Taking Screenshots from Mac Terminal Session

Sometimes, it can be very useful to take screenshots in command line to be used when scripting.  You can use  screencapture to capture and manipulate clipboard contents.

The syntax is   screencapture [ -SWCTMPcimswxt ] file

Option	Option Description
-c	Force screen capture to go to the clipboard.
-C	Capture the cursor as well as the screen. Only allowed in non-interactive modes.
-i	Capture screen interactively, by selection or window. The control key will cause the screen shot to go to the clipboard. The space key will toggle between mouse selection and window selection modes. The escape key will cancel the interactive screenshot.
-m	Only capture the main monitor, undefined if -i is set.
-M	Open the taken picture in a new Mail message.
-o	In window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window.
-P	Open the taken picture in a Preview window.
-s	Only allow mouse selection mode.
-S	In window capture mode, capture the screen instead of the window.
-t	Image format to create, default is png (other options include pdf, jpg, tiff and other formats).
-T	Take the picture after a delay of , default is 5.
-w	Only allow window selection mode.
-W	Start interaction in window selection mode.
-x	Do not play sounds.

To take a screenshot of the entire screen and save it to the desktop,
screencapture -S ~/Desktop/screen.jpg

To take a picture of a window, and save it to the desktop;
screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/window.jpg

To take a screenshot of a section of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
screencapture -ic

How to Change Screenshot Location in Snow Leopard

When you take a screenshot in Snow Leopard, the file is saved on your desktop by default.  If you are taking lots of screenshots, why clutter your desktop.  Wouldn't it be more productive if you have these screenshots placed into a folder of your choice.

To save screenshots to a specific folder by default,

1)  Open a Terminal session

2)  Enter the following

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/keith/Desktop/Screenshots

3)  You can restart or enter the following in the same Terminal session

killall SystemUIServer

Once you make this change, you need to restart your machine for the change to take effect. But once you do that, all future screenshots will be saved to the new location.

How to Change Screenshot Default File Format in Snow Leopard

When you take a screenshot in Snow Leopard, the file is saved as a .png by default.  This default is the same for Tiger and Leopard.  Suppose you wanted the file as a jpg, pdf, gif, tif, pict, bmp or some other format.  You can convert to another file format, but why?  Why not capture the screenshot in the format you want right from the start.

To save screenshots as a .jpg file by default,
1)  Open a Terminal session
2)  Enter the following
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
3)  You can restart or enter the following in the same Terminal session
killall SystemUIServer

Once you make this change, you need to restart your machine for the change to take effect. But once you do that, all future screenshots will be saved using the file format of your choice.

How To Capture Screenshots in Ubuntu

Here are 2 ways to capture screenshots in Ubuntu 9.04:

1)  Gnome-Screenshot.  This is the default screen capture tool.  It allows the grab the whole desktop, current window, or a selected area.  To access, go to Application > Accessories > Take Screenshots.

2)  GIMP.  I believe this was installed by default.  Once the application is open, go to File > Create > Screenshot.

How to capture screenshots in Windows 7

If you are going to do any documentation on Windows 7, you will need some way to capture screenshots.  One way is to use the Snipping Tool built into Windows 7.  In addition you can also annotate the screenshots to guide the user to focus where you want them to. 

By clicking on the New drop-down, there are 4 types of snips that is presented as options:
1)  Free-form Snip 
2)  Rectangular Snip
3)  Window Snip
4)  Full-Screen Snip

After you capture a snip, it Snipping Tool Clipboard opens up with your capture.  From here, you can now annotate to your heart's desire.

How to Capture Screenshots in Snow Leopard

When I first started on the Mac, I always had to look up how to take screenshots as I could never remember the keyboard shortcuts.

Command-Shift-3   will take a screenshot of your entire screen at that moment

Command-Shift-4   will bring up a cross-hair icon showing the screen co-ordinates.  When you click the mouse, that sets the top left corner and when you release the mouse that sets the bottom right corner.

Command-Shift-4, followed by the Space Bar, then clicking a Window   will take a screenshot of the selected window.

All screenshots are saved as .png files on your desktop.

If you combine the Control with the above (e.g. Command-Control-Shift-3), the screenshot will be placed on your clipboard rather than captured as a file on your desktop.

The commands work the same in Tiger and Leopard.