# Screen-Shooter Applet

Copyright © 1999-2000 by Tom Gilbert

Copyright © 1999-2000 by Telsa Gwynne

# ScreenShooter Applet

`Screen-Shooter` is a handy little screengrabber which is simple to use. It sits in your panel and you can click on it to take a screenshot of either the whole desktop or just a single window.

To add the applet to your panel, you can right-click on an empty part of the panel and follow the sequence Applets->Utility->ScreenShooter.

## Usage

- To take a picture of the entire desktop, left-click on the image of a monitor. This button is the lower of the two on a normally-sized horizontal panel and the right-hand button on a narrow horizontal panel or a vertical panel.

- To take a picture of just one window, left-click on the image of a window. This button is the top one on a normally-sized horizontal panel and the left-hand one on a narrow horizontal panel or a vertical panel. The button will stay pressed in and the cursor will change to a cross. Move the cursor to the window you want a picture of, and click in that window to select it.

Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the usual options for an applet, including a Properties option described below.

## Settings

`Screen-Shooter` can be configured to do a number of different things. To configure `Screen-Shooter`, click on the applet with mouse button 3 (usually, right mouse button) and select Properties from the popup menu. The Preferences dialogue has seven sections described below. Five of these are visible initially: two more sections are available from a toggle in the first section.

## General Preferences

`Capture WM decorations when grabbing a window`

  The capture decorations checkbox controls whether or not the titlebar and edges of a window are included. It is only relevant when `Screen-Shooter` is taking a picture of a single window rather than of the whole screen or of a rectangle you have selected. The default is for this to be checked and for the titlebar and window borders to be included in the shot.

`Give audio feedback using the keyboard bell`

  The audio feedback checkbox controls whether or not `Screen-Shooter` will beep when it actually takes the shot. The default is to beep.

`Display spurious options`

  The spurious options checkbox controls whether some of `Screen-Shooter`'s more esoteric options are available. The default is off (i.e., they are not available). Checking this option makes two sections called Spurious 1 and Spurious 2 visible in the preferences dialogue.

`Delay before taking shot`

  When taking shots of the desktop, you can set a delay between clicking on the `Screen-Shooter` and the shot being taken. The delay can be up to one minute. This can be very useful when you want to focus on a particular window or if you want to bring up a menu.

`Compression quality`

  Compression quality does not refer to how tightly a file is compressed, but to how well it retains detail after compression. The higher the compression quality, the better the quality of the image, but the larger the size of the resulting file. It is relevant when you are saving something as a JPEG, a MIFF or a PNG file. The default compression quality is 75%.

`Create monochrome image`

  A fairly self-explanatory option: if this is selected, the resulting image will be in monochrome. This is off by default.

`Invert colours in image`

  Another self-explanatory option: if this is selected, the colours of the image are reversed so that white becomes black, pale purple becomes greenish, and so on. Lovely -- but rarely useful! Off by default.

## Files, Apps

`Directory to save file in`

  The directory to save the shot in must exist already: `Screen-Shooter` will not create it for you. If you try to save it to somewhere that does not exist, then no screenshot will be taken. The default directory is `~/`: your home directory.

`Filename for images`

  `Screen-Shooter` is designed to allow the user maximum flexibility in naming each shot. The filename field (as well as the directory field) is passed to a shell for normal shell expansion before being used. This allows you to use the output of programs, scripts or environment variables to name your shots. The reason for this is to allow unique filenames. By default, Screen-Shooter will create a name which is based on the time and date it was taken: this of course should always be unique. The default filename is ``date +%Y_%m_%d_%H%M%S`_shot.jpg`. As you can see, the filename includes the output of the date command in order to generate a datestamp. So it makes up a name based on the date, using the format the percentage symbols and letters tell it. Then it adds the rest of the name from outside the backticks to the date it has used. Explanations of the cryptic percentage symbols can be found in man date, but the arguments in the default filename are:

  %H

    The hour of the day (from 00 to 23)

  %M

    The minute of the hour (from 00 to 59)

  %S

    The second of the minute (from 00 to 60)

  %d

    The day of the month (from 01 to 31)

  %m

    The month of the year (from 01 to 12)

  %y

    The final two digits of the year

  Other examples of filenames you might use are:

  - `screenshot-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S`.jpg`

  - `pic-`date +%H%M%S`.png`

  - `myshot.jpg`

  - ``my_own_script_to_create_a_filename`.jpg`

  The filename suffix determines the filetype. Screen-Shooter supports what can only be described as a ridiculous number of different image formats. Try your luck. For a full list, type man convert. You can even try .html to create a client-side image map, and wild things like that.

  If your filename suffix is not something `Screen-Shooter` recognises, or you omit one, it will save the shot as a MIFF file. Use the convert utility to change the format later.

View screenshot after saving

  The `view screenshot` checkbox is unchecked by default. After checking it, you will get a view of the shot once it has been taken. You need to specify a viewer for this: the default is ee, which launches the `Electric Eyes` image viewing program.

## Thumbnails

`Create thumbnail of image too`

  None of the other options on this page will have any effect if create thumbnail is not checked. By default, it is off.

`Thumbnail size`

  This is the percentage of the original's size that the thumbnail will be. The default is 25%.

`Thumbnail compression`

  This is the quality of compression to use. As with the general preferences, the better the quality of the compression, the more detail will be preserved, and the bigger the thumbnail will be. The default for a thumbnail is 50%.

`Prefix to attach to filename`

  This is the prefix to attach to the thumbnail filename to distinguish it from the full-sized shot. If you leave this blank, the thumbnail will overwrite the full-sized shot and you will lose the full-sized one. The default prefix is "thumb-".

