Amiga version" or "Actual C64 screenshot".
In the 1990s, when pre-rendered or filmed videos became a part of intermissions in games, some game boxes included screenshots from the in-game videos, which deceived potential buyers about overall game play.
Internet uses
It has become popular in the internet fandom culture to use screencaps of movies and television shows in the creation of fanart, most commonly as icons for LiveJournal, MSN Messenger, and Internet forums about those topics. Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character costume item or story that was created by someone other than the artist LiveJournal (often abbreviated LJ) is a Virtual community where Internet users can keep a Blog, Journal or Diary. An, or message board, is a Bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site Websites and various communities have been created to distribute these screencaps. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages
Built in screenshot functionality
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 or if you press Space afterwards you can choose a window on the screen to individually screenshot. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently 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. These shortcuts also work in Mac OS Classic. Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc
You can also use the Grab application to take screenshots. Grab is an application created by Apple Computer for Mac OS X, used to take Screenshots Grab is also present in OS X's progenitors NeXTSTEP
A shell utility called "screencapture" (located in /usr/sbin/screencapture) can be used from the Terminal application or in shell scripts to capture screenshots and save them to files. Various options are available to choose the file format of the screenshot, how the screenshot is captured, if sounds are played, etc. The manual page (available via the command "man screencapture") explains all the options. This utility might only be available when the Mac OS X developer tools are installed.
Microsoft Windows
Pressing the Print Screen key captures a screenshot of the entire desktop area, and places it in the clipboard. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Print screen (often abbreviated Prt Scr, Print Scrn, Prt Scn, Prt Sc or Prnt Scrn) is a key present on most keyboards The clipboard is a Software program that is used for short-term storage of data as it is transferred between documents or applications via Copy and paste Pressing the combination of Alt-Print Screen captures only the current active window. However, by first pressing Alt, then the hotkey of the dropdown menu you wish to illustrate, you can capture dropdown menu contents. In most versions of Windows, screenshots captured this way do not include the mouse pointer.
Video content in programs using a hardware overlay video renderer is not captured. Hardware overlay, a type of Video overlay, is a method of rendering an image to a display screen with a dedicated memory buffer inside computer Video Windows Media Player on Windows XP in its default configuration on supported hardware is effected by this. Windows Media Player ( WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and
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. Paint (formerly Paintbrush for Windows) is a simple graphics painting program that has been included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows since Some programs, however, particularly multiplayer online games, will automatically save screenshots in a specified folder. As of Windows XP, it is no longer possible to take screenshots of full-screen DOS windows without other software.
The print screen button uses “keybd_event” API to capture screen.
Windows Vista includes a utility called Snipping Tool, first introduced in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Snipping Tool is an application included in Windows Vista and Experience Pack for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. Windows XP has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001 It is a screen-capture 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 or as an HTML page, or emailed.
For programmatic access, application developers can use GDI, DirectX or the Windows Media Encoder API to capture the screen. The Graphics Device Interface (GDI is one of the three core components or "subsystems" together with the kernel and the Windows API for the user interface Microsoft DirectX is a collection of Application programming interfaces (APIs for handling tasks related to Multimedia, especially Game programming and Windows Media Encoder is a freely downloadable media encoder developed by Microsoft which enables content developers to convert or capture both live
X Window System
Since X Window System itself is not a desktop environment and only includes a very basic set of programs, methods of taking screenshots vary greatly on the platform. While xwd(1) is the closest "standard" way to do it in the X Window System, most people use other bundled utilities to achieve the task due to their ease of use.
- xwd On systems running the X Window System the standard utility to dump an image of an X Window is xwd(1), xwd produces an XWD image. In the X Window System, xwd is a program for capturing the content of the screen or of a Window and saving it into a File.
- KSnapshot is the default screen grabbing utility in the K Desktop Environment. KSnapshot is a screenshot application for the KDE Desktop environment that was created by Richard J KDE ( K Desktop Environment) (ˌkeɪdiːˈiː is a Free software project which aims to be a powerful system for an easy-to-use Desktop environment.
- gnome-screenshot is the default screen grabbing utility in GNOME. gnome-screenshot is an utility used in the GNOME Desktop Environment for taking Screenshots It is a part of the GNOME Utilities package A gnome is a Mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle
Video screen captures
None of the major operating systems have built-in mechanisms to record videos of the screen (recording how the user moves his mouse around, clicks icons, types text etc. as a movie). A multitude of utilities have come up to fill this void, though.
