Copyright: HyperSnap 4 Help by Dangerous Cybernetics
Citation: Copyright (c) 2000 Hyperionics - Help by Dangerous Cybernetics


Hypersnap 4 Help Contents
 HyperSnap-DX 4 Help Contents

Welcome to HyperSnap-DX version 4. This new version contains many improvements asked for by the users of previous versions, as well as a totally new help system. Please take a moment to examine this file as well as the pop-up help you can access from the program's user interface.

Click on the icon to the left of the topics displayed below to examine that topic. First-time users should pay special attention to the Getting started sections and those that explain the program's menu items.

All users will want to look at the section called, "What's new in version 4?"

This help file uses several small graphics to help you notice important bits of text. These include the "check" graphic to illustrate procedural [image] steps. Next is the "note" [image] to illustrate an idea or group of ideas about a subject, and the tip [image] graphic to advise you of helpful pointers. Another is the "important" [image] graphic to make you aware of crucial, perhaps even critical information that---if ignored---may cause the program to work in a way that you might not expect, or even malfunction.

 Users with high-resolution screens will want to click the Navigator button on the Windows help button bar to load the table of contents into a special window that will allow them to quickly browse through this file without having to constantly re-open the table of contents tabs.

 Start here

 Getting started with HyperSnap-DX 4

 A quick tutorial

 What's new in version 4?

 Feature overview

 HyperSnap-DX 4's menus

 File menu

 Edit menu

 View menu

 Capture menu

 Image menu

 Color menu

 Options menu

 Help menu

 Important dialogs

 Configure hot keys dialog

 Startup and tray icon dialog

 Default image resolution dialog

 HyperSnap-DX 4's toolbar

 Advanced use

 Tips & Hints

 Capture settings tabs

 DirectX Direct3D and Glide capture dialog

 Command line arguments

 Advanced tutorials

 Need even more help?

 More about page setup

 More about region captures

 More about cropping images

 More about scaling

 More about resolution

 Terms used in this help file

 User support topics

 User support

 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page

 Web support links

 Uninstalling HyperSnap-DX 4

 Repairing a damaged installation

 Licensing HyperSnap-DX 4

 Licensing HyperSnap-DX 4

 International distributors

 Printable registration form

 Other Hyperionics software

 The other stuff

 Curtain calls

 Legal information

 Legal information

 Single-user license terms

 Site license user terms


 Getting started with HyperSnap-DX 4

First, if you're new to HyperSnap-DX 4, we'd like to thank you for taking a look at it. HyperSnap-DX 4 now has an industry-standard installation program, which should have created several icons in your system's Start menu. These should include an icon to launch the program, and an icon to launch this file (the program's main help file).

 There's context-sensitive help available from within the program, simply press F1 while the mouse is active over any highlighted menu item, or while any important dialog is open, and a small help window will appear that explains the feature (or features) of that menu item (or function). Some dialogs have even more detailed help you can access using a special '?' button that you can find in the upper right-hand corner of dialog boxes that support the feature. Click that ? button, and then click on the item you'd like to read about. A brief help topic should appear telling you what the control, button, or drop-down list is and what it does. It might even be linked to more detailed help within this file.

From the beginning HyperSnap-DX 4 was designed to be both powerful and easy-to-use. If you're reading this file, you've probably had a successful installation. If (for some reason) you've installed the program but it will not load, or it doesn't operate correctly, please see the help section User support. It contains instructions on reporting problems and how to do that.

We've tested the program very carefully, so we're confident that it will operate as expected, but as with all powerful software it's possible some combination of issues may cause a "bug" to rear its head. In such a case please do contact us.

But before you do, try re-starting Windows and don't load any other programs (especially utilities that "track" your system's configuration, or virus scanners, they can sometimes cause problems with installation programs).

From that clean boot re-run the installation, and then try the program again. In some cases, a file we need to update may be in use by the system, and if it's already loaded, the program's setup won't be able to correctly replace it, possibly causing problems.

Our goal is 100% defect free software as well as the best user support we can manage to provide with our resources.

Users new to the program should read through the tutorials, both the Quick tutorial and the Advanced tutorials that cover the more powerful features such as multi-region capture. A good read through those sections will give most folks the basic knowledge they need to use the program.

And as with most software, simply "playing" with it is the best way to learn what's there. We'd like to encourage you to explore HyperSnap-DX 4's menus and functions, and "fiddle" with some images you may already have on your system. That's the fastest way to get a solid grasp on both how powerful, well thought-out, and easy-to-use the program is.

Please feel free to browse through this file by using the > and < buttons (which will take you forward and backward through the file). A good "grazing" of the docs is a terrific way to familiarize yourself with a new tool.

Just like the program, we designed this file to be both powerful and easy-to-use, with lots of keywords to help you find the things you need, as well as a floating help window called the Navigator that keeps the entire table of contents open and ready, letting you control the contents of this window without having to repeatedly open the standard Windows help table of contents tabs.


 A quick tutorial

HyperSnap-DX 4 offers four types of captures, listed in the table below:

Full capture:	Grabs the entire screen, edge to edge.
Window capture:	Captures the exact window you specify (either with or without a window border).
Region capture:	Captures a rectilinear region (or multiple regions) which you can define with a "rubber band" bounding box during the capturing process. New to this release is the ability to capture multiple regions, and with the space between them filled by a background color of your choice.
DirectX or Glide capture:	Captures those hard-to-retrieve screens from 3D accelerated hardware image buffers. This function allows you to grab screens from games or 3D development software that---previously---have been impossible to get with other capture tools.
 Of course, no matter what type of capture you make, you can use HyperSnap-DX 4's post-capture tools to edit, crop, and otherwise alter your image so that it best fits your intended usage.

 A capture session walk-through

Here are the steps of a typical capture session. Follow the [image] steps, and be sure to carefully read the procedures marked with a [image].

  In order to view HyperSnap-DX 4 and your capture's image after you've done it, make sure that the Restore After Capture option under the Capture menu, Capture settings tabs, Capture tab is checked. If it isn't checked, HyperSnap-DX 4 will be minimized (visible only on the task bar) and you'll have to click on it to open it up again.

 Let's try capturing a program's window. You can capture this help file's window as your example. But first, make sure HyperSnap-DX 4 is running, then come back to this file.

 When you're in window capture mode, you'll note that as you move the mouse, blinking frame will appear around the window from which the image will be captured. This is your guide as to what the final product will contain. You'll move the mouse to select the window you wish to capture, and left-click to capture it. To abort it, you'll right-click the window. If, as you move about choosing windows to capture, you notice that the process only selects a "sub-window" within an application, try clicking on the application's title bar, it should force a capture of every "connected" part of that application.

 Please read through all of the next steps so that you can use them without referring back to this help file.

 You can optionally print this tutorial by clicking here  if you haven't already done that.

 When you're ready to begin, make sure that HyperSnap-DX 4 is the top-most window. The help engine window you were just reading (this one) should be directly beneath it. Whatever window or area you want to capture should always be visible so you can click on it.

 Next select Window, button, or control... from HyperSnap-DX 4's Capture menu. HyperSnap-DX 4 will move out of your way, to the taskbar.

 Move the mouse cursor to different sections of the desktop, including over your help file window. As you move it, notice that the blinking highlighted areas change. If you move to an application's Title Bar, that entire application's window is highlighted---take your time and examine the available capture objects you can locate on your desktop.

 Once you've highlighted an area you want to continue to experiment with, click your left (sometimes called "primary") mouse button.

 You can use hot keys to initiate your captures. We'll talk about that at the end of this tutorial.

  After HyperSnap-DX 4 takes the screen shot its program window, now including your capture, is restored to the active window position. You can change HyperSnap-DX 4's window size just like any other program if you want to see more of the capture (it may be partially obscured even with HyperSnap-DX 4 is full screen, depending on what you captured).

 At this point, if you were satisfied with the capture, you could save it or do other things with it. But for our tutorial, let's try the handy crop feature first (found within the Image Menu). Cropping lets you edit your capture further by selecting an area within it to keep, while discarding the rest. Like before, read all these bulleted steps before you proceed with the capture so you can follow them without referring to this file:

 The first thing you'll do is click on Crop from the Image menu. Your cursor will again turn into a little plus sign (+); notice how the coordinates of your position are displayed in the HyperSnap-DX 4's status bar?

 Move the cursor to the location that you will want as a corner of the section of the capture that you want to save and left-click it. That will anchor one corner of the area you will crop from the capture.

 Move the mouse around take notice of what you can do (without clicking any mouse buttons). Note that the size of the crop area is displayed in HyperSnap-DX 4's status bar (lower left-hand corner of the program's interface).

 Pressing the F1 key will show you a small zoomed window that will allow you to perform more precise cropping. You can also use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to move the mouse pointer with one-pixel precision. Pressing F1 key again will show you the other options at your fingertips.

 Move your cursor to enclose the area that you want to keep and click your left mouse button. The capture is cropped per your specified size and proportions.

 Remember: if the HyperSnap-DX 4 window doesn't show all of the necessary parts of the image, you can resize the window or scroll to the appropriate area. Oh, and if you don't like what you've just done (or clicked on the mouse accidentally while experimenting), if you choose Undo from the Edit menu, it will undo the action and restore your original capture. Be sure to do that before you perform any other actions on the image, though.

 Oh, and about Region captures... the Region Capture action, when you select it, works very similarly except it affects the whole screen by allowing you to choose (in a way, crop) out part of your entire desktop and paste it into a capture.

  Now it's time to save your capture. As before, read each of these steps before you proceed with the capture, so you can follow them without referring to this file.

 First, click on the Save As selection under the File menu to get a familiar-looking dialog which you've probably seen appear within your other software applications.

 The Save as type window displays Windows Bitmap by default. We'll use that one. However you can choose from any of the other file types, some of which will give you further sub-format choices and options (such as compression and so forth).

 Other choices such as Bits per pixel let you specify the color depth, and additional options are activated when you choose other file types. What you see next depends on the choices you make in the Save as dialog box. You may want to take a moment to choose some of the other file formats from the Save As dialog box type selector drop down, and examine how the options available for each file type alter as you choose a different format for the saved file.

 Once you've chosen the file data type and applicable options, give the file a valid file name and navigate to the folder in which you want to save it. Once you've found the location in which to save this file, click OK. You've just saved your capture, which you can now open in other programs (such as Corel PhotoPaint, or Windows Paint, and so on). Don't worry about providing a file extension (the part of the file name after the period). HyperSnap-DX 4 will provide the extension for you based on the type of file you've chosen from the file type selector drop down list.

 You can copy your capture to the Windows Clipboard automatically if you like by enabling the Capture settings tabs, Copy & print tab item Copy each capture to the clipboard. This makes sharing your captures with other programs painless.

 You've completed this basic tutorial, but HyperSnap-DX 4 has several more ways of operating and plenty of features you'll want to learn about. Be sure to browse through this file, as well as read the next help file section, which has several advanced tutorials.


 Advanced tutorials

This section contains several tutorials that illustrate some of the more complex features in this release (such as multi-region capturing). Covered here is one of the program's most powerful features, capturing from DirectX or 3dfx Glide screens.

Follow the [image] steps for each outlined capture procedure.

 Multi-region capture

You can use this powerful function for capturing a cascading menu, a useful tool when creating documentation for software. Here are the steps. Note that if you've changed the HyperSnap-DX 4 hot keys, you'll have to substitute yours for the default keys given here (and in all examples).

 Minimize the HS-DX 4 window to the task bar

 Open a cascading (that means multi-level) menu in another program. For this example we'll use any Windows explorer folder. Double-click the My Computer icon and then open any available hard disk drive, and then any folder that shows some file icons you can use for this purpose.

 Right-click on any convenient file's icon.

 Choose File/Send to in order to get the menu open.

 Press HyperSnap-DX 4's Ctrl+Shift+M hot key combination to start multi-region capture.

