Screen Shots

All of this can be done in middle to high-end graphics programs, of course, but it's rather like getting out the lawnmower to cut a single blade of grass. Tiny programs load almost instantly, and that's what you need.

These instructions are for IrfanView and PSP4. If Paint is your only resource, I'll explain separately. It's a bit different.

You tell an email friend about a computer problem and they reply “Send me a screen shot”, “Send me a screen cap” or “Send me a picture of your screen”.

Here's what you do. With the relevant window in focus—that is, it’s at the front and the title bar is strongly coloured—hold down the Alt key and tap the Print Screen key. The Print Screen key is usually on the top line above the arrow keys.

Now find and open the graphics program that you use for viewing and performing simple operations on most graphics. I'm hoping it's Irfan View, and these directions will focus on that program. PSP4 is great too, if you're lucky enough to have a copy.

If the window of which you just took a picture is in the way, click its minimise button to get it out of the way.

On the menu bar of Irfan View, click Edit. On the menu that drops down, click Paste. (In PSP4 choose Paste As New Image.)

OK. An image of the window that you're interested in appears.  

If the actual screen shot is very big and shows things that are not part of your problem, crop it before you go to the next step. Also, if there are unneeded parts that show a lot of colours—part of desktop wallpaper, for instance, or a colour palette, remove them before reducing colour. This will mean that you'll get a closer match for the colours in the final picture.

If it's a small window or message box, like this one, go up to the menu bar and click the Image menu.

Find Decrease Color Depth. Click it. A small box appears with just a few choices. Choose 16 and click OK. Don't worry about the dithering box unless you have time to experiment.
(In PSP4 you click the Colors menu. Decrease Color Depth is near the bottom.)

In nearly every case, you'll be satisfied with the picture that you see. In a very few, the colors will be so awful that you can't put up with it. In such cases, click the Undo button on the menu bar and repeat the Decrease Color procedure, but choose 256.

Bear in mind that the colours don't need to be exactly the same as in the original. Almost always, it's the text that matters. If letters and numbers can be read easily, you're winning.

You can save it now, and the format in which you save it is very important. The jpg format won't do. Imagine doing an architectural drawing with poster paint and a big soft brush. OK. Gif is the go. To see some examples of pictures of this kind saved in each of the two formats, go to the page called Sometimes JPG is the Wrong Choice.

On the menu bar, click File and slide down to Save as. Irfan's Save box will have a window full of folders and files at the top. Below that window there's an innocent looking grey part. A couple of buttons, a couple of check boxes, and two long white slots.

In the higher of those two slots it'll probably say image1. Not a good name for a picture. Type something that will identify it. Error-Feb04 might work for you. If the person to whom you're sending gets lots of such pictures, you might include your own name, as in Fred-Feb04. Now, click the drop-down arrow at the end of the lower slot. More formats than you can shake a stick at! I cut the list off half-way down to save some space on this page. The format that you want is highlighted in this picture, so tap “g” on your keyboard or slide your cursor down until you touch GIF - Compuserve GIF. Click! Click Save. That's it. Your small clear picture is ready to be dragged onto an email.

 

If you absolutely have to use Paint

Honestly, the only reason you would not download Irfan View is that you're using someone else's computer and they've asked you not to download anything at all. It really is fantastic value for the price—unless you decide to send a donation to the author, it's free—and it's one of the most useful and versatile programs you could hope for.

That being said, here's how you get a screen shot with Paint.