Third party screenshot software
There are many third-party programs available on different platforms to take screenshots with advanced functionality. Some computer graphics software (e. g. , IrfanView, GIMP, SnagIt, and PSP) can acquire screenshots. IrfanView is a Freeware Image viewer for Microsoft Windows that can view edit and convert image files and play video/audio formats The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a free Raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs SnagIt is a Screencasting program that operates under the Windows operating system Paint Shop Pro ( PSP) is a Raster graphics editor and later in the series a Vector graphics editor for computers running the Microsoft Windows Typically, these programs can be configured to include or exclude the mouse pointer, automatically crop out everything but the client area of the active window, take timed shots, areas of the screen not visible on the monitor (autoscroll), and so on.
Common technical issues
Hardware overlays
Screenshots of games and media players sometimes fail, resulting in a blank rectangle. The reason for this is that the graphics are bypassing the normal screen and going to a high-speed graphics processor on the graphics card called the hardware overlay. A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to Hardware overlay, a type of Video overlay, is a method of rendering an image to a display screen with a dedicated memory buffer inside computer Video Generally, there is no way to extract a computed image back out of the graphics card, though software may exist for special cases or specific video cards.
One way these images can be captured is to turn off the hardware overlay. Because many computers have no hardware overlay, most programs are built to work without it, just a little slower. In Windows XP, this is disabled by opening the Display Properties menu, clicking on the "Settings" tab, clicking, "Advanced", "Troubleshoot", and moving the Hardware Acceleration Slider to "None. "
DVDs are often encrypted using a patented algorithm called Content-scrambling system or CSS, making it much more difficult to take screenshots of them. Content Scramble System ( CSS) is a Digital Rights Management (DRM scheme used on almost all commercially produced DVD -Video discs Many DVD-capable media players will only play them on the overlay layer, where they cannot be captured.
Screen recording
The screen recording capability of some screen capture programs is a time-saving way to create instructions and presentations, but the resulting files are often large.
A common problem with video recordings is the action jumps, instead of flowing smoothly, due to low frame rate. Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of the Frequency (rate at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames The Though getting faster all the time, ordinary PCs are not yet fast enough to play videos and simultaneously capture them at professional frame rates, i. e. 30 frame/s. For many cases, high frame rates are not required. This is not generally an issue if simply capturing desktop video, which requires far less processing power than video playback, and it is very possible to capture at 30 frame/s. This of course varies depending on desktop resolution, processing requirements needed for the application that is being captured, and many other factors.
Copyright issues
Some companies believe the use of screenshots is an infringement of copyright on their program, as it is a derivative work of the widgets and other art created for the software. 'Copyright infringement' (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material that is covered by Copyright law in a manner that violates In Copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major basic copyrighted aspects of an original previously created first work In computer programming a widget (or control) is an element of a Graphical user interface (GUI that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user [1][2] Regardless of copyright, screenshots may still be legally used under the principle of fair use in the U. Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders such as use for S. or fair dealing and similar laws in other countries. Fair dealing is a Doctrine of Limitations and exceptions to copyright which is found in many of the Common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of [3][4]
Preventing copying is one of the issues that Trusted Computing seeks to address. Trusted Computing (TC is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. Under Trusted Computing, programs will be able to prevent the taking of screenshots of their windows.
See also
References
- ^ Screen Shots (Excluding Xbox). A screencast is a digital recording of Computer screen output also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio Narration. Video capture is the process of converting an Analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital form A screenshot map is a map of a location within a Video game compiled from various Screenshots. Thumbshots are Screenshots of online Documents such as Web page in small Thumbnail sizes Use of Microsoft Copyrighted Content. Retrieved on 2007-08-22. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 392 - Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
- ^ Question: What are screenshots, and is using them copyright infringement?. FAQ about Copyright -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. Retrieved on 2007-08-22. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 392 - Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
- ^ Copyright in screenshots? Who owns it?. MetaFilter. MetaFilter, known as MeFi to its members,, is a Community weblog whose purpose is to share links and discuss interesting content that users have discovered Retrieved on 2007-08-22. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 392 - Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
- ^ Ask the Law Geek: Is publishing screenshots Fair Use?. Lifehacker. Retrieved on 2007-08-22. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 392 - Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
External links
- Take-a-Screenshot – a quick guide
- Screen Capture at the Open Directory Project
- Screen Capture Software at the Yahoo! Directory
- Mac OS X Screenshot Secrets – O'Reilly
- How to Take Screenshots in Linux
- How to Take Screenshots of a DVD Movie
- How to take screenshots from DVD using free tools
- How to make sequential thumbnails of a video using free tools
- In-depth review of Screen Capture Tools for Windows
- How To Capture a Screen Shot of your Desktop or the Active Window in Windows
- How To Capture a Screen Shot with the Snipping Tool in Windows Vista
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