 Click on each menu in turn, plus the main menu toolbar (the one that shows File, Edit...)

 Just to demonstrate the power of this feature, we'll add another step: while you're still in Mutli-region capture mode switch into Region mode.

 Now press and hold the right mouse button, select Region and draw a capture box around the pop-up menu as well as outline something else on the screen to capture that, too (for example, a data file's icon).

 Press the Enter key on the keyboard to finish this capture.

 Full screen DirectX or Glide capture

Another powerful feature of HyperSnap-DX 4, folks like game reviewers (or even people who just want to show off how good they are at a game) can capture a series of images from an ongoing full-screen game, and they can do so without leaving their game to assign filenames for each file created when you capture a screen. Here's a walkthrough.

 First open up HyperSnap-DX 4's Capture settings tabs and then click on the Quick save tab. You'll be establishing some settings here before you begin your captures.

 Check Automatically save each capture to a file.

 Then, if you don't want the default filename, click the button labeled Change next to the default filename box. Locate a folder where you want your captures stored, and in the filename box, type in the beginning name you want to use. For our example, we'll use TEST.

 Close the Save as box, which will replace the name in the Default name box.

 Click the box labeled Increment file name, and in the box next to it, marked Start at, enter 1. In the "stop at" box, choose any number you want. In our example we'll pick 100. That will allow you to capture up to 100 screen images without overwriting the files.

 To illustrate this, if you set a start and stop at 1& 100, you'll get files named Test001.bmp through TEST100.bmp. The total number of 'counter' digits in the file name is set by the number of digits in the 'stop at' box. So to get a series starting with TEST01.bmp, use 2 digits, for example "99," as your stop number.

 Examine the other values on the Capture settings tabs to make sure they are at the values you desire. (If you've not changed them from the defaults, they'll probably be fine).

 Close the Capture settings tabs.

 Re-open the Capture menu, and click on Enable special capture...

 Here you need to choose what type of capture you wish to make. If your game uses Glide (for example, 3dfx hardware) then you should choose 3dfx. If you're not sure, just check all three, if all three are available, or just the top two if the bottom is disabled. HyperSnap-DX 4 will take care of the rest.

 Note that if you do not have detectable drivers installed for the hardware in the list, that option will be disabled.

 Advanced users should read the following note: The choices to enable/disable them separately are only for extremely advanced usage and for those "special, difficult-to-handle situation." For example, a game uses both the DirectX and the Glide interface. In these cases, sometimes DirectX is only used by the game for displaying the "score" and intro screens. It might use Glide for the actual game action. In these situations it's often not possible to snap the "score" or "intro" screen, unless you disable 3dfx Glide captures. But this doesn't happen often.

 In our example, we'll capture a screen from a Directx/Direct3D game, for example Microsoft's Motocross Madness(tm). In this case, you'd check the box marked DirectX/Direct3D primary surface.

 Note the message that appears when you check the topmost button on the Enable special capture dialog: Please use [ hot key ] as the hot key... You must use as the capture hot key the combination or the other keys specified here. You can't use the "standard" HyperSnap-DX 4 hot key.

 If you wish to enable post capture processing of the image, check the box labeled Enable post processing... For more on what this does, see the DirectX, Direct3D and Glide capture dialog section of this file. For now we can leave this unchecked. Examine this section for explanations on the other options available for these special captures, too.

 Click OK to enable special capture.

 Minimize HyperSnap-DX 4 (although you don't have to, actually, since the game will run full screen).

 Run the desired game. Get to the point in game play that you wish to begin capturing.

 Press the specified hot key at the moment you want to capture.

 The file will be saved in the directory you specified, using the naming scheme you determined. You can make more captures via the same procedure.

 Exit the game when you're through, and examine the captured files---which you can do by simply pressing Page down and Page up. You may wish to make some adjustments to certain features to improve the appearance of the captures. See the next help section for details on how to improve dark Glide or Direct3D captures, and other technical issues covering special captures.

 DVD player capture

If you want to grab an image from a movie (for example, to use as wallpaper) this feature can do it for you. It works essentially like the feature for capturing DirectX games.

 The video capture will work or not, depending on which video player software you're are using, and if it uses DirectX or not.

 Enable "Special Capture" in HyperSnap-DX 4's Capture menu or as described in the DirectX tutorial, above.

 Click on that item and make sure that DirectX Primary and Overlay surfaces are turned on. Then click on OK button.

 Run the DVD software, pause the movie where you want to capture, click on DVD player to make sure it is the front window, then press Scroll Lock key. (That's the default HyperSnap-DX 4 Special capture hot key. If you've changed the hot keys, use the keystroke you've set for this function instead.)

 Click on the HyperSnap-DX window and see what was captured. If you don't see the picture there, most probably your DVD player software doesn't use DirectX.

 Try to download the PowerDVD(tm) program from the Internet and use it instead when you need to snap pictures from movies.

If you do see a picture in HyperSnap-DX 4 window, but it has incorrect proportions, or maybe is repeated several times, please use the Crop & Scale tab functions under the Capture settings tabs. These tools will let you auto-crop each image you capture (so that only one image remains) and it'll scale it to the correct proportions, too.

If the above process still doesn't work (for example, you still get a full screen capture with some solid color where the DVD was, your DVD player program does not use DirectX. Because of that, HyperSnap-DX 4 won't be able to capture images from it. Our best suggestions is to tell you to locate (and then license) a different DVD player software. You need one based on DirectX, such as PowerDVD, SoftDVD or some other DirectX-enabled product.

 Sometimes you may see a message inside of HyperSnap-DX window about "Unsupported Pixel Format". This means that the program doesn't know how to decode the picture from the DirectX overlay buffer. If this happens, check the settings and options in your DVD player, and see if you can find a setting that disables a function that's often called, Hardware Acceleration or sometimes Optimized Video, or something similar to that. Then you should be able to capture images.

(Be sure to restore this setting again after finished with captures, it will insure smoother playback during regular video sessions).

If your DVD player doesn't have such a setting, just as in the other problems above, try another DVD player program such as PowerDVD from Cyberlink. PowerDVD does have such a setting, and several of our users have confirmed that they were able to reliably capture images from DVDs after disabling PowerDVD's Hardware Acceleration feature.

 We don't warranty that you will like PowerDVD, nor do we have an arrangement whereby we suggest our users go buy it and they give us "kickbacks." We mention it only because some of our users have mentioned that they have been able to capture from it, and many have not been able to capture from other DVD players. We've looked at PowerDVD, it does a great job overall, and has many terrific options, and does a superb job with both the image quality and frame rate performance given good hardware. But if you download it because of our suggestion and then have problems, please remember this disclaimer: we do not warranty it in any way, shape, or fashion. If you have problems contact the vendor, Cyberlink, not us!


Glide capture
 DirectX, Direct3D and Glide capture dialog

This dialog offers a number of important options that can improve the quality of captured game screens. Several of them are, from a purely technical standpoint, too complex to cover in detail here. Because of this (it would involve pages of text and complex references to bit planes and methods of interpolating data and encoding color formats and how pictures are drawn and picture palettes are defined in 3D games) we've decided to simplify how we explain these functions.

We'll cover just the bare bones of these features, enough so that you should know what they do, rather than "how they do it."

The features of the dialog relate only to DirectX, Direct3D, and Glide (generated by 3dfx hardware) screens. If you see your screen captures from such sources appearing in a way that's now how you want them to appear, the options below used as directed may correct it.

Getting data from these high-speed buffers---and making that data look the way you want it to frozen into a single image rather than a dynamic animation that takes advantages of quirks in human perception like persistence of vision---is a complex task requiring some difficult finessing of the video hardware and the data itself.

 DirectX, Direct3D and Glide capture options

You can choose which type of hardware from which you wish to capture a screen. Of course make sure it's the same as that which your game or other software is using to generate its screens.

 DirectX/Direct3D Primary Surface - check this to capture from Microsoft's DirectX and Direct3D technology. Games like Motocross Madness, as well as many others use the primary surface to display content. These are not overlaid across the main desktop such as DVD players, which are covered below. Anything full screen is usually a primary surface, for the most part.

 DirectX Overlay (for example, DVD or Video) - check this to capture an overlaid screen, such as that you would see inside the region of a DVD player application. This is different from the primary surface type of capture. This data is overlaid on "top" of existing screen information and during a "regular" capture may not appear at all (the captured region may appear distorted, black, or missing data).

There are some Advanced Overlay control options you can set for this function, too. If you click this button, you'll see several options for attempting to define the data format used by the various applications that generate such screen content. If you have problems capturing a certain application's screens, try successive captures one-by-one by toggling through the list of possible formats listed here.

We're virtually certain that one of them will allow you to get the capture you need. If your capture's appearance is distorted or has other corruption issues, the screen data format selector here is probably the first function to change to correct the problem.

HyperSnap-DX 4 will attempt to Auto detect (the default setting) the data type used by applications using DirectX overlays, but it may fail at this. Some applications actually "lie" when they declare their file format. Why they do this, we're not sure, we've just discovered that some do!

 3dfx Glide - check this to capture screens from Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, and other various 3dfx chipset-enabled software.

 Note that the hot key for full screen game and DVD screens is most likely going to be "forced" to the Windows standard Print screen. Other keys may be blocked by full screen applications, or controlled by them. When you select the type of capture you're doing, the DirectX capture dialog will tell you which hot key to use during game play below the check box that enables it. Be sure to read that before you jump into the game, so you know which key to hit to fire off the capture!

HyperSnap-DX 4 has some post-capture processing tools that may improve some captures should they not appear as desired. To enable automatic post processing of these captures, check this box and then select the type of processing you wish to have applied. These are performed based on the type of capture you're making, and are designed to improve the appearance of captures from these various hardware types based on our knowledge of "typical defects" gotten from their images.

You must first select the type of graphics controller you have installed.

 None, unknown, or other than listed below - defines a "generic" post processing environment.

 1x4 filter for 3dfx Voodoo 1, Voodoo Rush, or other Voodoo 1 based cards - optimizes processing based on the characteristics of the images generated by these boards.

 2x2 filter for 3dfx Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee, and Voodoo 3 based cards - optimizes the post processing based on the characteristics of the images generated by these boards.

 Gamma correction Factor [value] - this function works just like the Gamma processing on the Color menu, except it's applied post-processing. It's common to see very dark screens from 3D hardware, and you can save a bit of time by having these screens automatically brightened up a bit right after capture. You can quickly set the value for this back to the default by clicking the button to the right of the value entry box.

 Perform a capture first with all values set at the default in order to get a reference capture. Then change the settings here, that way you will best be able to see how "fine or coarse" the adjustments actually are to the captures.


what is new in 4
 What's new in version 4?

If you're a previous user of HyperSnap-DX, you're probably most interested in what's new in version 4. Here's a quick rundown of the features new to this release. If you've never used the program at all before, you'll want to read both of the topics below, what's new and the Feature overview.

 Integrated bitmap editor with multi-level undo/redo, to add changes, comments, annotations to your images

 Region Capture - you can capture not only rectangular regions, but you can select a "rounded rectangle" (with 3 different round sizes, small, medium and large), and an ellipse or circle. Just press the S key on the keyboard to toggle the shape, or right-click the mouse to select it from the menu.

 New capture function: Multi-Region Capture. You can select either multiple windows (like in Window capture mode) or draw regions (like in Region capture mode) and move/pan them. After selecting several regions, press the Enter key on the keyboard or click the right mouse button and select Finish Capture.

The space in between selected regions will be filled with whatever solid color you select under the Capture settings tabs. It uses white by default. This works well when capturing cascading menus. Simply open as many menu levels as you need, press Ctrl+Shift+M to activate Multi-Region capture. Click on each menu to select it, then complete the capture. This is now much easier than previous releases

 New Quick Paste feature. Using the Capture / Capture Settings tabs, select "Copy & Print" tab, and enable Copy each capture to clipboard (like Quick Copy in the previous releases of HS-DX). Start the program where you'd like to paste your pictures, (for example a Word document). Enable the Paste each capture to: function, and then select your program's window from the drop down list (you will see it's title text listed there).

