Screen Shots 101

Since the dawn of computer graphics, designers and clients need a simple way to review and reference what they see and how the see the website in their browser of choice. Mac clients and  designers have an advantage with the built-in screen-capture features of the Mac OS . We’ve listed Windows steps below as well.

using Mac OS 10.6

Automatically create an image on your desktop:

Shift+Command+3 Capture the screen to a file
Shift+Command+4 Capture a selection to a file (Creates a cross-hair – click-drag to draw a rectangle to grab what you want)

Or, copy to your clipboard

Shift+Control+Command+3 Capture the screen to the Clipboard
Shift+Control+Command+4 Capture a selection to the Clipboard (Creates a cross-hair – click-drag to draw a rectangle to grab what you want)

The default file format is PDF, but it’s just an image inside a PDF wrapper.

Change the file format it creates:

ADVANCED:

Using Terminator, and the script below – just replace [image format] with your preferred image extension: tiff jpg png pdf

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type [image_format]
then
killall SystemUIServer

EASIER:

Just use this awesome app to set the file type: http://www.imovieplugins.com/other%20products/savescreenie.html

using Windows Vista and Windows 7:

Use “Snipping Tool” in your Programs.

using Windows XP:

Your built in options are limited and require some more work on your part.

1. Press the PrtScn (print screen) key on your Windows keyboard
2. Now you have the WHOLE SCREEN as an image in your clipboard.
3. Open any graphic program, like Gimp
4. Create a new image
5. Paste
6. Use the graphic programs editing features to make the adjustments to fit or crop the image.
7. Some people paste into a Word document; this is a horrible idea. Just use an image manipulation program, or ask one of your co-workers.