A screenshot (also known as screen capture or screen grab) is a digital image that shows the contents of a computer display. A screenshot is created by the operating system or software running on the device powering the display.
Additionally, screenshots can be captured by an external camera, using photography to capture contents on the screen.
Screenshot techniques
Digital techniques
The first screenshots were created with the first interactive computers around 1960.
Through the 1980s, computer operating systems did not universally have built-in functionality for capturing screenshots. Sometimes text-only screens could be dumped to a
text file
A text file (sometimes spelled textfile; an old alternative name is flatfile) is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists stored as data within a computer file system. In operat ...
, but the result would only capture the content of the screen, not the appearance, nor were graphics screens preservable this way. Some systems had a
BSAVE
BSAVE and BLOAD are commands in many varieties of the BASIC programming language. BSAVE copies RAM to a binary file, and BLOAD copies the contents of the file to RAM. The term "BSAVE image" could mean any of various raw image formats of video di ...
command that could be used to capture the area of memory where screen data was stored, but this required access to a
BASIC prompt. Systems with
composite video output could be connected to a
VCR
A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...
, and entire
screencasts preserved this way.
Most screenshots are
raster image
upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...
s, but some vector-based GUI environments like
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
are capable of generating
vector
Vector most often refers to:
*Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction
*Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism
Vector may also refer to:
Mathematic ...
screenshots.
Photographic techniques
Screenshot kits were available for standard (film) cameras that included a long antireflective hood to attach between the screen and camera lens, as well as a closeup lens for the camera.
Polaroid film
Instant film is a type of photographic film that was introduced by Polaroid Corporation to produce a visible image within minutes or seconds of the photograph's exposure. The film contains the chemicals needed for developing and fixing the photogr ...
was popular for capturing screenshots, because of the instant results and close-focusing capability of Polaroid cameras. In 1988, Polaroid introduced
Spectra film with a 9.2 × 7.3 image size more suited to the 4:3
aspect ratio of
CRT screens.
Built-in screenshot functionality
Android
Screenshot support was added to ''Android''
in version 4.0. In older versions, some devices supported screenshot functionality with one of the following combinations:
* Press and hold the
* Press and hold
* Press and hold and double tap the .
Screenshots can be taken by pressing , and are saved in the "Screenshot" folder in the gallery after a short sound and visual effect.
On certain devices that use modified Android; the button combination and the storage location can vary.
Also, when a keyboard is connected via USB-OTG, pressing the print screen button will take the screenshot.
There is no direct way to take screenshots programmatically in non-system apps. However, on most devices, apps may use the system screenshot functionality without special permissions.
Amazon Kindle
On Amazon Kindle devices, one can take a screenshot by:
* Kindle Paperwhite - touch and hold on the top-left and bottom-right corners of the screen (or top-right and bottom-left corners). The screen will flash and the image will be saved in the root folder of Kindle storage.
* Kindle or Kindle Touch – Simply press and hold the and then tap anywhere on the screen.
* Kindle Keyboard (Kindle 3 and Kindle DX) – Press
* Kindle Fire 2 and Kindle Fire HD (with volume button) – Press and hold the at the same time. Open the Photos app to access the screenshot(s).
* Kindle Fire (no volume buttons) – One needs to connect their Kindle Fire to a computer with the Kindle SDK installed and take a screenshot through the development environment.
ChromeOS
On
Chromebook
A Chromebook (sometimes stylized in lowercase as chromebook) is a laptop or tablet running the Linux-based ChromeOS as its operating system. Initially designed to heavily rely on web applications for tasks using the Google Chrome browser, Chrome ...
and related devices with the
ChromeOS
ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfa ...
keyboard layout, pressing the equivalent of on a standard keyboard will capture the entire screen, and the equivalent of will turn the mouse into a rectangle select tool for capturing a custom portion of the screen.
HP WebOS
Screenshots of the
HP webOS
webOS, also known as LG webOS and previously known as Open webOS, HP webOS and Palm webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices such as smart TVs that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially ...
can be taken. For webOS phones, simultaneously press . For the
HP Touchpad, press . In either case, screenshots will be saved to the "Screen captures" folder in the "Photos" app.