You may enable Minimize this window before the capture, if you want. Click OK, minimize HyperSnap-DX 4's window to the task bar. Now in your chosen application window, click where you'd like the picture to appear, and start the HS-DX capture by pressing the hot key combination like Ctrl+Shift+R.

When you finish the capture, your application window will come to the front and the screen capture will automatically appear in its window.

 Images can now be displayed at any zoom level, not just100% (original size) as in previous releases. This function is accessible via the magnifying glass tool on the toolbar.

 Capture functions - a menu will pop-up when you press the right mouse button during Region or Windows capture. It has the options to Abort, Finish Capture, and has several other special options such as the ability to change mode.

 Print Preview added to the program's File menu.

 Printing of large bitmaps will span multiple pages if necessary, not only downwards, but now even across laterally.

 By default, HS-DX makes a "camera shutter" sound when capturing the screen. You can disable this under the Capture Settings menu if you don't like it.

 New function added on the File menu: Set as Wallpaper. It should be obvious what it does...

 Many more image processing and color conversion functions added under the Image menu. These include Shear, Auto Trim, Mosaic, and Emboss.

 More color processing functions added under the Color menu. These include Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Count Unique Colors, and so forth.


 Feature overview

HyperSnap-DX brings professional quality and convenient Windows 9x, 2000 and NT screen captures to your fingertips. It was designed for ease of use, with powerful and useful features to aid the professional as well as support the needs of the occasional user. Use it just a few times and you'll find it to be indispensable.

This section of the documentation is meant to give you a quick overview. For detailed explanations of HyperSnap-DX's features, please examine the help for the feature that most interests you.

 Save your image as a BMP, GIF or JPEG file. GIFs can optionally be interlaced and include transparent backgrounds, and HyperSnap-DX can create progressive JPEGs, perfect for World Wide Web page use. Choose your color depth for BMP captures, too.

 This version supports TIFF, LEAD (CMP), CALS, CCITT Fax (FAX), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), GEM Image (IMG), IBM IOCA (RAW), Macintosh Picture (PIC, PICT), MacPaint (MAC), Microsoft Paint (MSP), OS/2 Bitmap (BMP), SUN Raster (RAS), Targa (TGA), WinFax (WFX), Windows Metafile (WFM), WordPerfect (WPG), Portable Graphics PNG, and Adobe PSD, many with optional sub-formats and variations, to the file formats that you can open and save. Use HyperSnap-DX for file format conversions and editing.

 Capture in DirectX or 3dfx GLIDE Applications! Now you can make those special game and other captures you could never do before.

 Capture images from multiple monitors at once, when used on multi-monitor setups under Windows 98 or 2000.

 Resize captures or image files using the powerful image manipulation tools in HyperSnap-DX.

 Edit and annotate images directly in in HyperSnap-DX.

 Change the color depth of your image to 2, 16, 256, or 16 million colors, with eight dithering choices, or grayscale or halftone images.

 Include the cursor image in your image to better display your product's features.

 Use the built-in Crop feature to remove rectangular sections from within an image, or use conventional cropping for making final edits to your capture without transferring it to another program. And thankfully, there's an Undo feature to mitigate the "oops!" factor.

 Capture an image of an entire web page, file listing, or other scrolling windows by using HyperSnap-DX 4's unique Auto Scroll Window capture option.

 The flexible and labor-saving Window capture option captures whole windows and smaller sections of windows, highlighting the boundaries of each of your options, to make a quick and accurate capture without eyestrain and further editing.

 Minimize HyperSnap-DX to a system tray icon, ready for action with a convenient right-click capture menu.

 Choose your own hot keys that quickly capture the entire Desktop, any Rectangle you outline, or the highlighted Window or Client, and automatically repeat the capture every x seconds or by using another hot key.

 Automatically save each of your captures to a file. You can even set the application to trigger new captures over a user-defined period, and HyperSnap-DX 4 will increment the file names for you during the process.

 Print your capture directly from HyperSnap-DX -- it will expand the image to the size of the paper and margins that you set, print multiple pages, and even add a frame, reverse, or reduce the output to black and white!

 Drag and Drop graphics files on HyperSnap-DX to open them!


 HyperSnap-DX 4's menus

Click on the topics below to examine help for each menu item. A child window will appear that covers each menu. Close that window when you're done and return here if you wish to examine help for another menu.

 If you'd like help that covers the toolbars or the painting tools palette instead of the menus, click here.

The links below will load help for the menu sections into a smaller window so you can keep the quick reference list below open, allowing you to navigate quickly through the various menu help sections.

This smaller window has some buttons on it that you can use to control it (load the topic finder tool, topics, print that window, and close the window).

HyperSnap-DX 4's menus

 File menu

 Edit menu

 View menu

 Capture menu

 Image menu

 Color menu

 Options menu

 Help menu


 File menu help

 New - creates a new document.

 Open - opens an existing document.

 Notice that you can specify not only types of files to look for (filtering out other types) but you can specify how many pages to open within the program's workspace. In addition, there's a preview pane on the file open dialog that will give you a look at the image (perhaps greatly reduced, depending on its original size). This lets you use the Open dialog to navigate through large folders of files, choosing the one you are looking for, even though you might not know its name.

 Close - closes an opened document. If you've changed it but not saved it, you'll be asked if you wish to save your changes. If you've made a capture, but not altered it, the capture will be discarded silently with no request for you to save it.

 Save As - saves an image to a specified file name. You're presented with several options here that vary based on the file type you select. These include the color bit depth, whether or not the file is to support transparency, and so forth. You can set the defaults for this box by defining each and then clicking on the "Save settings" box. That can save time later, when you may be doing heavy, repetitive work with many captures.

If you check the transparent box, the color currently defined as the background color will be set to transparent. Only certain file types support this special property.

 HyperSnap-DX 4 cannot append to a file format that does not support this feature. Append is supported by GIF or TIFF formats.

If a feature (such as Progressive or Interlaced) is not supported by a format, that feature will be grayed-out and not available for selection. Experiment with the various settings using an image with which you are familiar and you'll get the best feeling for what each setting accomplishes and how it changes the final output.

 The label for the Progressive or Interlaced function changes depending on which file type you're saving. If you choose JPG, the label changes to Progressive (a feature JPG supports). If you're saving to GIF, the label changes to Interlaced (supported by GIF).

 For example, a quality setting of 50% for JPG images is probably fine to e-mail a picture of your Airedale "Sparky" to a friend, but for something you'll be printing, you'll usually want the maximum quality available, such as 90% or even 100%. In general, you leave this setting at Keep Current, it will not attempt to alter the image's bit depth.

If you are choosing to save to GIF, which doesn't support color depths over 8 bits per pixel, HyperSnap-DX 4 will do the best it can to match a higher-depth image when it decreases the available colors downward.

If you check the option Select best, it will try to reduce the file to as small as size as possible without removing any colors that are in use. So if size is not an issue, Keep Current is probably the desired setting. If you're attempting to reduce the image's size to as small as possible but maintain quality, choose Select best.

 Acquire - connects to a compatible scanner or other image acquisition device and retrieves an image from the device. You must have a Twain-compatible image acquisition source for this to be available. This menu item will load the software used by your device, and the resultant scan (or image download, for example from a digital camera) will appear in HyperSnap-DX 4's application workspace.

 Select source - this item lets you choose from available compatible scanning or image generation sources connected to your system. When you select Acquire, above, that controls the acquisition of images of the device chosen here. If you only have one device, this function will only offer one selection. If you have multiple image scanning devices, you can change the "active" device used by HyperSnap-DX 4 by choosing it here.

 Some scanners come with their own scanning software (in addition to their own drivers), and some software (like CorelDraw) will install scanning software "on top of" the scanner's drivers. How well these packages work with HyperSnap-DX 4 may vary depending on several factors. In general, the scanning package that came with the scanner (or its latest update) will probably work the best. If you encounter problems, and see multiple choices in the list for Select source, but only have one scanner or imaging device, try to pick the one that was shipped by the scanner maker.

 Print - prints a document to your active printer. The printout will use the page setup options that you define in the Page setup dialog, discussed below.

 Print Preview - displays the document on the screen as it would appear when printed, including proper proportioning, headers and footers, and other page-layout features.

 Page Setup - selects page printing options. HyperSnap-DX 4 has extremely powerful page setup options. These include the standard items such as determining the paper size you want to use (make sure the printer is loaded with the same paper as you specify here) and advanced items such as reversing the black and white content during the printing process.

Examine the options available on the dialog. We think most of them are self-explanatory, but if you think you need more help, click more about Page setup. The window that will appear contains fairly detailed explanations regarding page setup, headers and footers, and other related items.

 This menu item (and button) is where you select the printer you wish the program to use, if you have more than one.

 Send by E-mail... - you can tell Windows to send the current image (which you'll be asked to save if you have not) to another party via E-mail. Obviously you must have E-mail for this to work.

During this process, a dialog will appear that lets you choose the file name to use, the file format to use, and other options. The functions here are similar to those you use during file saving operations, and should already be familiar to you. To speed transmission of E-mailed images, you might want to send highly-compressible image formats such as JPG, which can be very small but still look quite good. Formats such as BMP are often large, and if you have a slow E-mail connection, may take a long time to transmit.

 Note that certain E-mail settings must be established for this function to work, mainly relating to internal MAPI functions. If this menu item fails, your system may not have the correct E-mail components installed. Sometimes installing Outlook Express (which comes with most Windows versions) will repair this common error. Users of other E-mail products should check their settings and see if they are MAPI-compliant if they get an error message when attempting this.

 Set as wallpaper - you can choose to set the current image as your Windows wallpaper. Before you can set an image as your system wallpaper, you must save it as a Windows bitmap.

During this process, you can specify (if you want) the file name to use, or you can browse to choose an existing file name and overwrite that. From the Set as wallpaper dialog you can set several properties for your system wallpaper, such as how it will be displayed.

Choose between Center (which displays it smack in the middle of your desktop), or Tile (which multiplies it as many times across and down as required to cover the desktop), or Stretch (which elongates the image across both vertical and horizontal dimensions to make it cover the desktop).

If you want to remove the selected wallpaper, you can click the Remove wallpaper button.

 Exit - exits HyperSnap-DX 4. You'll be prompted to save a changed image if you have not already done so. Any changes you've made to background color, foreground color, highlight color, and other tool settings are saved automatically when you exit.


 more about page setup

HyperSnap-DX 4's page setup contains quite a few advanced features. Here's an explanation of each, in the approximate order that it appears in the dialog.

 On the top of the properties page is a preview of how your settings will look. This changes in real-time as you modify the properties on the sheet.

 Paper size - this controls the selections of paper the program will use to format the document as it prints it. This must match what's actually in your printer or what you print will not come out as you desire. Drop down the list to examine the available sizes.

 Paper source - this controls from which tray (for printers with multiple trays) that the program will select paper. Very handy if you want to do "test" printouts using plain paper in a lower tray, and "final" printouts in clay-covered paper in a top tray.

 Orientation settings - select either Portrait (the "standard" way you print most things such as a letter, Landscape (like a spreadsheet), or Best Fit. With Best Fit, the program examines the proportions of the image and automatically determines which would best work with your document, trying to maximize the appearance of the image in respect to the aspect ratio of the page.

 Header and footer... - click this button to define header and footer text to use on the pages. On the following property sheet that appears you can define the text and position of the headers and footers, all of which is fairly self-explanatory.

 Margins - define the margins that you wish to use. Note that you cannot define a margin beyond those supported by your printer. Consult your printer's documentation for the exact numbers here.

