Freeware Screenshot utlity
- Thread starter CathyH
- Start date
Screen Shots
I've been using MWSnap for some time. Its simple and foolproof. I simply gets the job done without hassle. Google "MWSnap". Its available from C-Net and other places. It is Shareware without cripple features. From the publisher...
MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen.
Current version is capable of capturing the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen. MWSnap handles 5 most popular graphics formats and contains several graphical tools: a zoom, a ruler, a color picker and a window spy. It can be also used as a fast picture viewer or converter.
MWSnap does not require installation and does not need any special dlls, drivers or system files which can mess up your system.
MWSnap is freeware, but your donations are gladly accepted.
Have a good day.
I've been using MWSnap for some time. Its simple and foolproof. I simply gets the job done without hassle. Google "MWSnap". Its available from C-Net and other places. It is Shareware without cripple features. From the publisher...
MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen.
Current version is capable of capturing the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen. MWSnap handles 5 most popular graphics formats and contains several graphical tools: a zoom, a ruler, a color picker and a window spy. It can be also used as a fast picture viewer or converter.
MWSnap does not require installation and does not need any special dlls, drivers or system files which can mess up your system.
MWSnap is freeware, but your donations are gladly accepted.
Have a good day.
Can't yet try it in Trainz, but for FlightSim I used FSScreen which is a very simple program that monitors the Windows clipboard. When an image gets copied to the clipboard it saves it as a bitmap in the folder the program is in. It relies on the built-in PrintScreen function in Windows. (Though anything else that copies images to the clipboard can trigger it too.) Doesn't have any fancy editing or anything, it's designed to be small (24kb exe) and to make as little impact as possible. No setups, no zip files. You just download the exe, put it in whatever folder you want, and run it when you want to use it.
http://fly.to/Matthias-Holzer
In my experience it also works with NVidia's DualView, the resulting image includes both monitors side by side. One monitor being smaller then the other would result in a black border on the bottom/side of the smaller monitor's section. (In my case my second "monitor" was actually a non-HD TV connected via Composite video so the screen size was set smaller then the PC monitor.)
http://fly.to/Matthias-Holzer
In my experience it also works with NVidia's DualView, the resulting image includes both monitors side by side. One monitor being smaller then the other would result in a black border on the bottom/side of the smaller monitor's section. (In my case my second "monitor" was actually a non-HD TV connected via Composite video so the screen size was set smaller then the PC monitor.)
FRAPs has been a popular one.
ZDSoft had one called Game Recorder I use but it seems they now focus on video, their only product is Screen Recorder, it says in features it does BMP screenshots but Game Recorder also did JPG and PNG, I don't understand the switch and before trying, you should email them for more detail on screen capture features.
ZDSoft had one called Game Recorder I use but it seems they now focus on video, their only product is Screen Recorder, it says in features it does BMP screenshots but Game Recorder also did JPG and PNG, I don't understand the switch and before trying, you should email them for more detail on screen capture features.
motorbreath
Earth Rocker
I dig Fraps. I don't know how the others are set up, but you can set Fraps to stick all of your Trainz shots in one folder in your docs or pics, and you get 30 second video shots for free. I did get the upgrade for a few bucks, and the video is longer. Don't know what else it does yet.
Why not just press PrtScr? It then stores a jpg image of the Trainz screen in your Trainz Screenshot folder ready for you to edit etc. In spite of it's name PrtScr makes a copy in the clipboard of the complete screen, whatever you are doing in Windows and, outside of Trainz, you just paste it to your favourite image processing program. It is suprising how little known this function of Windows seems to be.
Dont forget if your doing that hit F5 (I think thats for all Trainz programs...) to clear the screen of all the side bars and such. Also, little extra here, if there are switches in your shot, hit Ctrl H to clear the two (or 3) direction arrows.
Irfanview is possibly the best free screenshot software available on the Internet because it does heaps more than just taking screenshots which s does with perfection. It instantly converts the shots into JPEG images and can take them as fast as you can hit the hotkey.
At just under 1.3 meg, it loads rapidly, uses no memory and doesn't get in your face. In a couple of hours I'll have a tutorial up on my site.
At just under 1.3 meg, it loads rapidly, uses no memory and doesn't get in your face. In a couple of hours I'll have a tutorial up on my site.
And also remember to move the cursor out sight as well. I usually forget!
Because some users preferred the old TGA when you hit PrtScr. TGA and BMP are lossless formats with good quality but large file size, JPG has smaller file size but is a lossy format, since trying the new JPG in TS2009 I have seen a loss of image quality and I know others posted about this.
I've put the Irfanview tutorial up for anyone interested. Unlike most program listed in this thread, Irfanview can take multiple screenshots as fast as you can hit the hot key, or you can take one every couple of seconds or so. Everything is stored to disk instantly, nothing is stored in memory and your files are ready to post on the Internet.
http://digital-junction.com/webtutorials/screenshots2.html
It's worth a look The images on the right were taken over a period of less than 20 seconds.