Linux
![GNOME Screenshot 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/GNOME_Screenshot_3.32.png)
On
KDE
KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...
or
GNOME, key behavior is quite similar to Windows. (See
§ Microsoft Windows.) In addition, the following screenshooting utilities are bundled with Linux distributions:
*
GIMP: A
raster graphics editor that can take screenshots too
*
gnome-screenshot
GNOME Screenshot is a desktop environment-agnostic utility for taking screenshots. It was part of the GNOME Utilities (gnome-utils) package, but was split into its own package for the 3.3.1 version in 2011. It was the default screenshot software ...
: The default screen grabbing utility in GNOME
*
ImageMagick
ImageMagick, invoked from the command line as magick, is a free and open-source cross-platform software suite for displaying, creating, converting, modifying, and editing raster images. Created in 1987 by John Cristy, it can read and write ov ...
: Has an command-line tool that captures screenshots in a variety of formats. Type to capture the entire screen to your
home directory.
* Spectacle: The default screen grabbing utility in KDE
*
scrot
scrot is a minimalist command line screen capturing application. It allows substantial degree of flexibility by specifying parameters on command line, including the ability to invoke a third-party utility to manipulate the resulting screenshot.
...
: Allows selecting arbitrary areas of the X screen and windows.
*
xwd
In the X Window System, the program xwd (X Window dump) captures the content of a screen or of a window and optionally saves it into a file.
xwd runs in one of two ways: if a user specifies the whole screen or the name or identifier of a win ...
: The screen capture utility of the
X Window System
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...
Apple iOS
A screenshot can be taken on
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
by simultaneously pressing the Home button and the Lock button from the
Original iPhone to the
iPhone 8 Plus in addition to the second- and third-generation SE or the iPad models of the iPad (1st generation and later), the iPad Mini up to the 5th generation, the iPad Air up to the 3rd generation, or the first two generations of the iPad Pro or by pressing the Volume up and Lock button since the
iPhone X
The iPhone X (Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten", also known as iPhone 10) is a smartphone designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from October 27, 2017, it was re ...
and newer iPhone models and iPad models since the iPad Pro (3rd generation), iPad Air (4th generation), and the iPad Mini (6th generation). The screen will flash and the picture will be stored in
PNG format in the "Camera Roll" if the device has a camera, or in "Saved Photos" if the device does not. From the iOS 11 update, a little preview will pop up in the bottom left corner, which can be swiped left to save or clicked to open up an editor where the screenshot can be cropped or doodled on before being saved or shared. The screenshot feature is available with iOS 2.0 and later.
The same shortcut for Mac OS is used in iOS to take a screenshot, with bringing the screenshot directly in iOS' editing window in iOS 11 and later. Third-party Bluetooth keyboards often have a key or
function key
A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard that can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions, a form of soft key. On some keyboards/computers, function ...
command devoted to taking a screenshot.
Apple macOS
On
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, a user can take a screenshot of an entire screen by pressing , or of a chosen area of the screen by . This screenshot is saved to the user's desktop, with one
PNG file per attached monitor. If the user holds down while doing either then the screenshot will be copied to the clipboard instead.
Beginning with Mac OS X Panther, it is possible to make a screenshot of an active application window. By following , with pressing the , the cross-hair cursor turns into a small camera icon. The current window under the cursor is highlighted, and a click on the mouse or trackpad will capture a screenshot of the entire highlighted element (including the parts offscreen or covered by other windows).
A provided application called
Grab will capture a chosen area, a whole window, the whole screen, or the whole screen after 10 seconds and pops the screenshot up in a window ready for copying to the
clipboard
A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. Th ...
or saving as a
TIFF
Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word process ...
. The
Preview
Preview may refer to:
Theatre, film, television
* Preview (subscription service), an early subscription television service in the United States
* Preview (theatre), a public performance of a theatrical show before the official opening
* Previe ...
application, also provided, has the same capture options as Grab but opens the captured image immediately in a new window.
Since macOS 10.14 Mojave, Apple brought to users a revamped screenshot utility, called Screenshot app. A utility toolbar will show up when users press . This toolbar allows users to choose capture modes and options to take screenshots. Users can change the default location of saved screenshots from the Options menu in Screenshot app. Besides, this application supports recording Mac screen in full-sized or chosen portion.