 You can define margins wider than your printer supports (that is, farther in on the page) but you cannot define margins that attempt to print content farther out towards the edge of the page than the printer supports. Typically inkjet printers need at least a half inch, and lasers can sometimes print within one eighth of an inch, sometimes all the way to the edge. Due to paper handling, some printers need a larger margin at the bottom of the page than at the top. If you print in landscape mode this means that your right margin will need to be bigger than your left which can affect the visual centering of your image

 Center image - check this to have the program place your image directly in the center of the page. If you're not going to trim off the white space around the image, this is probably a good idea to check (it will make the image appear more nicely formatted on the page, in genera).

 Colors - here you can control certain functions such as Inverting black and white (just like what it sounds), Black and white only (converting the image from color or grayscale to black and white, which allows you to print color images to printer drivers that do not support them, such as dot-matrix printers), and Draw frame, which puts a border around the image. That's handy if the image contains white area that might cause it to blend in with the page's background.

 Scaling - choose from either Auto-fit to fill the page, maximizing the image on the paper, or Scaling, where you can select values from 100% to 1%. If you check Auto-fit and the image is too large, the program will downwardly scale your image until it best fits on the selected page size. This choice makes the size of the image relative to the size of the paper selected, too.

 Printer - using this button, select the printer you wish to use. This choice will change how the printed image is handled. For example if the default printer is a grayscale laser and you select a printer with color capabilities, then you might wish to make sure you have not converted the image to black and white.

You can click OK or Cancel, either setting your changes as the defaults, or discarding them.


 Edit menu help

 Undo - reverses previous editing operation. You can do this repeatedly, within the limits of the program's Undo buffer. This "un-does" the last operation you performed, and then will reverse previous operations in the reverse order that they were performed, and only If you've performed more than one change to the image. For example, if you adjust the color and don't like the result, immediately select this to "go back" to the previous version prior to the color adjustment.

 Redo - re-performs the previously un-done action. You can toggle the state of this and Undo back and forth to examine the last change you've made to a file as a way of judging if you like the effect.

 Cut - this "cuts" the selected region to the Windows clipboard. You must mark a region with the Select area tool, it's the dotted box on the Painting tools palette. The area you cut will be "blanked out" with the background color you define in the Capture settings tabs or by using the Background color selector in the painting tools palette The default color for backgrounds and cut regions is white.

 Copy - copies a marked region's data from the document to the clipboard, or if you've not marked a region, it copies the entire file's contents from the document into the clipboard.

 Paste - pastes data from the clipboard into the current document's workspace. You can move it by dragging it, but once you've stopped dragging and chosen another tool or moved to "view only" mode, the pasted material will become "glued" permanently on top of the previous image. (You can always Undo a paste using the Undo function.)

 Paste as new image - if the clipboard contents are from a graphical source, they will be pasted into HyperSnap-DX 4's application workspace as a new image (which you can then process and save using the program's features). If you've changed the currently-opened image but have not saved your changes, you will be prompted to do that.


 View menu help

 Full screen - displays the current document using your full screen (hiding all other programs and HyperSnap-DX 4's interface.

 Previous file - loads the previous file in the current directory into HyperSnap-DX 4's workspace. This function (with the Next file function) gives you a quick way of jumping back and forth to examine files within a directory.

In a way, these two tools are like a big-window "preview" function, letting you quickly see the files within even a very large directory by hitting Page down and Page up to go forward and backward, respectively. It's very easy to quickly scan through a working image directory to find the file you want using these two functions.

 Next file - loads the next file in the current directory into HyperSnap-DX 4's workspace. This function (with the Previous file function) gives you a quick way of jumping back and forth to examine files within a directory.

In a way, these two tools are like a big-window "preview" function, letting you quickly see the files within even a very large directory by hitting Page down and Page up to go forward and backward, respectively.

 Toolbar - shows or hides the toolbar. Note that if you hide the toolbar, you will lose some one-click access to certain features.

 Status bar - shows or hides the status bar. The status bar provides important information while you work, such as the function of menu items as you scroll through them, and certain values of the current image in the right-hand panes of the bar.

These panes will change to reflect the mouse coordinates as you move them over the image, making it possible to mark precise locations on your image should you desire this.

 Painting tools - shows or hides the painting tools palette. If you are not painting on your captures, and have limited screen real estate such as a system running at 640 X 480 resolution, you may wish to hide these tools.

The painting tools are used to edit a capture (or a loaded image). You can see some point-and-click help about them in the help for HyperSnap-DX 4's toolbar.


 Capture menu help

If you need help regarding the Capture settings tabs, there's an entire section of help dedicated to that. To jump to it, click here.

If you need help covering "special" captures from advanced 3D hardware such as Direct3D screens or Glide hardware, there's an entire section of help for that, too. Click here to examine the settings for this type of capture.

 Full screen - capture the image of the entire desktop and all applications visible on it. This is basically like the Print screen function that's built into Windows itself.

 Virtual desktop - capture the desktop, including those on multiple monitors or in regions currently not visible that are provided by video drivers with "enhanced" desktops. Such captures are impossible with the built-in Print screen function in Windows, which only captures the current desktop, not the entire (even invisible) regions.

 Window, button, or control - as you move your mouse, a blinking frame will appear around the target object. You can capture an entire window or just a predefined area within a window such as a control or button.

 Move to the window you want to capture.

 Click with your left mouse button to select and capture the region around which the blinking frame surrounds.

 Click your right mouse button to abort this function.

 Active window - capture only the "topmost" window, or the window that currently has focus. This is similar to the ALT+Print screen function that's built into Windows.

 Active window without frame - capture the "topmost" window, but do not capture its window frame, just the portion of the window inside of the frame. Great for grabbing the contents of a window without such things as toolbars, menus, and so forth. For example you can grab a terminal screen from an on-line session (or web browser) without getting the button bar or status bar.

 Region - when clicked, a large cross cursor (+) will appear.

 Click using your left mouse button to indicate where you want to start the capture area, and then release it.

 Drag the outline to enclose the area you want to capture, and click the mouse button again. The size (in pixels) of the capture will be shown within the area.

 Click the left mouse button to complete the capture.

More about region capture...

 Pan last region - you can capture a region the same size as before, but from any part of the screen. In effect, this function is like taking your previously defined region box and allowing you to "slide" it around the screen to choose another same-size area.

 If you're fitting captures into specific-sized frames in a document (for example) this technique will make that extremely easy, as each capture will be the exact same proportions as the previous region capture.

 Multi-region capture - this is an advanced form of capture, perhap's the program's most powerful. It allows you to grab multiple regions of the screen, with the unwanted space filled with a background color. See the Advanced tutorials for a comprehensive walk-through on how to use this feature.

 Repeat last capture - this function repeats the last capture (including all settings and ranges) exactly as it was executed. Great for tracking a specific window that you want to track over time without repeatedly selecting it, etc. By selecting this multiple times or repeatedly pressing its hot key, you can grab the same region, window, or control over and over to display program progress, repeated terminal screens, or anything that changes within the same area or type of capture.

 Capture settings - loads the configuration tabs that allow you to define the options for capturing, making possible (for example) rapid repeat capturing with auto renaming, and other advanced features.

The capture settings tabs are explained in depth in the Advanced topic category Capture settings tabs.


 more about region captures

While region capture is activated, the following additional useful options apply, and will be shown in a small window as a reminder. Toggle them off by using F1 or by un-checking the option Show help and zoom area during Region Capture. You can read about this setting on the Capture settings tab.

Use the mouse or the following keys:

 F1: Toggle help text and zoom on/off

 Arrow keys: more pointer by one pixel

 Shift+Arrow keys: move pointer by 10 pixels

 Ctrl+Arrow keys: move pointer to an edge

 Esc or Right mouse button: abort operation

 Enter or Left mouse button: accept this position

 +: hide/show mouse pointer

 X, Y: Lock/Unlock X or Y axis movement

Once the first anchor point is established, these tips are added:

 -: hide/show rectangle size in pixels

Tab or Home: switch rectangle corner

 You can now change the F1 key to something else (Options/Hot Keys menu) if F1 interferes with other applications.


 Image menu help

 Crop - once you've captured or opened an image, you can crop it within HyperSnap-DX. Click using your left mouse button to indicate where you want to start the capture area, and then release it. Drag the outline to enclose the area you want to capture, and click the mouse button again. The size (in pixels) of the capture will be shown within the area.

Read more about cropping.

 Change resolution - the image resolution, usually expressed in number of dots per inch (dpi), affects the size of an image when it is printed or inserted into other documents (for example into an MS Word document). If you change the resolution to a higher value, each pixel will become effectively smaller, so the whole image, when printed or inserted into some document, will appear smaller as well.

Choose the value you want to use for both horizontal and vertical resolution in the dialog that appears. If you select different values for the two, your image will become squished or stretched (which may be what you desire, you can use this as an effect).

In general, a resolution that's evenly divisible into or by the final intended display device will produce the best results.

Read more about resolution.

 Scale - you can resize the image using the dialog that appears when you select this item. From that dialog you can choose to resize via a percentage calculation, or by directly manipulating the pixel count of the image. Drag the percentage slider control left to make the image smaller, or right to make the image larger. Your changes are reflected in HyperSnap-DX 4's application workspace.

Type in the desired pixel values for width and height if you would prefer that method, and click Apply to see the values applied to the current image.

Read more about scaling.

 Auto-trim - HyperSnap-DX 4 will examine the image and trim "blank space" from around the image. This is handy for removing unwanted white space from outside of the borders of a target image's contents. If you find it doesn't perform the desired trim, select Undo before performing any other functions to restore the previous result.

 The functions from here forward on the Image menu will operate on either the entire image---or, if you have selected a region---just on that selected region. If you apply these functions to a selected region, the tool will perform its function on the selection and then apply it back to the document. Any "empty" space generated by the tool (such as a rotation) will be filled with the previously-defined background color. In this way you can rotate something in the within an image, or mirror something within an image, and so forth.

 Mirror - this menu item has two sub-items: Horizontal Mirror and Vertical Mirror. When either is applied, the image changes into a "reversed" image, as if a reflecting surface was placed either horizontally or vertically, per your selection.

The Undo command (Edit / Undo or Control-Z) can reverse the effect.

 Rotate - this menu item rotates the image by any angle. You may enter the angle as a positive or negative number in the range of -360 to 360 degrees. You can use the slider to rotate the image and immediately observe the effect in the preview display.

 Note that if the angle you enter is not a multiple of 90 degrees, some background around the image must be added, to fill the available space and make the image rectangular again.

You can choose the color of this background with the Select Background Color button on the dialog as well as the background selector tool on the painting tools palette or on the Capture settings tabs.

The Undo command (Edit / Undo or Control-Z) can reverse the effect.

 Shear - this function acts to "slant" the image along various axis points, as if you were rotating a picture on a canvas along the various planes. You can enter a direct value for this in degrees, or drag the slider to apply a dynamic value to the image. You can force the image to "lean" along a strictly horizontal axis by checking the horizontal box.

The effect here is as if you were rotating a standing canvas either toward you or away from you on a table top. If you un-check this box, the image's "canvas" will rotate on both vertical and horizontal dimensions, altering both the complete dimensionality of the image.

 Because the image will no longer be rectilinear, you'll need to select a background value to fill the space left when the original is modified. Choose this with the background color button on the dialog. The default for this color (used for all fill functions) is set on the Capture settings tabs, but you can change it here.

 Mosaic - this function applies a special effect to the image that makes it appear to be made of tiles. You can define the size of the "tiles" in pixels (they are always square tiles) by typing in a value or by scrubbing the slider back and forth.

The larger the tile size, the greater the distortion applied to the original image's appearance. The smaller the tile size, the less distortion and the more recognizable the image will be. Very large tile sizes will essentially blur the image totally so it's no longer recognizable. Low tile size settings can resemble those "hide the witness" videos used on television shows.