Re Storknest's comment about JPG's. I depends on what you wish to do with the photos. The Internt, strange as it must seem, does have standards. All photos for transmission over the Internet should be JPG at 96 DPI (the resolution of PC monitors) or 72 DPI (the resolution of Mac Monitors), and compressed to 80%. About 98% of all images on the internet are to those standards.
To the average eye, 80% reduction is quite bearable and acceptable considering the file size is half that of the same photo without compression.
What you do with photos on your own computer is your business, but it would be lovely if people stuck to the Internet conventions when using the Internet. Google has had a gut-full and they're talking about penalizing web sites that download slowly from next year. The sooner the better for me.
http://digital-junction.com/webtutorials/screenshots2.html
It's worth a look The images on the right were taken over a period of less than 20 seconds.
Re Storknest's comment about JPG's. I depends on what you wish to do with the photos. The Internt, strange as it must seem, does have standards. All photos for transmission over the Internet should be JPG at 96 DPI (the resolution of PC monitors) or 72 DPI (the resolution of Mac Monitors), and compressed to 80%. About 98% of all images on the internet are to those standards.
To the average eye, 80% reduction is quite bearable and acceptable considering the file size is half that of the same photo without compression.
What you do with photos on your own computer is your business, but it would be lovely if people stuck to the Internet conventions when using the Internet. Google has had a gut-full and they're talking about penalizing web sites that download slowly from next year. The sooner the better for me.
motorbreath
Earth Rocker
Another reason many people don't just use the Windows feature is because certain things like ground textures tend to show up black, ruining your shot.
FSScreen can take 1000 or so pics before you'd have to worry about it replacing existing images.
As far as screenshots, I too would prefer source images to be in a lossless format. Compression artifacts (or simply low image quality settings) can make what should be nice screenshots not look so good. I've found that a trick to minimizing compression artifacts is to set subsampling to 1x1, 1x1, 1x1.
As far as the quality settings of most images on the net, I imagine that's probably determined more by the default settings of image editing software. (I know I've never heard of any official image quality standards for the Internet.)
As far as screenshots, I too would prefer source images to be in a lossless format. Compression artifacts (or simply low image quality settings) can make what should be nice screenshots not look so good. I've found that a trick to minimizing compression artifacts is to set subsampling to 1x1, 1x1, 1x1.
As far as the quality settings of most images on the net, I imagine that's probably determined more by the default settings of image editing software. (I know I've never heard of any official image quality standards for the Internet.)
Of course there is! It's an accepted de-facto standard. Do you think it's open slaver? Why would you produce anything more than 72-or 96 DPi when that's all Mac and PC monitors can handle?
Wasn't asking about "de-facto" standards but official stuff. Anyways I wasn't referring to DPI. (Only times I've ever messed with any DPI settings was when working with a printer or scanner. Though XP does have a 120 DPI setting as well as allow for custom DPI settings for the monitor.)
I was talking about the JPEG quality setting, which you recommend setting to 80%. I've yet to see any official (aka not de-facto) standards about that for the Internet. There doesn't appear to be anything related to image quality in W3C HTML 4.01 for example.
Anyways, on topic, I'll probably use FSScreen with 2010, as long as the built-in screenshot feature doesn't interfere with it. The built-in Windows feature (at least for XP) only copies an image to the clipboard, it doesn't save it anywhere. The fact that Trainz will apparently save a screenshot in the Trainz folder (as mentioned here) would be a feature built into Trainz itself. Incidentally, pressing Alt+PrintScreen should copy an image of the current program's window (not the full screen) to the clipboard.
I was talking about the JPEG quality setting, which you recommend setting to 80%. I've yet to see any official (aka not de-facto) standards about that for the Internet. There doesn't appear to be anything related to image quality in W3C HTML 4.01 for example.
Anyways, on topic, I'll probably use FSScreen with 2010, as long as the built-in screenshot feature doesn't interfere with it. The built-in Windows feature (at least for XP) only copies an image to the clipboard, it doesn't save it anywhere. The fact that Trainz will apparently save a screenshot in the Trainz folder (as mentioned here) would be a feature built into Trainz itself. Incidentally, pressing Alt+PrintScreen should copy an image of the current program's window (not the full screen) to the clipboard.
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How can there be an "official" official standard for the internet when nobody owns it? All standards and rules relating to the Internet are "de-facto official" including the fight against spam. Without JPG compression, a graphic hungry web site like the Trainz Forums screenshots section will, and does lose thousands of visitors because the images download too slowly. When you share images, it would be nice if they could be shared with everyone rather than those with a pocket full of money and super fast Internet connections.
There are standards for the World Wide Web, (which is what I should have said before rather then the internet as a whole) the Internet itself, (which is more then just the web) and there is also a company that is given the task of managing IP addresses and the root domain name system.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3):
http://www.w3.org/
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers:
http://www.icann.org/
There is also the Internet Engineering Task Force which develops and promotes internet standards.
http://www.ietf.org/
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3):
http://www.w3.org/
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers:
http://www.icann.org/
There is also the Internet Engineering Task Force which develops and promotes internet standards.
http://www.ietf.org/
longhorns16
New member
Hey what website do you get the freeware stuff from?
