Mac OS X screenshots

[ktinkel]

I have been chastized for attaching PDF screen shots, but that is what Mac OS X makes natively when you click the useful and accessible Option-Shift-4. There appears to be no way to change the file type (except by opening the PDF in Photoshop or something and making a different kind of file, which in my experience is likely to make a mess). And David Pogue implies as much in his OS X Missing Manual, so I suspect it is true.

Tell you the truth, PDF does seem like overkill for screen shots. So I am looking at Grab (in the Mac OS Applications/Utilities folder), which makes TIFFs. It places the image on the screen — then you have to save it or print it. Maybe I can get used to this.

Pogue recommends SnapzPro X, so I also went to the Ambrosia web site and downloaded a 30-day demo (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/). That allows for gif, png, jpg, tiff, pdf, bmp, pict, and maybe a couple more formats (including movies), but I do not see a way to set this in Prefs (and I am not sure that the choice is sticky). In fact, this seems like overkill, and it also has no instructions that I can see. Costs $70 after the trial period.

So: What do you think about PDF screenshots? And what do you use to make them?

[terrie]

They don't bother me but I think it's weird that pdf if the default for a screen shot...as to taking the pdf into Photoshop...I do that all the time--particularly for forms--and it doesn't muck them up at all...what kinds of problems have you had doing that?

Terrie

[ktinkel]

They don't bother me but I think it's weird that pdf if the default for a screen shot...So do I actually, and it wasn’t a pdf before OS X (it defaulted to pict but could be a tiff, which is what I used.

… as to taking the pdf into Photoshop...I do that all the time--particularly for forms--and it doesn't muck them up at all...what kinds of problems have you had doing that?Just opening a PDF in Photoshop increases the file size. In this particular case, the jpg is 224K, the pdf 120.

That would be okay. But it was a fragment of a page; a larger area would be huge. Of course I could reduce it, but my experiments with doing that have created weak or fuzzy images.

And of course it is annoying to have extra steps. I just loaded Grab in the Dock — I’ll try to use that for a while, see how humongous a tiff will be.

I really like it when simple things just work. So much for that! <g>

[ElyseC]

I've only used Grab for OSX screen shots, primarily because I usually want the images for easy display in a browser or mail app window for all and sundry without me jumping through hoops to convert them (the files or the "all and sundry" who receive the shots from me).

[terrie]

>>kt: Just opening a PDF in Photoshop increases the file size. In this particular case, the jpg is 224K, the pdf 120.

How strange...I've never paid attention to that...will have to check in the future--not that it's a big deal when I'm doing this because I know my file size will increase as I add layers to fill in the data...


>>Of course I could reduce it, but my experiments with doing that have created weak or fuzzy images.

Don't want that...

>>I really like it when simple things just work. So much for that! <g>

'-}}

Terrie

[ktinkel]

I've only used Grab for OSX screen shots, primarily because I usually want the images for easy display in a browser or mail app window for all and sundry without me jumping through hoops to convert them (the files or the "all and sundry" who receive the shots from me).So you get TIFFs. Are they huge (or tiny) or anything else weird?

Never mind, actually, as I guess I will test them.

[annc]

I have been chastized for attaching PDF screen shots, but that is what Mac OS X makes natively when you click the useful and accessible Option-Shift-4. There appears to be no way to change the file type (except by opening the PDF in Photoshop or something and making a different kind of file, which in my experience is likely to make a mess). And David Pogue implies as much in his OS X Missing Manual, so I suspect it is true.

Tell you the truth, PDF does seem like overkill for screen shots. So I am looking at Grab (in the Mac OS Applications/Utilities folder), which makes TIFFs. It places the image on the screen — then you have to save it or print it. Maybe I can get used to this.

Pogue recommends SnapzPro X, so I also went to the Ambrosia web site and downloaded a 30-day demo (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/). That allows for gif, png, jpg, tiff, pdf, bmp, pict, and maybe a couple more formats (including movies), but I do not see a way to set this in Prefs (and I am not sure that the choice is sticky). In fact, this seems like overkill, and it also has no instructions that I can see. Costs $70 after the trial period.