 Emboss - you can give the image the appearance of being 3-dimensional by applying this special effect. First select the originating direction for the simulated relief. Then select the apparent depth of the relief in pixels.

The deeper the relief, the more the image will appear to distort from the original, as if you had wrapped the a photograph of an object over a 3D model of the object itself. The effect varies greatly depending on the quality and nature of the original image.

Flatter images with lesser contrasts will show a smaller effect, images with moderate contrasts will show the most realistic effects. High-contrast images may look the most distorted when this effect is applied. Experiment with the settings on this function, it can achieve some very interesting effects.


 Color menu help

 Color resolution - using this dialog you can change the color "depth" of the active image. For some applications you may want to reduce the color depth or increase it to allow the inclusion of additional color information or make certain special effects operations look better. Possible values are from 1 (monochrome, a depth of either black or white) up to 32 bit, which contains every possible color plus a plane for transparency.

Choose how the colors are ordered in the data, selections being Blue-Green-Red or Red-Green-Blue. "Standard" windows bitmaps typically use RGB ordering, and changing this will have the effect of reversing the apparent color of the image.

You can effect how an image that is reduced to a level below "optimum" is dithered (which means colors "close to the original" are approximated by certain pixel changes). There are several possible dithering options from which you can choose here, and the final result will vary significantly based on the original image, its original color depth, and patterns within it.

For example, an image with a pattern of fine lines may not reduce well to a level where it must be heavily dithered, because the dithering will degrade the apparent resolution of the line content of the image. Your best approach is to move the dialog to the side so you can see your image, and click on the various dithering procedure radio buttons one-by-one until you see the one that handles your image's color reduction in the best fashion.

Choose the bits per pixel you wish to use, and then select from the following options.

 Palette options - choose from Optimized, Windows standard, Netscape (for web use), or Black and white.

 If you're creating a 16 color graphic for use in a Windows application, you should use Windows standard. This means that the basic 16 colors that Windows "reserves" for use within its user interface are also reserved and used in the graphic, if it needs a full 16 color set. This way loading of the graphic will not cause your system palette to shift, an undesirable characteristic that disturbs users.

 If the final destination of your graphic will be a web page, and you want it to look "accurate" for users of Netscape Navigator, you should select the Netscape "web safe" palette. Note that IE doesn't use the same palette (of course, why would that be the case?).

 Dithering pattern - there are several patterns here, and one setting (the default) which is None. If you do not dither an image and you reduce colors beyond the level required to correctly display the contents of your image, you may get "blocky" results.

Your best bet is to experiment with the varying dithering methods (they all have pluses and minuses) and find the one that works best with the type of image you are creating. No one method works well for all data types and color depth types. After trying a method, if you select Undo from the edit menu, you can try another, and so on until you find a pattern that serves your needs.

 Click on Revert to cancel changes to these settings and put the image's settings back how they were if you've decided to not perform the operation you were about to execute.

 You can perform functions from this point on within items on the Color menu applying them to either the entire image or---if an area is selected---within just the selected area. This way you can convert part of an image to Black and white, or grayscale, and so forth. Items above this point in the menu are "global" and affect the entire image.

 Black and white - converts the current image to a black and white image. You can enter a black level between 0 and 100. A value of 0 means a white image, a value of 100 means a black image. You can drag the slider back and forth instead of manually entering a value if you prefer. This way you also get a preview of your changes in real-time.

The change to your image is reflected in the preview window provided on the dialog.

 Halftone - applies a halftone screen (similar to shooting a screen for monochromatic printing) to the active image. You can change the angle of the screen (how it is applied across the image) by scrubbing the slider control or entering a value into the angle box.

 You may have to experiment with the screen angle to get the desired results, and every image accepts half toning differently based on its complexity and type of content. Images with very fine line content, light colored text, or plenty of diagonal lines often do not halftone well.

 Grayscale - converts the image to grayscale, which is akin to a "black and white" photograph. The image's chromatic data is converted to values of gray. You may want to do this, for example, to print a color image on a laser printer that supports grayscale printing.

HyperSnap-DX 4's conversion may provide better results than the printer driver's engine when sending color images to a grayscale laser. This varies by printer driver an other issues.

 Brightness - scrub the slider back and forth or enter numbers from -100 (black) to +100 (white) to alter the luminance of the image. You can adjust the brightness of your image (just like how you adjust the brightness on a TV) by using the controls here. Select a percentage to increase from the original, from no change to a 100% increase, or from no change to a -100% decrease.

 Working with Gamma and Contrast, you can use this to get washed-out or overly-dense images back into usability.

 Contrast - scrub the slider back and forth or enter numbers from -100 (remove contrast, rendering the image ver "flat") to +100 (maximum contrast, deeply blackening the shadows) to adjust the image's appearance.

This function works exactly like the same-named control on your color television set. You can adjust the "knee" of the image to that it represents a greater or lesser range of contrast values. The effect here will be to "block up" the image (more contrast between dark and light areas) or "flatten out" the image (less contrast between dark and light areas).

 Combined with Gamma and Brightness, you can correct faded, flat, or blocked-up images with these functions.

 Hue - similar in some ways to the hue control on a television, you can alter the balance of the image across the "color wheel" by scrubbing the slider back and forth or entering numbers from -360 to +360. The color wheel represents all possible color values across the spectrum in a circle, and the value represented here is the location of a virtual "pointer" on the full circle. The color at that location will become the central "bias color" of the image.

 Note that 1, 0, 360 and -360 represent the same position, just gotten to by different directions of rotation, so there is essentially no change in your image. If you have 360 degrees of rotation, and you rotate backwards 360 degrees from your original position (which is defined as 1 or 0) then you haven't really moved anywhere significant, you've just spun around in a circle and now you're facing the same way.

 Saturation - this function is precisely like the color control on a television. You can choose values of -100 (no chromatic value, a grayscale image) to +100 (maximum color value, extremely over saturated) by scrubbing the slider or entering the desired value.

 Think of Saturation as you would how "wet" a brush is when it's dipped in paint. The wetter it is, the more intense is the color. The drier it is, the less intense is the color.

 Gamma correction - this can adjust the "knee" of the image by increasing the apparent "light" content of the image. Imagine looking through a slide at a light source that is adjusted so it's either brighter (positive gamma) or dimmer (negative gamma).

 A slight positive increase can bring out shadow detail lost in photographs. A slight negative adjustment can make washed-out scans of old photos appear slightly better, in some cases.

 Invert black an white - this function reverses the "polarity" of black and white content in the image. If your image doesn't contain black or white components (for example it's solid colors with neither black or white) this function will have no effect.

 Invert colors - you can turn positive images (such as scans of photographs) into reversal color, and you can turn negative images (such as scans of camera negatives) into positive images by toggling their state here.

 Unique colors - although an image may be defined as a 256 (8 bit) or 16 million (24 bit) color, it may actually only have a limited number of the available colors in use. To view that value here, activate this function.

 If you're about to change the color resolution (also called color "depth" of an image, sometimes previewing the unique colors in use may provide a key as to how far down in total color resolution you can go before the image degrades beyond use. For example, a 256 color image with only 30 colors in use can probably be dropped to 16 colors without terrible degradation, but a drop below that would not be desirable.


 Options menu help

These settings control how the program interacts with your system (for example replacing the default Windows Print screen function), as well as how the program will appear on your computer's desktop and respond to key presses.

The second item on this menu is simply an "enable/disable" function. It does not load any dialogs, and its functionality is like that of a light switch, really. It's labeled Activate hot keys. If this menu has a check next to it, that instance of the program will respond to the appropriate hot keys as defined in the Configure hot keys dialog. If the menu item is un-checked, it means that hot key support for that HyperSnap-DX 4 window isn't enabled. There's a related toolbar button that serves the same purpose, you can read more about the toolbar in the HyperSnap-DX 4's toolbar help topic.

 A note about multiple instances: if you run multiple instances of the program, only one copy can respond to hot key requests. So if you check this menu item (or depress the Activate hotkeys toolbar button, or set that option to "on" from the Configure hot keys dialog) on instance number two (for example), instance number one will lose its ability to trigger captures from hot keys. You can toggle it back on again, but this will then disable hot keys on instance number two. This makes sense if you think about it for a moment.

The options menu covers the categories listed below, and you can jump directly to explanations of these functions right from this list by clicking on the one you wish to see.

 Configure hot keys dialog

 Startup and tray icon

 Default image resolution

 Configure hot keys dialog

Here you can set the keys that control HyperSnap-DX 4's functions. Most users won't need to change them from the default, but if you wish to (because of a conflict, for example, with another program you're using, or a conflict with a Windows shortcut's hotkey) it's easy to do.

 Examine the list of available functions, and click the button to the right of that function to change its hot key.

 A box will appear, and with the cursor inside that dialog, press the key combination you wish to use for that function.

 This is probably obvious, but make sure that none of the key combinations conflict with other programs you're using, or Windows hot keys used by the system itself (such as Ctrl+Esc which opens the start menu).

 Click OK to approve the change.

 Repeat for every function whose key combination you wish to change.

 Handle Print screen keys - check this to have HyperSnap-DX 4 take command of the standard Windows Print screen functions. If you enable this, the program will control these functions and put captures made using these Print screen into its workspace in addition to captured screens going into the Windows clipboard, as they do with the built-in Windows function.

 Activate hot keys - check this to let HyperSnap-DX 4 use its hot key functions. If you uncheck this, the hot keys are disabled, and you'll have to use the mouse or HyperSnap-DX 4's menus to control capturing functions.

 Clear all - click this to "blow away" all of the definitions for hot keys. This is handy if you want to completely shift them around, for example reversing a key combination between functions, which is impossible unless you clear them (the error-checking in the program won't let you set two functions to the same keys). If you do this by mistake, the Defaults button, explained next, will restore the default settings, and the Revert button will get back your previous custom settings.

 Defaults - if you change the key combinations and later decide you don't like them, click this button to revert the program back to its start-up settings. Note that your changes will be lost for every hot key you've set.

 Revert - click this to "back up" the hot keys to the previous settings prior to the last changes you have made. This is like an "undo" function, and allows you to keep your previous custom key settings while discarding any experimental changes.

When you're finished, click on Close to complete the changes to your hot key combinations.

 Startup and tray icon dialog

Here you control how HyperSnap-DX 4 looks to you and how it handles the way it loads.

 Auto-start with Windows - checking this causes the program to add itself to the list of programs that load with the operating system. If you use HyperSnap-DX 4 a lot, this can save you a bit of time. Since you can enable the program to "take over" the Print screen function (which it only handles if it's running) it will make the behavior of the system consistent if HyperSnap-DX 4 is always running. If you only rarely use the program, you should leave this unchecked to conserve resources and memory.

 Always start minimized - the program will load in iconic mode, down on the taskbar, if you check this. Checking the first two options (this one and the previous) makes sense if you work with the program a lot, but don't need to see its application window until you've done a few other things during a session.

 Display system tray icon, hide taskbar button when minimized - checking this hides the minimized program's icon and displays only the smaller icon in the area by the clock on the Windows taskbar. This is handy if you run many programs and want to conserve space on the taskbar.

 When you enable this item, another option appears, Do not exit when I click the X button. This way you can "minimize" the program back to the system tray by "closing" it with the X button. Enabling this prevents accidental closure of the software when you really meant to minimize it.

Click on OK to complete your changes. At that point, if you enabled the system tray icon, the program's icon will be removed from the task bar and will appear on the system tray.

 Default image resolution dialog

You can control the default settings here for the resolution of images you capture. You can override these during "custom" captures and change them post-capture with the image processing tools on the image menu, too.

The setting here will be defined as the "starting" point. It defaults to the DPI of your system video driver.

