[HOWTO] Change screenshot format in Tiger

[cybergoober]

Screenshots in Tiger default to .png format. This can be changed now by opening a Terminal window and typing:

for pdf

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf

for jpg

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

for gif

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type gif

then log out and log back in.
Command-Shift-3 etc should now produce the format of your choosing. To go back to png use

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png

 

[Zammy-Sam]

nice! Thanks for sharing

 

[Bottlelot]

Cool beans! Just the thing I'm looking for!

 

[snipper]

When I make a screenshot (CMD-SHIFT-3 or CMD-SHIFT-4), Tiger makes PNG files on the desktop of them, even after typing your code in the Terminal.. What do I do wrong??

 

[bobw]

Copy/Paste this into Terminal;

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg


Then log out and back in and try.

 

[super_claret]

Hi Bob

I've tried the above and had success changing from png to pdf, but I can't manage to get the jpg option to work ! Any thoughts ?

Cheers


Mark

 

[Robn Kester]

Good info to know. Anyway to tell it where to send the shots instead of the desktop?

 

[snipper]

Often this is even better: After pressing CMD-SHIFT-4 and while dragging over the part of the screen you want a dump of with the mousebutton pressed, keep the CTRL key pressed before you let go the mousebutton.

Instead of saving it to a file on your desktop, OS X will put it on your clipboard and you can paste it in photoshop, illustrator, etc.