Irritating screen shot issue??

wicky

wicky

play thing
OK, so I want to take a JPEG screen shot of a specific window.

Simple, I know....
1. Terminal: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
2. Restart
3. Press command + shift to get the crosshairs
4. Hit the space bar to select a specific window (shown as a blue hue overlay)
(5. Bang your face against the desk repeatedly (optional))

My problem...
The Leopard screen shot adds additional space to compensate for the drop shadow that Leopard adds to the various Finder windows.

I often need to composite multiple screen shots of long web pages to show clients as printed presentations. This used to be very simple in Tiger, because Tiger would only capture the designated window (not the drop shadow outside). Leopard forces me to cut bits out and montage back together (especially when gradient backgrounds are involved). It's quite tedious!!

Is it possible to emulate/copy the way Tiger captured screen shots - ie. just the selected window without the drop shadow or any additional space outside of the blue hue area?

Thanks in advance.
 
Why don't you use Grab? (applications>utilities>grab)

Then go to Capture menu, and select window (other options exist of course). But it takes a shot of only that window, not the outlying shadowing stuff. After the screenshot is taken, it opens it, depending on your settings.
 
1. Because that particular service isn't always available, eg. it's grayed out when I try to use it in Mail.

2. Because I'm very used to using the key strokes. For me it's much more efficient, especially when compiling a fairly substantial CMS user manual for my clients (they often include *many* screen shots and the extra menu clicks soon become quite tedious).

3. Because it used to work perfectly and doesn't anymore... so seems like an obvious question.

4. etc.

Thanks
 
I have another related question so thought best to add it to this thread...

The JPG's generated don't have a suffix. Sometimes I need to email them directly and this often causes issues with PeeCee owners. Is there a way to add the suffix automatically?

Thanks
 
Have a look in Finder ~> Preferences (in the Finder Menu Bar) under "Advanced" to see if "Show all file extensions" is ticked.

Funny thing is that on my iMac the option is unchecked but I have a .png on any screenshot I take .... have a look anyway.

You could also try adding 'Control' to the keyboard combination which will place the screenshot on the clipboard as opposed to creating a file on the desktop, then create the email and Command + V to paste the screenshot onto the email body .... ok, I just tried it myself and it works ... in Tiger at least ;) ....

BTW, you can add 'Control' to all the screenshot keyboard shortcuts and they will be placed onto the Clipboard until you press Command (⌘) + V to paste the image wherever you need to ....

  • Shift + Control + Command + 3
  • Shift + Control + Command + 4 then drag the crosshair
  • Shift + Control + Command + 4 then press Spacebar to take a picture of any icon or window ...

To have your screenshot files show their extension when they are saved to the desktop, try the following in Terminal:

  • defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png
.
 
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