 Horizontal resolution - define a value here that provides you with the resolution you require for your application of most images. A good start for super VGA users is 96 DPI. Users running less than SVGA should probably use 72 DPI. If your final destination is going to be printed (rather than for use only on the computer screen) try setting a resolution that's close to that of your printer, or something evenly divisible into your printer's resolution. For example, 150DPI for a printer that supports 300 DPI. This makes scaling the image easier, since it's a simple doubling.

 Vertical resolution - this is handled the same way as Horizontal, above, and the two should generally be equal to prevent distortion. However, in the case of your destination being a printer with "non-square" resolution (for example, 600 lines of Horizontal and 300 lines of Vertical) you could pick a non-square value for these two and you'd get good results, because they'd match the printer's capabilities.

 Apply to the current image - simply a quick way of applying what you enter here to the image open in HyperSnap-DX 4 at that time. You can apply this using the Image menu item, Change resolution.

 Use as default for future images captured from the screen - sets the options you've defined here to be used "from now on" for captures. You can override these during post processing if you desire, too, using the Image menu's tools.

Click on OK to complete your changes.


 Help menu help

This section contains links to the file you're reading now, as well as quick links to help contents and searching functions.

 Contents - loads the help file at the table of contents tabs. From here you

 Search - starts the help system in search mode, so you can find information quickly.

 Credits - shows the list of Copyright and other credits for the software.

 About - shows the version information (important to know if you'll be requesting user support).


 more about cropping

While activated, the following additional useful options apply, and will be shown in a small window as a reminder. Toggle these off using F1 or by un-checking the option Show help and zoom area during region capture.

 F1: Toggle help text and zoom on/off

 Arrows: more pointer by one pixel

 Shift-Arrows: move pointer by 10 pixels

 Ctrl-Arrows: move pointer to an edge

 Esc or Right Button: abort operation

 Enter or Left Button: accept this position

 +: hide/show mouse pointer

 X, Y: Lock/Unlock X or Y axis movement

Once the first anchor point is established, these tips are added:

 -: hide/show rectangle size in pixels

 Tab or Home: switch rectangle corner

 You can now change the F1 key to something else (Options / Hot Keys menu) if F1 interferes with other applications.

The points are now picked upon release of left/primary mouse button, not upon button press as in HyperSnap-DX 4 versions before 3.40. This allows you to easily pick (for example) the left or top edge of the image. Press the left mouse button, hold it down, go out of the HyperSnap-DX window, and then release there.

This will pick the nearest edge of the image, or (for example) a point (0, 0), if you go to the left and top of HyperSnap-DX window.

 HyperSnap-DX 4's window does not auto-scroll if you try to drag a selection beyond the edge of the programs' window. But you can resize the program's window or use the scroll bars to adjust your view and make cropping more convenient without losing your selection. The selection edge markers will reactivate as you move your mouse back into the HyperSnap-DX 4 main window.


 more about resolution

The resolution setting does not affect the appearance of an image in HyperSnap-DX window.

The default resolution to keep the original image size in printing and pasting to other documents should usually be 96 dpi for high resolution monitors (800 X 600 or higher setting), and sometimes 72 dpi for low monitor resolutions. However sometimes it may need to be modified to make the image appear in the desired size.

This function is accessible via two different ways.

In the Options menu, Default Image Resolution displays and sets the default resolution for all images that you will subsequently capture.

In the Image menu, the Change resolution / Image Resolution dialog displays the resolution of the image currently displayed in HyperSnap-DX window, and allows you to modify the resolution used from that point forward as well as applying the change to the current image displayed in the program's window.

You may check either one, or both of the boxes. The changes (if you make any) in default resolution or current image resolution will take effect immediately when you close the dialog (unless you click Cancel).


 more about scaling (resizing)

The slide control interactively adjusts the sizing, displaying the results in the boxes, although you can type directly into the box to "jump" to the setting if you want.

You can enter percent of original size, width, in pixels, and height in pixels directly. These will interact with each other by recalculating the other values if you've chosen to maintain the aspect ratio (that's the ratio of height to width).

Keep Aspect, when checked, maintains the mathematical relationship between width and height, so your image remains its original rectangular proportions. If you un-check this, the image may become stretched and distorted if you resize the horizontal and vertical dimensions using disparate values.

Interpolate can help improve the end product when you're both enlarging and reducing images by using mathematical formulas to fill in missing pixels.

You can use the Apply and Revert buttons with and without the box checked to determine which variation suits your purpose.

The Apply and Revert buttons apply and reverse the effects of your actions of the current session, making quick comparisons easy and fast.


 HyperSnap toolbar

HyperSnap-DX 4---like all modern applications---can be mouse-driven for many operations. The image below shows a screen capture of the program's toolbar. To see the function of each button, click on the button's image here and a pop-up description will appear with a short explanation of its purpose.

The toolbar basically replicates menu functions, but they provide "one-stop shopping," letting you get into the basic features of the program without having to dig open the menus and navigate through them.

The painting tool palette contains tools you can use to draw on your image or otherwise manually modify it. Some of the tools have a drop-down arrow that let you choose from varying properties for that tool. Click on these within the actual program interface to examine the possible properties offered for these tools.

The magnifying tool right below the toolbar lets you zoom in and out of the image for a better look at details (or to see an image larger than the program's current workspace size). If has several zoom levels in addition to Auto, which will cause the image to be reduced to fit the current application workspace size as best as possible. (This may cause some distortion in the image, but this is only within the view, the file's contents remain as they are in the 100% view.)

The graphic below represents the painting tools, and the same rules apply: click on the graphic you wish to learn about and a brief description will appear telling you about that button.


 file open

This button causes the standard windows "open file" dialog box to appear. Select an image file to edit. Notice that you can specify not only types of files to look for (filtering out other types) but you can specify how many pages to open within the program's workspace. In addition, there's a preview pane that will give you a glance at the image (perhaps greatly reduced), letting you navigate through large folders of files, choosing the one you are looking for.


 file acquire

This button will connect HyperSnap-DX 4 to your scanner, and cause it to initiate the scanning process. How that works varies by scanner and/or imaging device, as well as being determined by what device you may have selected from the File menu item, Select source.


 file save as

This button brings up the standard windows "Save as" dialog, letting you save your captures or other image data. The options here vary depending on which format you choose. To read more, see the File Save as help section


 page setup

This button loads the page setup properties sheet. You can set many options here that control how your images will print. To read more about this, visit the File menu Page setup section that covers this menu item, as well as the item-by-item coverage of this in the topic more about page setup.


 print

This button will print the active document to your default printer (although you can change this in the standard Windows print box that appears). Note that you can set many options for the page setup using the previous button, page setup. You might wish to read more about these functions in more about page setup.


 paste new image

This function will dump the contents of the Windows clipboard into a new image page.


 capture settings

You can load the default capture settings tabs using this button. For more information about the settings here, please visit the Capture settings tabs help section.


 capture window, button, or control

This function will capture a restricted region, such as just the contents of a program's window, or a single program control or button. Use this function when you want to capture just a small part of a running application or Windows itself.

As you move the mouse over the area to be captured, the various parts of the applications open or the system will "light up" showing you what is to be captured. Click the left mouse button to complete the capture.


 capture region button

This function lets you capture a region you can define. It can encompass multiple windows, your desktop, or virtually anything that's visible on your desktop. Unlike the Capture window or Capture desktop functions, this function does not discriminate between the various windows on your screen.

 This capture mode treats your entire desktop as a "canvas" from which you can pick a region to save to HyperSnap-DX 4's workspace.


 crop button

This function allows you to mark out a region of the file and clip the file's contents so they include only the defined region. Essentially this is like taking scissors to the picture and cutting off everything outside of the rectangle you define.

When you click this your tool will change to the cropping tool, which you then draw across the image.

Click the left mouse button after dragging the box to the desired size to execute the crop, and the crop is performed.


 scale button

This function re-scales the image in HyperSnap-DX 4's workspace to the dimensions you choose. You may re-scale it and keep its aspect ratio or you may alter each axis independently, which will cause the image to become distorted. After selecting this function a dialog will appear where you can choose a percentage of original to scale, or you can change the direct pixel-based dimensions.

 In addition, you can drag a slider on the top of the dialog back and forth to scale the image smaller or larger by clicking on it and then holding down the left mouse button as you drag it back and forth, or by using the left and right arrow keys to move the slider in the desired direction.


 help button

This button lets you click on the menu items (including sub-menu items) or any of the toolbar or painting palette controls and see a pop-up window containing a description of that item and help covering the basics on how to use it.


 zoom button

This tool lets you alter the view in HyperSnap-DX 4's workspace. If the image is larger than the program's window, you can zoom out to view more (or perhaps even all) of it. If it's small and you wish to zoom in on some detail, you can do that, too. You can use the Magnifying tool on the painting palette for zooming, too.


 cut button

This "cuts" the selected region to the Windows clipboard. You must mark a region with the Select area tool, it's the dotted box on the Painting tools palette. The area you cut will be "blanked out" with the background color you define in the Capture settings tabs, or you can select the color using the background color selector tool on the bottom of the painting tool palette. The default color for backgrounds, capture "in between regions" and cut regions is white.


 copy button

This copies the selected region or the entire file (if no region is selected) to the Windows clipboard.


 paste button

This pastes the contents of the Windows clipboard into the current workspace.

 The clipboard must contain graphics contents or this function will not be available and grayed-out. For example, a copy from Word (unless it's a chart, Word Art, or Word embedded graphics object) won't be available for a paste into a HyperSnap-DX 4 window.


 clear button

This function "blows away" the current image, leaving you with a blank canvas of the same size, color dept, and proportions.


 undo button

This un-does the last operation you performed, if it was a change to an opened image. For example, if you adjust the color and don't like the result, immediately select this to "go back" to the previous version prior to the color adjustment. This button will be grayed-out if there are no changes to undo.


 redo button

This re-executes the previously "un-done" operation. You can toggle the state of this and Undo back and forth to examine the last change you've made to a file as a way of judging if you like the effect.


 magnifier button

This tool acts just like a magnifying glass. Move it over the image and press the left mouse button to zoom in, with the area below the glass being the center of the zoomed display. To zoom out, press the right button. You can zoom back and forth between in and out as you wish.


 view only button

This sets the mode to "view only mode." It means that you're not using the drawing tools, that no tool is currently selected to act on the image.


 resize button

This function lets you resize (by pixel dimension count) both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the image. You can change the color depth at the same time, if desired, or crop to the current marking rectangle (if one exists).


 select area button

This function turns the cursor into an area selection tool. You can mark areas to cut, copy, or relocate. To select an area, drag the mouse cursor across the image with the left button held down until the area you want defined is selected. Let up on the button and the area will be marked. "Handles" will appear on the area that will let you alter the selection after it's marked.

You can alter it by dragging corners in or out (to size the selection diagonally on that corner's axis) or you can alter just a single side by dragging a side's central button up or down or sideways.

To move a selected area across the image, simply click in the center of the area and drag it to where you want it. You can't re-size the moved area after it's placed.


 flood fill button

This function provides an area fill tool, sometimes called a "bucket fill," because it's like dumping a bucket of paint across the image. It uses the Foreground color selected at the bottom of the tool palette for its fill property.


 text tool button

This function loads a special tool that will let you type text onto your image. First you define an area where you want the text to reside. This sets the "wrapping boundaries" for what you type. From the dialog that appears next, you can choose the font from those available on your system, as well as its size and color (just as with any Word processor).