`Use high-quality intermediate for generating thumbnail`

  The high-quality intermediate checkbox is off by default. It generates a MIFF image whilst making the thumbnail. A 'lossy' file format refers to a file format where data and detail is irretrievably lost, but which is typically much smaller than a non-lossy format image of the same thing. The typical example of a lossy file format is JPEG.

## Post-Processing

| These options munch processing power compared with the options in previous sections. They work by producing an intermediate image of the screenshot, and then performing actions upon it. Once any of these options are enabled, the shot will take longer to complete, due to the extra processing involved.

`Normalize image`

  The normalize image checkbox transforms the image to span the full range of colour values. Default is off.

`Equalize image`

  The equalize image checkbox enables histogram-based image equalization, which is a process which compensates for low contrast in an image and brings out more detail. Default is off.

`Enhance image`

  The enhance image checkbox tells `Screen-Shooter` to clean up the image as best it can, and try to remove any noise. Default is off.

`Despeckle image`

  The despeckle image checkbox reduces spotting by removing single pixels which are very different in colour from their surroundings. The default is off.

`Sharpen image by factor`

  Sharpening the image sharpens the image. The default is a factor of zero, but it can be raised to 100%.

`Rotate image clockwise`

  This is how many degrees clockwise to rotate the image. The default is 0: unrotated.

`Adjust gamma`

  The gamma checkbox enables you to adjust the gamma. The gamma value is a value to do with the intensity of the lightness of an image (and rather complicated). The range `Screen-Shooter` provides is from 0.8 to 2.3 with a default of 1.6. This is not a linear (straight) scale so you will need to experiment. Lowering the gamma produces a darker image. Raising it produces a lighter one.

## Frills

`Create frame around image`

  The create frame checkbox is off by default. Checking it produces a frame around the shot taken. This frame is always grey, but Tom Gilbert notes, "if anybody requests it, I'll add options for setting its colour".

`Frame width`

  This determines the size of the frame in pixels. The range is from one pixel to fifty. The default frame is six pixels.

`Flip image vertically`

  This gives a vertical mirror image of the shot. It can be combined with the following option. The default is unchecked.

`Flip image horizontally`

  This gives a horizontal mirror image of the shot. It can be combined with the preceding option. The default is unchecked.

`Emboss image`

  Embossing an image produces an image drained of most colour and drawn in relief. The default is unchecked.

`Send image and thumbnail to...`

  By placing a script or program name in the box and checking the send to checkbox, you can invoke that script or program to be automatically run on the image and thumbnail. This could be used to print the image out automatically, to invoke a script to catalogue the files, or to add the pictures to a website automatically. A sample script for the latter is available with `Screen-Shooter`.

## Spurious options: part 1

| Tom Gilbert says, "These options are all just plain silly. But they're fun. So I included them". They also munch processing power in the same manner as the post-processing options above.

To make use of any of the options listed in this section and the next section, you need to have selected Display spurious options in the General Preferences section. They will not be available otherwise.

`Blur image`

  The blur image checkbox is off by default and the blur factor is set to zero. By checking the checkbox and altering the blur factor you can blur the image. Even at the highest rating (100), a typical font on a typical terminal window is still just about decipherable.

`Create charcoal effect`

  The charcoal checkbox is off by default and the charcoal factor is set to zero. Charcoaling produces a monochrome image with a slight smudginess which increases with the charcoal factor. It does not deal with highlighted text very well, though. The maximum factor for this is 100.

`Find edges`

  The find edges checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Using it produces a monochrome image where, rather than highlighting areas of different colours, it highlights the edges and borders between areas of different colour. Very interesting on maps and astronomical photos. The maximum factor for this is 100.

`Implode image`

  The implode image checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Using it warps the resulting screenshot as if a weight had been pressed into the centre of the shot. The maximum factor for this is 100.

## Spurious options: part 2

`Create painted effect`

  The painted effect checkbox is off by default and the radius to paint around each pixel is set to zero. Checking it with a radius of about 5 produces an effect like an Impressionist painting. Checking it with a radius of about 50 will eat your CPU cycles like mad for ten minutes on a reasonably powerful machine. The maximum radius is 100, but you will need either a large machine or a lot of patience for that.

`Solarise image`

  The solarise checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Solarising is an effect first noticed in developing photographs from negatives. It results in a negative image with different colouring from that of the "inverted colours" option in the general preferences. A solarise factor of 5 will produce startling results, but the maximum factor is 100.

`Spread image pixels`

  The spread image checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. The result of spreading the image pixels by a radius of about 5 is similar to looking through lightly frosted glass; for heavily-frosted glass, try 25. The maximum is 100.

`Swirl pixels`

  The swirl pixels checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Swirling the pixels results in a distorted image similar to an imploded image except that it swirls around the central point rather than stretching to it. A radius of 20 produces an effect like a fairground distorting mirror, only not a mirror-image; 90 a much increased version (although text is still legible); at 180 the entire image is warped; and at the maximum of 360 a spiral effect is created.

## Known bugs and limitations

- Often screenshots saved in PNG format show incorrectly in `Netscape` or the `GNOME Help Browser`. This is due to bugs in Netscape and and GNOME image libraries, not to bugs in `Screen-Shooter`. You can view such screenshots in a different image-viewing program; or you can try changing image compression level in the Preferences dialogue box, which sometimes helps.

## Authors

The `Screen-Shooter` applet was written by Tom Gilbert (`<gilbertt@tomgilbert.freeserve.co.uk>`). Please report bugs in the Screen-Shooter applet to the GNOME bug tracking system. You can do this by following the guidelines on that site or by using `bug-buddy` from the command-line. For the package, put gnome-applets.

This manual was written by Telsa Gwynne (`<telsa@linuxchix.org>`) and Tom Gilbert (`<gilbertt@tomgilbert.freeserve.co.uk>`). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to `<docs@gnome.org>`. You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.