For a message box or other complete object

If there's an unecessary many-coloured area included in the shot, go to When you want only part of the shot

1. Have Paint open and minimised to the task bar.
2. Have the window you want to capture in focus.
3. Hold down Alt while you tap Print Screen.
4. Click Paint on the taskbar to restore the Paint window.
5. On Paint's Menu bar, click Edit > Paste.
6. The captured object will appear in Paint's window.
7. • If you're told that the image is bigger than the bitmap and asked should Paint increase the bitmap, click Yes.
8. The image is surrounded by a dotted line. Good. Don't click anywhere on the screen. Stay with the Edit menu. Slide down and click Copy to.  
9. You're now in the Save box.
10. Write a name for your capture, then drop down the Save as type list.
11. You may well see both GIF and JPG on the list. Don't be fooled. Choose 16 colour bmp. See explanation below.
12. Before you click the Save button, make sure you know where the file is going to end up. Sometimes it'll try to save right into the Windows directory. Point it to the folder you choose.
13. When you click the Save button you'll probably be warned that you'll lose colour information. You'll certainly have colours swapped around a bit. The substituted colours can be way off the mark. Just live with it. Click Yes.
    • Actually, on my computer, the colours are OK for 16, but less so for 256.
      The snippet on the left is from a 16 colour cap, that on the right from a 256.

    

14. You'll be returned to the Paint window. Click the Close button. You'll be asked if you want to save changes to untitled. Click No.
15. • You've already saved the picture you want. If you should answer “Yes” in the Paint window, you'd save a second file.
16. Now, find the file you just saved and open it in Paint. You can do that by opening Paint, clicking File and finding its name on the bottom of the File menu. You can also either open Paint, click File > Open and then navigate to to your file, or you can drag the file and drop it on Paint's icon.
17. Once you have the file open in Paint, you can click File > Save as and the Save box will open again. This time, you drop the list and type a “g”. The highlight should stop on Graphics Interchange Format—which is the long way of saying GIF .

 

When you want only part of the shot

You may have captured a whole window but want only a picture of part of it. That's quite straightforward.

1. Proceed the same way as before, but after you click Edit > Paste click a tool in the toolbox. That will make the dotted line around the pasted screen disappear.
2. Remove any unwanted bits from the part you want to keep.
3. Click the Selection Tool (the dotted rectangle at the top of the toolbox) and draw a marquee around the part you want to keep.
4. Open the Edit menu and choose Copy to, then follow on from step 8 above.

 

The Incorrect Gif and Jpg Save in Paint

Here's why I said to choose only bmp when you were doing Copy To. Whether or not gif and jpg are on the drop-down list, the Copy To operation doesn't save in either of those formats. It does obligingly label the saved file with the requested format, but if you try to open the file in another graphics program, you'll most likely get a message like this one.

I ran a little experiment. I took a screen shot and, being careful not to copy anything else until I'd finished, I pasted it repeatedly into Paint, IrfanView and PSP4. How I saved each time is shown in the table below. Notice the size of the supposed jpg and gif files saved through Paint's Copy To? They're not what they claim to be; they're 24 bit bmps—ginormous!

Since all of the files in the table are saves of exactly the same picture, it's easy to see the size that the “jpg” and the “gif” should be. You'll also notice that Paint saves bmp, its own format, correctly each time.

 Return to Paint instructions

Removing Unwanted Parts of a Picture

IrfanView

In IrfanView, press your left mouse button down at the top left corner of the unwanted part. Drag to the bottom right corner. The area will be outlined. Click the scissors symbol on the menu bar, or open the Edit menu and choose Cut. The area will be replaced with a single colour.

If you're not happy with the colour used, this is how you change it.

1. Open the Options menu and choose Properties. You'll see a stack of tabbed pages.
2. Click the Misc. 3 tab.
3. At the bottom of Misc. 3 you'll see Background color for cut: and a button labelled Choose. Click the Choose button and then click a colour on the palette that appears.
4. Click OK in the palette box and again in Misc. 3. Parts you cut will now be replaced with your chosen colour. If you'd already made a cut before you changed the colour, just do it again.

Go back to Irfan Instructions 

PSP4 or Paint

1. With your right mouse button, choose the colour with which you want to replace the unwanted part of the picture.
2. Click the selection tool—the dotted rectangle—
3. Press your left mouse button down at the top left corner of the unwanted part and drag to the bottom right corner. The area will be outlined.
4. Click the scissors symbol on the menu bar, or open the Edit menu and choose Cut. The area will be replaced with your chosen background colour.

Go back to Paint instructions.

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Drop-Down Menu from Brothercake