A shell utility called "screencapture" (located in
/usr/sbin/screencapture
) can be used from the
Terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
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. This utility might only be available when the macOS developer tools are installed. A user cannot capture the screen while
DVD Player
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to ...
is running.
Maemo 5
On
Maemo 5
Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to com ...
a screenshot can be taken by pressing simultaneously. Screenshots will be saved as "Screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png" in "Images/Screenshots" on the internal storage.
Windows
On
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
, pressing captures a screenshot of the entire desktop, while captures only the
active window
A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunction ...
. Captured screenshots do not include the mouse pointer. Windows places these captured screenshots in the
clipboard
A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. Th ...
, meaning that an additional program needs to retrieve them from the clipboard. Starting with
Windows 8
Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...
, however, or instantly saves a screenshot to the "Screenshots" folder in "Pictures" library. All screenshots are saved as
PNG files. Note: On some notebooks you have to hold and then press instead.
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
and later include a utility called
Snipping Tool, first introduced in
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001.
Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...
. It is a screen-capture tool that allows taking screenshots ("snips") of a window, rectangular area, or free-form area. Starting with
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
, Snipping Tool gained time delay functionality, useful for capturing context menus. Snips can then be annotated, saved as an image file or as an HTML page, or emailed. However, it does not work with non-tablet XP versions but represents an XP compatible equivalent. Windows 7 and later also include Problem Step Recorder as part of their troubleshooting platforms that once started, automatically captures a screenshot at mouse clicks.
There are exceptions to what can be captured by this method. For example, contents in
hardware overlay
In computing, hardware overlay, a type of video overlay, provides a method of rendering an image to a display screen with a dedicated memory buffer inside computer video hardware. The technique aims to improve the display of a fast-moving video im ...
are not captured. This includes video images that
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player (application software), media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing sound reproduction, audio, video and viewing images on personal computers runnin ...
10 or earlier play. As such, special software may be required to capture the screens of video games.
Windows Phone
In
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was s ...
, screenshots can be taken by simultaneously pressing and holding the phone's Power button and the Start button. The screenshots are saved in the phone's native screen resolution under "screenshots" in the Photos hub. The screenshot functionality is only available for Windows Phone 8 or later.
The screenshot combination for
Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Phone 8.1 is the discontinued third generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014, it was released ...
and later is the phone's Power button and the Volume Up button.
Xbox One/Series S, X
As of March 2015, an
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
or
Xbox Series
The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, ...
console can take a screenshot by double-pressing the Nexus button. Pressing the Y button will then save it. The equivalent
voice command
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the ma ...
for this action is "Xbox, take a screenshot".
PlayStation
A
PlayStation 4 or
5 console can take a screenshot by pressing and holding the SHARE button on a DualShock or DualSense controller.
External tools
Notable external tools include:
*
Bandicam
Bandicam (stylized as BANDICAM) is a closed-source screen capture and screen recording software originally developed by Bandisoft and later by Bandicam Company that can take screenshots or record screen changes.
Bandicam consists of three mai ...
*
Camtasia
Camtasia (; formerly Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac) is a software suite, created and published by TechSmith, for creating and recording video tutorials and presentations via screencast (screen recording), or via a direct recording plug-in ...
*
CamStudio
CamStudio is an open-source screencasting program for Microsoft Windows released as free software. The software renders videos in an AVI format. It can also convert these AVIs into Flash Video format, embedded in SWF files. CamStudio is w ...
*
CloudApp
CloudApp is a cross-platform screen capture and screen recording desktop client that supports online storage and sharing.
CloudApp full and partial screen recordings export to .mp4 format. Full or partial screen image captures export to either ...
*
Greenshot
*
Gyazo
Gyazo is an open-source and free screenshot program for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The program allows users to create screenshots and upload them to the web, producing a unique URL to the screenshot. The program's name "Gyazo" is a pun on the J ...
*
IrfanView
IrfanView () is an image viewer, editor, organiser and converter program for Microsoft Windows. It can also play video and audio files, and has some image creation and painting capabilities. IrfanView is free for non-commercial use; commercial u ...