So: What do you think about PDF screenshots? And what do you use to make them?I use the Shift-Command-4 method of making screen shots, but then open them in Photoshop and use 'Save for Web' to get smaller JPEGs, rather than just Save as. It seems Saving for Web discards the colour profile information, which is apparently a significant portion of the file content.

[ktinkel]

I use the Shift-Command-4 method of making screen shots, but then open them in Photoshop and use 'Save for Web' to get smaller JPEGs, rather than just Save as. It seems Saving for Web discards the colour profile information, which is apparently a significant portion of the file content.That is exactly what I was doing, and got a mess. Perhaps I rescaled? That might be risky with screen shots.

Guess I’ll try all these options. Being naturally lazy and increasingly forgetful, what I do not want is to have to learn a lot of complicated new tricks.

[annc]

That is exactly what I was doing, and got a mess. Perhaps I rescaled? That might be risky with screen shots.

Guess I’ll try all these options. Being naturally lazy and increasingly forgetful, what I do not want is to have to learn a lot of complicated new tricks.I never touch anything in the files. Just open and save. It's a pain, but someone complained on about the second day of our P-CIS access about a PDF I posted, so I've done the other ever since. The PDFs have to be renamed anyway, so it's not much harder to run them through Photoshop, which is always open and ready to look at files.

[Shane Stanley]

I never touch anything in the files. Just open and save. It's a pain

It doesn't have to be. Save the script below as an Application from Script Editor, and any time you want to convert a PDF to TIFF, just drag-and-drop it (or a bunch at once) over the script app. There's no screen display, so it's very fast.

on open fileList
try
tell application "Image Events" -- invisible app
launch
-- loop through files
repeat with aFile in fileList
-- build new name/path
set thePath to aFile as Unicode text
if thePath ends with ".pdf" then
set newPath to text 1 thru -5 of thePath & ".tif"
else
set newPath to thePath & ".tif"
end if
-- open, save, close
set anImage to open aFile
save anImage as TIFF in file newPath with icon
close anImage
-- to keep originals, delete next line
tell application "Finder" to delete aFile
end repeat
end tell
on error
beep
end try
end open

It probably requires OS X 10.3.x.

Shane

[ElyseC]

So you get TIFFs. Are they huge (or tiny) or anything else weird?

Never mind, actually, as I guess I will test them.I haven't noticed them being inordinately large.

[annc]

It doesn't have to be.Just found this. Thanks, Shane, that's going to save a lot of effort.

[fhaber]

Now that's something this PC guy didn't know about OSX. PDFs? v.6 PDFs, or will they open in Acroreader Win 4, for instance?

I didn't know Apple was that tight with Adobe any more (sound of palms being greased, under).

[ktinkel]

Now that's something this PC guy didn't know about OSX. PDFs? v.6 PDFs, or will they open in Acroreader Win 4, for instance?Not sure. But I can make a PDF for you to test if you want.

I didn't know Apple was that tight with Adobe any more (sound of palms being greased, under).Dunno about that, but who knows?

There are two screenshot utilities with OS X, and the secondary one (that you need to launch and with unfamiliar keystrokes) makes TIFFs. But I think I’ll just go back to fixing them in Photoshop, as Ann suggests.

[fhaber]

You were supposed to come back with, "Well, Windows BMP is not exactly pure as the driven snow, neh?"

So much for giving you a good opening (g).

[ktinkel]

You were supposed to come back with, "Well, Windows BMP is not exactly pure as the driven snow, neh?"

So much for giving you a good opening (g).Oh, gee. Imagine blowing that one! Oh, well. I am just fundamentally a good person, I guess. <g>

[annc]

It's working a treat. Thanks, Shane.

[Shane Stanley]

Now that's something this PC guy didn't know about OSX. PDFs?

Screen drawing in OS X is all done via a form of PDF.

Shane

[ktinkel]

Screen drawing in OS X is all done via a form of PDF.Do you know why this is so? It is odd.

It seems especially like overkill when one needs to supply a screenshot!

[Stephen Owades]

You may recall that the display on Steve Jobs's NeXT computer was driven by Display PostScript. OS X shares a lot of features with the NeXT, including many of the same developers and their philosophies. Given the passage of years, PDF--a more compact and efficient format than PostScript--was chosen as the underlying display model for OS X, and OS X uses a sort of "Display PDF" to drive the screen. Since PDF is being used to create the display, it's the natural format for screenshots as well.