 The text you type into the entry box will appear on the image as you type it, giving you a real-time preview. Set font properties like italics or bold from the box, and click the X button when you're through to finish. If picked, the solid background property will set the color of the background of your text box with the currently set background color (the default is white). The frame function can draw a solid line "frame" around your text box. The frame color uses the foreground color and the line width will be the width as currently set by the tool width button.


 spray can button

This function loads a tool that works like an airbrush or can of spray paint. It uses the color defined on the foreground drop-down at the bottom of the tool palette. You can change the size of the spray can tool by selecting a different "tool width" from the tool-width tool drop-down list.


 arrow tool button

This function draws "point to" arrows. These are extremely handy for creating labels on a graphic where you need to point to specific items on the graphic and then type in explanations. You can control the type of arrow head (hollow, filled, or architectural) by choosing a different selection from the drop-down list beside the tool's button. This tool uses the color defined by the foreground picker tool at the bottom of the palette and the line width defined by the tool width selector.


 eraser button

This function allows you to erase parts of the image to the background color defined in the background color button at the bottom of the painting palette. You can change the size of the erasing tool by selecting a different "tool width" from the tool width selection drop-down on the bottom of the palette.


 freehand drawing tool button

This tool lets you draw on the image using a pencil-like tool. Choose a color from the foreground color picking tool, and a width from the tool width tool.


 line drawing tool button

This tool draws straight lines. To use it, click where you want the line to originate and then drag the tool by holding the left mouse down until the "rubber band" is at the length and direction you want the line to be. Let up on the mouse and the line will end at the current cursor location. If you hold down the Shift key as you drag the mouse, it will lock your line a vertical, horizontal, or 45 degree angle.


 eraser width button

This tool lets you choose eraser widths from several possible sizes. Choose the desired size and then click the eraser tool to clear areas of the image using the chosen eraser. It will clear the content of the area you erase back to the background color defined in the background selector on the bottom of the painting palette.


 tool width button

This tool changes the widths of all of the painting tools (spray can, line tool, pencil, arrow tool, and so forth). Choose from the available sizes and the dimensions of the tools that use this value will change accordingly.


 rectangle tool button

This function draws "empty" rectangles on the image using the foreground color defined by the foreground color selector tool. To draw a rectangle, select this tool, choose the color and line width you wish to use, click at the point on the image you want to use for the origin of the rectangle, and then drag the mouse cursor by holding down the left button until the rubber band bounding tool shows the rectangle you wish to draw.

Let up on the left button and the rectangle will be complete.


 rounded rectangle tool button

This function draws "empty" rectangles with rounded corners on the image using the foreground color defined by the foreground color selector tool.

To draw a rounded rectangle, select this tool, choose the color and line width you wish to use, click at the point on the image you want to use for the origin of the rounded rectangle, and then drag the mouse cursor by holding down the left button until the rubber band bounding tool shows the rounded rectangle you wish to draw.

Let up on the left button and the rounded rectangle will be complete.


 ellipse tool button

This function draws "empty" ellipses on the image using the foreground color defined by the foreground color selector tool. To draw a ellipse, select this tool, choose the color and line width you wish to use, click at the point on the image you want to use for the origin of the ellipse, and then drag the mouse cursor by holding down the left button until the rubber band bounding tool shows the ellipse you wish to draw.

Let up on the left button and the ellipse will be complete.


 filled rectangle tool button

This function draws "filled" rectangles on the image using the foreground color defined by the foreground color selector tool. To draw a rectangle, select this tool, choose the color and line width you wish to use, click at the point on the image you want to use for the origin of the rectangle, and then drag the mouse cursor by holding down the left button until the rubber band bounding tool shows the rectangle you wish to draw.

Let up on the left button and the rectangle will be complete.


 filled rounded rectangle tool button

This function draws "filled" rectangles with rounded corners on the image using the foreground color defined by the foreground color selector tool. To draw a rounded rectangle, select this tool, choose the color and line width you wish to use, click at the point on the image you want to use for the origin of the rounded rectangle, and then drag the mouse cursor by holding down the left button until the rubber band bounding tool shows the rounded rectangle you wish to draw.

Let up on the left button and the rounded rectangle will be complete.


 filled ellipse tool button

This function draws "filled" ellipses on the image using the foreground color defined by the foreground color selector tool. To draw a ellipse, select this tool, choose the color and line width you wish to use, click at the point on the image you want to use for the origin of the ellipse, and then drag the mouse cursor by holding down the left button until the rubber band bounding tool shows the ellipse you wish to draw.

Let up on the left button and the ellipse will be complete.


 foreground color selector button

This drop-down list and selector palette allows you to set the foreground color as used by the various painting tools. If you pick "Select from image," from the chart that appears, you'll get an eyedropper tool you can use to pick the color you want from the open image, allowing easy matching to an existing color. In addition, you can pick from the complete available palette by choosing the More colors option on the bottom of the drop-down.

 Like all Windows applications that have access to the More colors function, you can even define new "custom" colors that are not in the standard supplied system palette and use them, too.


 background color selector tool button

This drop-down list and selector palette allows you to set the background or "canvas" color as used by the eraser, cut, and clear functions. If you pick "Select from image," from the color chart that appears you'll get an eyedropper tool you can use to pick the color you want from the open image, allowing easy matching to any existing color. You can define transparent colors (for transparent GIF files used in web design, for example) by choosing a color and then checking the box specifying that).

In addition, you can pick from the complete available palette by choosing the More colors option on the bottom of the drop-down.

 Like all Windows applications that have access to the More colors function, you can even define new "custom" colors that are not in the standard supplied system palette and use them, too.


 activate hot keys button

You can toggle the status of hot key functions on and off using this button. This provides a quick "at a glance" status check of whether or not one of perhaps multiple instances of HyperSnap-DX 4 has hot keys enabled. Since only one can handle the hot keys, this button will appear depressed if it's supporting hot keys, and not depressed if it's not able to handle the hotkeys. To change which instance is tracking hot keys, simply click this button and all other instances will lose their hot key functions and the current window will assume hot key tracking.


 create new file button

Click this to begin a new file. If you've altered the current file and have not saved it, you'll be prompted to save your changes. The new file will be started using the default resolution and default background color filling the window.


 highlight color selector button

This lets you choose the color that HyperSnap-DX 4 uses for its highlight functions. You can define a region that will appear to be seen as filtered "through" the selected color or as if the selected color was painted over it. You can toggle through the available colors by repeatedly clicking the button, too.

 You might notice (for example, with a capture from a black DOS screen) that the certain highlight colors can be hard to read. Here's a tip for marking on such screens that will make the highlight bounding box much easier to read.

 First, Use the Color menu item, Invert colors.

 Next, highlight what you need with the bright yellow highlighter.

 Choose the Color menu item, Invert colors again, and your area will be nicely highlighted in blue.


 Tips and Hints

This section includes what we think are good ideas on how to approach certain captures using HyperSnap-DX 4.

 Do you have a unique solution for a problem using HyperSnap-DX 4? Help your fellow users and send it to the author for use in the next release's hints and tips section and we'll write it into the help. See the User support section for ways of getting in touch with us.

 Capturing a drop down menu?

How can you capture a drop-down menu or other program feature that disappears when you press the regular HyperSnap-DX hot key or menu item? Follow these steps.

 Iconize HyperSnap-DX to the taskbar.

 Use one of the program's other hot keys (for example, Region or Window capture) to get the menu captured---it shouldn't disappear then.

Or...

 If it still does disappear, you can press the Print screen key on your keyboard to send the entire desktop to the Windows clipboard.

 Now, place the shot in HyperSnap-DX by using the Edit / Paste menu selection. Using the Crop tool will let you select the portion of the image you need.

 Hiding HyperSnap-DX 4 during capture.

Yes, it's possible to completely hide the program...in fact, it can even start to feel just like a part of Windows rather than a stand-alone application.

 Set HyperSnap-DX's options to Copy each capture to clipboard from the Copy and Print tab of the Capture settings tabs.

 Uncheck the box Restore HyperSnap-DX window to front after capture under the Capture settings tabs.

 Now, go to your word processor or other application and proceed with your work.

 When you need a capture, use the appropriate HyperSnap-DX hot key.

 The options selected will cause the capture to be sent to the Windows clipboard, so you can simply paste it into your document whenever you need it.

 If you need a reminder for which hot key to press, click on HyperSnap-DX 4 in the task bar with your right mouse button, and select the type of capture you want.

 Running multiple instances of HyperSnap-DX 4?

Sure, you can run multiple instances of the program. In fact, this is a powerful way to support different capture settings and different types of captures during a single session, and to cut and paste data between different documents. But there are a few things to remember when you do this.

 Only one copy of the program can respond to hot keys. If you want to have multiple instances running.

 The program's final values for "operating options" is defined by the last copy closed during a multi-instance session. This copy will write out changes to the program's registry upon exit.

 Only one bit of data at one time can go on the standard Windows clipboard. So if you wish to use the clipboard to exchange data, remember that if you go to instance three to copy something, but previously copied something to the clipboard in instance one, you'll destroy the first data sent to the clipboard.


 Capture settings tabs

These tabs, accessible from the Capture settings button on the toolbar, or from the Capture menu item, Capture settings, define the default settings the program will use when you execute screen captures. This section of the help explains each item for the tab set in the order it appears in the tabs.

Before you change a default operation, please make sure you're clear on what that function does and how it will change the way in which the program works. Jot down a note on what you've changed, in case you don't like the results and want to change them back.

 As always, the best way to discover what something does is to examine it, change the setting, and re-capture the same screen or window and see how it differs from the previous setting's results. Experimentation will always be the best way to learn what something does, as long as you remember what you changed and what it was previously in case you don't like how it came out.

You can access some of the settings during post-capture processing (for example, cropping and scaling).

 Capture tab

This tab controls the core capture functionality. You will probably find yourself changing these parameters more than any other settings tab items.

 Delay time before the capture - the default is 500 milliseconds, which would be a half second. If you set this to 1000 milliseconds, it will wait a full second, and so forth. Find a value that gives you the time you need to get things "in order" for the capture.

 Include cursor image - check this to capture the mouse pointer or cursor in your image. Great for showing those 1, 2, 3 step explanations such as in software documentation. Capturing a cursor is fairly simple. Here are the steps for including the cursor in a regional capture (which, if you think about it, shouldn't be able to include the cursor because you're using the cursor to draw the region!)

 First outline and execute a region (or multi-region) capture without worrying about where the cursor is.

 Verify that the capture came out as you wanted in HyperSnap-DX 4's window, and if it's OK, minimize HS-DX window to the task bar.

 Move the cursor over the screen where you want it captured as in the previous "region" capture.

 Press the F11 hot key to repeat the last capture.

 The same region will be re-captured again, this time with the mouse cursor in place.

 Note that if you changed the default hot key assignment, you must press your current "repeat last capture" hot key instead of F11.

 Auto-scroll window during Window capture - check this to automatically scroll the captured application's window. It scrolls long pages with a vertical scroll bar, allowing you to capture more than you can see on the screen. In general, leave this function disabled unless you absolutely need this functionality.

 Auto-scroll doesn't work for all applications that have a vertical scroll bar. Some applications erase the marks that HyperSnap-DX 4 draws over the window it captures while scrolling. These marks allow it to find out how many pixel lines the window was scrolled during the scrolling interval. If these control marks are erased, HyperSnap-DX 4 has no way of knowing how much data to capture.

In such a case, it will display an error message and capture what it could without scrolling. The most popular web browsers (Netscape and MS Internet Explorer) work well with auto-scroll, and many other programs tested well with it. However it may not work with programs who handle the screen in a method hostile to the control mark method.

Here are the steps for making an Auto-scroll window capture. Please read them carefully before attempting an Auto-scroll capture.

 Make sure the Auto-scroll option is enabled, of course.

 Have the target window ready, with the vertical scroll bar set to the top, or to the place where you want to start the Auto-scrolling capture.

 Select Capture / Window from HyperSnap-DX 4's menu, or press the "capture a window" hot key Ctrl+Shift+W.

 Move your mouse to the middle of the document that you want to Auto-scroll capture and click the left mouse button inside the document.

 Make sure the auto-scroll option is enabled.

