I got a question over the weekend from reader Josh who asked me how I make those screen shots (that is, pictures of what's currently on the screen, also called screen grabs or screen captures) that I usually illustrate my "how to" entries with; this comes up from time to time, so I thought I'd list out the steps.
Now, I'm primarily using a PC running Windows XP, so when I want to take a screen shot, this is what I usually do:
1. Hit the "Prt Scr" button (or Print Screen) button on my keyboard. (It's on the top row of function keys, next to your F12 button):
Please disregard the fuzz by the End key. It has since been removed.
2. I switch to the graphics editor program I'm using (usually Photoshop), open a new document, then paste what's stored in my clipboard using the Control-V key combination (Control-V is pretty much the universal keyboard shortcut for "Paste.")
3. Then, I will edit the screenshot as needed; this usually involves cropping and resizing the photo, since by definition, a screenshot is a picture of your screen, so it's going to be pretty big; then I do whatever else I need to, including adding notes, circling things by drawing borders (in Photoshop, a border is called a "stroke" -- it's under the Edit menu), etc.
4. When I'm all done, I upload it to my FTP storage space using the Web-based File Manager, then put it in my Journal (here's how to do all this).
If you take a lot of screenshots, there are a number of freeware and shareware utilities that can make things easier; just do a search on any shareware site.
Also, if you're using Mac OS X, it comes with a utility program called Grab that you can use to take screen shots.
When it comes to editing photos, if you don't have Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, you can try Microsoft Paint (which comes with every Windows PC), or one ofthe free editing programs I've mentioned before.
In a bit of trivia, I used to highlight things in my screen shots by drawing red boxes around them; when I saw Product Manager Susan doing her screen shots, though, I saw that she used red ovals, which makes more sense -- you don't usually see ovals used in interfaces, so when you circle something, it stands out more.
Hope this helps. Thanks -- Joe
Tag: Screen Shot, How To
7 comments:
lol the whole print screen/paint thing always confuses me, but my kids bail me out everytime!!!
~Julie
Thanks so much. I knew the button but didn't know what to do (or remember?) after you hit the button. I thought it came up like at work...it would automatically come up.
On a MAC I use the apple key,shift key & #3 at the same time & it takes a snap shot (PDF file)of your desktop & saves it to your desktop. IN Photoshop, I open the file & edit/crop it.
These is a way to do it on the PC, but I forgot.
Wow - amazing leap forward. Love the technical stuff. Never used that button before. On an unrelated note - what's the sys rq part of it all about? (A bit behind the times).....
Far better than my last attempts at getting images from the screen - emailed it, enlarged it, photographed it with the camera on the screen, uploaded to the laptop, resized it and then to the website. Gotta laugh.
Hi Joe On journals when looking at other peoples pictures ,when I click on to view larger,I get the photograph ,with a black background but always with the bottom of the picture missing ......Jan xx http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeadie05/Serendipity/
On my laptop, "prt sc" shares a button with the insert key. I have to press a key labeled "Fn" at the same time to get the print screen function. And since I don't have PhotoShop, I always pasteinto clunky old Paint to start. - Karen
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