The specifications for PostScript and PDF are public, so this doesn't necessarily mean that Apple and Adobe are particularly "tight." There's no other display model as flexible and broadly applicable as PostScript/PDF, even after all these years, so I think they made a good choice.

[ktinkel]

You may recall that the display on Steve Jobs's NeXT computer was driven by Display PostScript. OS X shares a lot of features with the NeXT, including many of the same developers and their philosophies. Given the passage of years, PDF--a more compact and efficient format than PostScript--was chosen as the underlying display model for OS X, and OS X uses a sort of "Display PDF" to drive the screen. Since PDF is being used to create the display, it's the natural format for screenshots as well.

The specifications for PostScript and PDF are public, so this doesn't necessarily mean that Apple and Adobe are particularly "tight." There's no other display model as flexible and broadly applicable as PostScript/PDF, even after all these years, so I think they made a good choice.Yes, that all makes sense. Except …

… many online denizens object to having to open Acrobat or some other PDF reader (or have it opened automatically) just to view an attachment.

I really like Acrobat, all in all, but I also think it is kind of overkill for a simple screenshot.

In any event, since others object to PDF attachments, I have to deal with it, so I do think Apple should allow us to set file types in Preferences as in the past.

[Steve Rindsberg]

OSX doesn't still come with a copy of Grab in your Applications:Utilities folder?

[Shane Stanley]

… many online denizens object to having to open Acrobat or some other PDF reader (or have it opened automatically) just to view an attachment.

Pick any fromat you like, and I'm sure we can drum up a goodly collection of objectors post haste. Every format requires _something_ to read it.

I really like Acrobat, all in all, but I also think it is kind of overkill for a simple screenshot.

What do you mean by overkill (as in PDF I mean, not Acrobat)? Your screen is color managed, for example, so why shouldn't a screenshot be?

You've been brow-beaten into setting your expectations too low ;-)

Shane

[Dave Saunders]

I also use Grab. What I do is set it to grab a window, then I Copy (it feels alien doing this without first selecting anything), paste into Photoshop and then use Save for Web.

Dave

[ktinkel]

I also use Grab. What I do is set it to grab a window, then I Copy (it feels alien doing this without first selecting anything), paste into Photoshop and then use Save for Web.

DaveKnow what you mean. I lost the first one trying to select something!

So it is still a two-step process. Good old Option-Shift-4 is one; it would be loverly if they would just let us select a file type but I guess that is not going to happen.

[scottleyes]

Pogue recommends SnapzPro X, so I also went to the Ambrosia web site and downloaded a 30-day demo. That allows for gif, png, jpg, tiff, pdf, bmp, pict, and maybe a couple more formats (including movies), but I do not see a way to set this in Prefs (and I am not sure that the choice is sticky). In fact, this seems like overkill, and it also has no instructions that I can see. Costs $70 after the trial period.


I swear by Snapz Pro. It's pretty rock-solid in this release, and it'll let you save into a wide variety of formats - you can set your preferred, or set options at capture time. Add to that the ability to capture movies, and it's great.

On my 17" Powerbook, I got to the point where I couldn't stand full-screen grabs (lots o disk space after a few, lots of cropping after the fact). Now Snapz lets me grab only what I need, and even remembers the last area selected, so I can get consistent/in-registration grabs.

[ktinkel]

I swear by Snapz Pro. It's pretty rock-solid in this release, and it'll let you save into a wide variety of formats - you can set your preferred, or set options at capture time. Add to that the ability to capture movies, and it's great.

On my 17" Powerbook, I got to the point where I couldn't stand full-screen grabs (lots o disk space after a few, lots of cropping after the fact). Now Snapz lets me grab only what I need, and even remembers the last area selected, so I can get consistent/in-registration grabs.Command-Shift-4 lets you select the area you want to capture, as does Command-B (I think) with Grab, which also allows you to say whether you want the cursor or not.

My only problem with Snapz Pro is all those choices. Getting lazy … I really just want good old C-S-4 to let me make a tiff. But it is not to be, so I suspect I’ll live with Grab. But I still have time left on the Snapz Pro demo, so who knows?