*
Jing
*
KSnapshot
The KDE Gear (also known as the KDE Applications Bundle or KDE Applications) is a set of applications and supporting libraries that are developed by the KDE community, primarily used on Linux-based operating systems but mostly multiplatform, and ...
*
Lightscreen
Lightscreen is a lightweight screen shooting application for Microsoft Windows, used to automate the process of saving and cataloging screenshots. It operates as a hidden background process that is invoked with one (or multiple) hotkeys and then ...
*
Microsoft Snipping Tool
*
Monosnap
Monosnap is a screenshot program for Mac OS X and Windows. The program allows users to create screenshots, annotate them and upload them to the cloud. It was released for Mac OS X on 11 July 2012. Several days after it was positively reviewed b ...
*
PrintKey 2000
*
scrot
scrot is a minimalist command line screen capturing application. It allows substantial degree of flexibility by specifying parameters on command line, including the ability to invoke a third-party utility to manipulate the resulting screenshot.
...
*
ShareX
ShareX is a free and open-source screenshot and screencast program for Microsoft Windows. It is published under the GNU General Public License. The project's source code is hosted on GitHub. It is also available on the Microsoft Store and St ...
*
Shotty
*
Snagit
Snagit (formerly SnagIt) is screen capture and screen recording software for Windows and macOS. It is created and developed by TechSmith and was first launched in 1990. Snagit is available in English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spa ...
*
Snapz Pro X
Ambrosia Software was a predominantly Macintosh software company founded in 1993 and located in Rochester, New York, U.S. Ambrosia Software was best known for its Macintosh remakes of older arcade games, which began with a 1992 version of Atari ...
*
VVCap
VVCap was a screenshot program that operated under the Windows operating system. It was created and distributed by G Central. VVCap was available in English, Spanish and Russian versions, and is supported in those languages.
''VVCap'' replaces ...
*
Window Clippings
__NOTOC__
Window Clippings is a Windows utility that enables users to capture screenshots from open windows and menus so that the transparency (alpha channel) of target window is also captured. This includes shadows and translucent glass areas p ...
*
Xfire
*
XnView
XnView is an image organizer and general-purpose file manager used for viewing, converting, organizing and editing raster images, as well as general purpose file management. It comes with built-in hex inspection, batch renaming and screen ...
*
Xwd
In the X Window System, the program xwd (X Window dump) captures the content of a screen or of a window and optionally saves it into a file.
xwd runs in one of two ways: if a user specifies the whole screen or the name or identifier of a win ...
*
PicPick
Some web browsers, for example
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current ...
and
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is a proprietary, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft. It was first released in 2015 as part of Windows 10 and Xbox One and later ported to other platforms as a fork of Google's Chromium open-source project: Android ...
, have a screenshot tool which can be used to capture a whole web page or part of it.
Common technical issues
Hardware overlays
On Windows systems, 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 by using a method called
hardware overlay
In computing, hardware overlay, a type of video overlay, provides a method of rendering an image to a display screen with a dedicated memory buffer inside computer video hardware. The technique aims to improve the display of a fast-moving video im ...
. 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."
Free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
media players may also use the overlay but often have a setting to avoid it or have dedicated screenshot functions.
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. 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 needed for a pleasant experience.
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. Regardless of copyright, screenshots may still be legally used under the principle of
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
in the U.S. or
fair dealing
Fair dealing is a limitation and exception to the exclusive rights granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. Fair dealing is found in many of the common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Fair dealing is an en ...
and similar laws in other countries.
See also
*
Comparison of screencasting software
This page provides a comparison of notable screencasting software, used to record activities on the computer screen. This software is commonly used for desktop recording, gameplay recording and video editing. Screencasting software is typically ...
*
Codeless test automation
*
Print screen
*
Screencast
*
Thumbshot
{{Wiktionary
Thumbshots are screenshots of online documents such as web page in small thumbnail sizes. Thumbshots help users to visualize web sites or preview links before clicking. The dimension of a thumbshot image (usually under 120 pixels i ...
*
Video capture
Video capture is the process of converting an analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera, DVD player, or television tuner—to digital video and sending it to local storage or to external circuitry. The resulting digital data ar ...
References
External links
Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshotsat
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
{{authority control
Graphical user interfaces