How to screencap and edit

oldwrench · Post by **oldwrench** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:03 pm

I think this would be a good topic here, maybe it should be a sticky thread. I have seen people asking how to make screencaps and how to edit pictures. There are some free and simple programs to use to get the job done.

[Kalium: Agreed. Stickified.]

First to screencap, I use Media Player Classic, available free at http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/. Scroll down the list to Media player classic and download it. Unzip the file and put it in a folder somewhere, create a shortcut to it for your start menu or desktop and it's ready to go. It doesn't install anything into windows, just urns as a stan alone program. Use it to play a dvd and when you want to capture a screen, pause, hit the F5 key, it puts a copy into your my pictures folder.

To edit a picture you can use the free editor PhotoPlus6 from www.freeserifsoftware.com This is a great free editor, the only bug I've heard of is not to use the navigation window because it will crash the program. I just never open that window. The rest is a lot like PhotoShop, not as powerfull but the price is right. There is lots of help in the help menues and tutorials on the web site. You can even upgrade to a newer version for only ten dollars. Just download the free version, install it on your computer and open the program. The first thing you have to do is register it, it's easy and fast, they send you an e-mail with a code to unlock the program, put in the code just as you see it, capital letters, lower case don't work. The next step asks for more information, just klick it off if you want to, you are now ready to have some fun.

Anyone else that has other information on screecaps and editing please add them here. It would be nice to know how you do it.

Theory Girl · Post by **Theory Girl** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:53 pm

For taking screenshots from DVDs, I use InterVideo WinDVD Platinum, which has a screenshot function built in. A lot of computers with DVD-roms come with InterVideo already, but that generally won't make screenshots; you have to upgrade.

For taking screenshots from video files, this is a trick I learned a long time ago, but it works with any program. Get the file cued up to the image you want and pause. Open your control panel, go to Display Properties, then Display Settings and click 'advanced.' In the new window, click the 'troubleshoot' tab and put the slider from 'full' to 'none' and click 'apply.' Then, press alt+prtsc (print screen) and paste into whatever program you use to edit images. You should have an image of the whole screen. Crop the image, and there you have it. Don't forget to put the slider back to 'full' when you're done.

oldwrench · Post by **oldwrench** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:54 pm

Time to add how to resize pictures to fit the forum. If you are a windows user, there is an easy to use windows power toy called image resizer. Download it at this link http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ySetup.exe Just right click on a picture and pick resize picture from the menu. For wide pictures select 800x600, for tall pictures use 1024x768. It will make a copy of your picture that will fit the forum. I also have found this will make a large file much smaller even if the picture stays the same size. A 400k picture may come out 80k for much faster loading. The quality is usually very acceptable.

Other ways to resize, Photo Plus6 has an image size function, just set the longest dimension to 800 pixles and resize it, export it as a jpeg with a different name to avoid overwriting your origional.
Google has a free editor called Picassa, it is available by hitting the more button on the google search page. It will also resize pictures when you use the export command.
Irfanview, picture viewer and editor also has a resizing function. It is available free at this site http://www.irfanview.com/

There should be free editors for mac users, I don't have a mac so I don't know of any.

With these free solutions there should be no reason for posting oversize images.

megaman917 · Post by **megaman917** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 1:16 am

Theory Girl wrote:For taking screenshots from video files, this is a trick I learned a long time ago, but it works with any program. Get the file cued up to the image you want and pause. Open your control panel, go to Display Properties, then Display Settings and click 'advanced.' In the new window, click the 'troubleshoot' tab and put the slider from 'full' to 'none' and click 'apply.' Then, press alt+prtsc (print screen) and paste into whatever program you use to edit images. You should have an image of the whole screen. Crop the image, and there you have it. Don't forget to put the slider back to 'full' when you're done.

Yeah......... I tried that, but it didn't work. I tried it with WMP and RealOne. Neither seem to have "Display Properties" on the control panel or anything else you mentioned. Can you explain this a little more?

Corran · Post by **Corran** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:26 pm

For getting screencaps I open the video in VirtualDubMod, go to the frame I want, and hit Shift+1. A prompt will come up to save the file. I typically choose png and the compress the image with the program IrfanView to a jpg afterwards.

Coderjo · Post by **Coderjo** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:59 am

Another free, fairly powerful image editing program, which has versions available for Windows, Linux, and MacOSX, is The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). I use it for pretty much all of my image editing needs, including resizing.

cantikun · Post by **cantikun** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:30 am

this is kind of awsome

Skeith/Haseo · Post by **Skeith/Haseo** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:53 pm

Well..........for screencaps I use.......Cyberlink PowerDVD.
It also has a built in screenshot function. The prob is.....it doesn't take the pics very well........so I sometimes just press the printscreen button on my keyboard........

I have yet to find a good image editor...........

oldwrench · Post by **oldwrench** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 7:05 pm

I just found a site that has lots of freeware for image editing and handling. Since it's freeware you can try any one of them to find which you like best. check it out.

http://www.photo-freeware.net/

Tenshi K. Tama · Post by **Tenshi K. Tama** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:29 pm

I can't find any free programs to make gif.s with.