Screen Shot Preferences?

pixmaniowa

pixmaniowa

Registered
When you click command-shift-3 you get a screen shot/capture. I one time found a way to change the save and format preferences for that process. I can't find it now in 10.4.8.
Where is it?
Thank you in advance.
Robert
 
from your Mac help files
Grab saves screen shots as files in TIFF format. If you want to use your screen shots on the web, in email, or in a word processor, you can use the Preview application to convert the TIFF files to other formats, such as JPEG or PICT.
Click to expand...

The grab app is used when you create screen shots. Change the format of that saved image with the preview app. Changing the image to another format is provided through the 'Save as...' window.
 
This is the command you'll need to enter into the Terminal (go to /Application/Utilities/Terminal.app):

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

You can use jpg, png, psd and pdf.
 
to be honest, though, it's png for a reason. Jpeg introduces a lossy element to a screen grab, meaning that you'll never get a clean grab, and PSD and PDF are just clunky and awkward for what it's worth. png is the best of both worlds.
 
Lt Major Burns said:
to be honest, though, it's png for a reason. Jpeg introduces a lossy element to a screen grab, meaning that you'll never get a clean grab, and PSD and PDF are just clunky and awkward for what it's worth. png is the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

I concur. I use PNG myself for pretty much that reason.
 
PNG is also lossy, it is just optimized for blocky images, that is images with areas of constant color and sharp lines, JPEG is optimized for photographs.

I agree that PNG is the thing to use here but it is not lossless by any measure. If that is what you want then you have to use TIFF or PDF (never tries PSD but I assume that is similar).
 
Thank you for your help so far. I wanted to change to .jpg because most of the time I am screen shooting for sending works in progress and I have had problems with others not being able to see the .png's (windoze users).
You have been very helpful.
Is there a terminal command to change where it saves the image as well? I would like to put the images into a special folder.
Thanks again,
Robert
 
Ahh, I has always being working with PNG on Windows machines... do your friends has an old version of Windows or something?
 
Not as far as I know. But I can't count the number of times I've sent out things that should have been open-able and gotten back "I can't open that!" from windoze users. So I always go out of my way to convert things to formats that have always worked for them in the past. Lowest common denominator thinking.
R
 
it's not even like png is proprietry, png was created and ratified as a modern, fully alpha-complient image format for the web.... and windows can't view it by default.... Also, it is actually a completely lossless format.
 
pixmaniowa said:
Is there a terminal command to change where it saves the image as well?
Click to expand...

yep, just type
Code: 
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Full/Path/To/Folder

while obviously replacing /Full/Path/To/Folder with the appropriate location (cheater's way is to create the folder, then drag that folder into terminal window to automagically generate the full path)


Then log out & back in for the change to take effect.
 
Lt Major Burns said:
it's not even like png is proprietry, png was created and ratified as a modern, fully alpha-complient image format for the web.... and windows can't view it by default.... Also, it is actually a completely lossless format.
Click to expand...
Oh really?? I was able to open png files... on fresh installation of XP...
 
people have problems with it. xp can be a wonderfully inconsistent beast. my parents dell for example uses Image Ready to open pngs
 
Windoze is just shabby with its support for file formats. In the past week I've had three Windoze users complain about not being able to open PNG, TIFF or PDF files that I've sent to them. One of those was a print & copy shop. And PNG support was only integrated into Windows with the first service pack for IE6, even though the w3c had ratified it as a standard years before that.
 
Lt Major Burns said:
people have problems with it. xp can be a wonderfully inconsistent beast. my parents dell for example uses Image Ready to open pngs
Click to expand...
That's so true.

I mean, I have been working with Windows 2000 back in college quite extensively with PNG files, and of course I used XP at home back then.

And after years there are still people on Windows complaining about a simple PNG file? I guess inconsistent is the best word to describe it.
 
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