 Watch how HyperSnap-DX 4 scrolls the window, and as it does this, it draws horizontal marks over it.

 If you want, you can abort this process early by left-clicking the mouse or by pressing any key on the keyboard. If you elect to wait until it finishes, the window will scroll until all of the available text has scrolled into view and has been captured. On some documents, remember, this might be very, very long resulting in a huge capture that consumes much memory (or disk space).

 The capture is complete. Examine the contents of HyperSnap-DX 4's window to make sure it captured the contents correctly, and save the file using the name you wish to use.

 Auto-scroll refresh time - sets the rate at which the window will be scrolled during capture. A smaller number causes the screen to be scrolled faster, a larger number causes it to be scrolled more slowly. You may have to adjust this figure to obtain the results you desire from the capture.

 Show help and zoom area during region capture - checking this shows context sensitive procedural help during region captures. Once you know how to execute these procedures, you can uncheck this to remove the help screens from your desktop.

 Default region shape - you can pick the type of region you want to capture here. It does not have to be rectangular, drop down the list to examine the possible choices, and select the one you wish to use for the default shape.

 Start multi-region capture with - choose from either a Window or Control selection, or a user-selected Region to begin multiple region captures. For example, you can choose to grab a single application window as the first region, and then snag a freehand-specified region off of that for the next portion.

 Background color for non-rectangular and multi-region captures - since these types of captures by definition are "irregular," and documents must all be regular in shape, you must specify a color to fill the areas between the captured regions or windows. White is the default color. Drop down the list and pick whatever color you would like to be used for this area.

 Play sound when making the snapshot - checking this enables the camera sound HyperSnap-DX 4 plays when you execute a capture (or when you press Print screen, if you've enabled it to capture that standard Windows function). The sound lets you know that HyperSnap-DX 4 is "at work" rather than the standard Windows clipboard screen capturing functionality.

 Restore HyperSnap-DX window to front after the capture - if you usually like to work with your captures right away after making them, checking this will cause the program's window to "pop up" with the most recent capture as the active document, ready for any work you might want to do with it.

 Crop & scale tab

This tab sets options related to clipping out unwanted parts of your image or automatically reducing the image's size.

 Crop image - define the values here in pixels, setting the amount from the left, top, or as a percentage of the width (for example, by 50%). You can pre-set all captures to have the specified region removed automatically.

 The easiest way to set this to the desired figure is to define a selection rectangle in HyperSnap-DX 4's workspace and then click the button Set to current selection rectangle. This is much faster than typing in "guessing" values.

 Set to current selection rectangle - click this to automatically set the cropping box to the values present inside the current HyperSnap-DX 4 document window

 Scale image - enable this and set options here to automatically reduce (or enlarge) your captured images. This can be either in pixels or in scaling factors, and you can set either values independently. For example, you can scale the Width to 200 pixels wide and the height by 50%. However generally it's easier to understand what the results will be if you keep both values the same.

 Keep aspect - check this if you are working the scaling in pixels (it will be disabled if you're working in "scaling factor" and the image will automatically be sized up and down without becoming distorted.

 Interpolate colors - check this to apply certain logic to the image that will improve the scaling by making intelligent "guesses" regarding the new pixels that may need to be created as an image is scaled. Sometimes images will appear less "chunky" or "aliased" when scaled if you enable this option. It has the effect of smoothing the scaling operation and making it less noticeable, especially on intermediate scaling functions (small percentages or pixel counts).

 View & edit tab

Here you can set how the program views the data as you capture it. Choose from three available options.

 Replace the image in HS-DX window with the new capture - this is the default setting and will cause the last image to be removed and the new one put into its place. If you have not saved it, the changes to it are lost at the time a new capture is executed.

 Paste each new capture onto the current image - enable this to add each image like a "shingle" onto the previous image. Can produce some interesting results, especially if the successive captures are smaller than the previous captures, or you wish to show the progression of a window's or program's state over time in a "scrapbook" containing multiple images across a page.

Each new capture pasted onto current image is automatically selected as a new object. This means that you can immediately drag it with the mouse to any location over the underlying image to re-locate it. Doing this will not affect that underlying image until you click outside of the selection rectangle.

This way you can compose a page or collage of multiple images or captures. Once you click outside of the selected region, or start a new capture, the previous image is permanently applied onto the underlying bitmap and is immovable. You can "unstick" it by selecting Undo from the Edit menu if you do this before performing any other operation.

 Do not change current image - this will only save the image to the clipboard, a file, or print it according to the settings in the Quick save tab, below. It will not affect the image currently displayed in HyperSnap-DX 4's window.

 Copy & print tab

You can define some specific "paths" captured data can take (in addition to being visible in the program's main window.

 Copy each capture to clipboard - automatically clears the clipboard and inserts the capture onto it for use throughout the Windows system.

 Paste each capture to: - this option will automatically insert the capture into its application workspace. All programs that can read bitmapped data through the clipboard should be able to handle this functionality.

 Minimize this window before the capture - causes the selected application you've chosen to receive the capture to be minimized (reducing its visibility) during the capture. Unless you want the receiving application to be in the capture, you should probably check this option when sending images to third-party program.

 Automatically print each capture - works just like the old DOS Print screen used to before Windows appeared. It sends the desired capture to the default printer you've selected in your printer folder. If you have multiple printers, be sure you've chosen the desired one as your default printer before checking this.

 Quick save tab

One of HyperSnap-DX 4's most powerful features, you can quickly build up a collection of captures (for example, during game play, or during other rapid action) by letting the program automatically save each capture and define filenames for it as it proceeds. You can always go back later and re-name the files if you want to use different names. A great time saver when capturing a long list of screens for documentation purposes or to illustrate "steps" of operation.

 Automatically save each capture to a file - when checked, this enables the program's ability to save captures without you having to use the File menu Save as function. When you enable this, you may want to specify a naming scheme and an "increment" scheme so that each successive file is properly named according to your wishes.

Note that this saves each capture to a file rather than replacing the current capture window with successive captures. If you un-check this captures will be replaced as new ones come in, and only saved to data files if you manually elect to do this.

The default settings here are re-used between sessions, so it's possible to repeat captures later, overwriting the previous sets unless you've moved or renamed them.

 If you don't want to use the automatic naming process, you can have the program prompt you for a name, below.

 Prompt for name on each capture - if you check this option instead of using the Auto save to function, you'll be asked for a filename after each capture.

 Auto save to: - a powerful function that lets you define a logical decision tree to handle multiple captures automatically. Great for snagging the screens during game playing where you don't want to disturb the screen (possibly corrupting it) with file prompt boxes. You need to set certain values for this function to work properly. These include:

 File name - this is the prefix for the file names to use during capture. This prefix will have incremental numbers added to it, with these being specified via the other settings of this control group. You can increment file names starting at 1 and stopping at a pre-set number, and so forth.

 Change - choose another filename for the Save as function. Browse your system to locate a folder in which to store your auto-saved files, and pick the file name you wish to use as the root of the name.

 Increment file name, start at - select a number to begin incrementing group captures, usually 1. You can select any number you wish to use, within the naming limitations of files in Windows itself. Define the stop at value, which can be any number larger than the starting number.

 Loop from 1 to "stop" number... - check this to repeat the numbering process over and over, overwriting any files that exist within scheme. If you want to capture, for example, a series of game play screens but need to attempt certain "plays" over and over to get it "right," this is a useful setting. You can define the 20 screens you need to capture, grab them as you go, and once you've got the sequence right all you will have is the one through 20 captures you desired (rather than having to sort through 100 captures to find the group you need).

The number of digits in this box---as opposed to the value itself--- will dictate the number of digits in any auto-saved file names. For example, the default stop at value of 100 will give you 3-digit numbering. If you only want 2 digits, use a 2 digit stop at number, such as 50 or 99.

 Repeat first capture every - automatic captures, great for tracking constantly moving applications, games, and a workflow example such as using an application. You should define how often (in seconds) you wish to capture the screen, and whether or not you wish to ignore (which means continue) errors. You can use fractions (such as .5 seconds), and you can use 0 to disable this feature.

It is disabled by default.


Command line version
 Command line arguments

These options, useful for advanced programmatic applications, can greatly enhance the Power User's approach to capturing. For example, you can set up an shortcut icon to perform a pre-set capture using the values you define in the parameters line on the shortcut's properties page.

If you're a user of programs like Morrie Wilson's WinBatch(tm), or familiar with the Windows 2000 and 98 R2 scripting host languages, you can go even further by creating a combination of a programmatic and pre-set application. For example, you can create a WinBatch script to ask you for the parameters you wish to pass to HyperSnap-DX 4, and it will then use the script to execute the program and pass the desired parameters to it.

As always with every program, you can open a Command prompt and enter a command line:

start/wait hprsnap.exe [parameters]

or

hprsnap.exe [parameters]

Where [parameters] are those values you want to use. The prompt will load the HyperSnap-DX 4 program, and pass it the command line you gave it. In fact, you can even use a tool as simple as Windows NT and 2000 CMD files or, in the case of Windows 9x, plain old batch files to create special capture settings "on the fly."

If you open a prompt and type the name without start/wait, you can close the prompt if you wish, or use it for other items while HyperSnap-DX 4 is processing an image.

If you use the start/wait parameter, the prompt will stay open and unable to be closed or used until HyperSnap-DX 4 is finished. This may be useful in batch files, if your next command must wait for HyperSnap-DX 4 to finish its operation.

If you expect to make heavy use of HyperSnap-DX 4, we think you'll want to take a moment to get familiar with the command line functions. The mouse is nice, but for heavy production, you simply can't beat command line control.

In the examples below, the actual command line and options you will need to type are in bold. Comments about the comments or other "tips" are in plain text. The paths to be used are simply examples, use the paths you wish to use on your own system. Note that you must type the program's executable name, too, which comes before the switch, as in the example above. You can't simply open a command prompt box and type, "-hidden -quicksave,5000," nothing will happen except that familiar cryptic error message with which we used to be familiar: Bad Command or File Name. If you use Windows 2000 or NT, you might see, "'-quicksave' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, operable program or batch file."

In any case, be sure to change to the folder where you've installed the program and type its name (hprsnap.exe), or add that folder to your system's PATH environment,. In that case you can type the name from any folder and Windows will locate it for you and run it with the commands you specify.

 If you're not familiar with the methods used to add a folder or director to your PATH environment, you can find help for this within the Windows help system. Simply select Start, then Help, then search for Path. It will explain how to add a folder to your PATH, which makes command line use a real joy. Windows 2000 users can add to their PATH without rebooting, Windows 9x users must re-start their systems to add a new folder to the PATH environment.

 Command line parameters

- quicksave	Turns on QuickSave option, even if it was turned off in previous sessions or by default. Additional -QuickSave options can start with timed auto-save. For example, here are some uses with other parameters: -hidden -QuickSave,5000,1,5 -snap:w:320:h240 -save:bmp f:\tmp\test   -iconic -QuickSave,5000,1,5 -snap:w:320:h240 -save:bmp f:\tmp\test -QuickSave,5000,1,5 -snap:w:320:h240 -save:bmp f:\tmp\test  Will start the program with a hidden, iconic or opened window, respectively, and will repeat the snap every 5000 ms (5 sec), increment the file name starting counter at 1 and will stop when the counter reaches 5. To disable adding numbers to the file name, set the second number in -QuickSave to 0, for example -QuickSave,5000,0,5 will save a capture 5 times to the same file. To disable the max count function (the last number to capture before stopping), set it to 0.  The capture will be repeated indefinitely, or until you press the stop capture hot key (default for which is F11).
-fixed_title	Displays a fixed title HyperSnap-DX only (program will not display the file name or the picture size in the window title bar). This may be needed if you want to "send keys" to the HyperSnap-DX 4 window from Visual Basic or some other applications.
-hidden	Runs the program with its window hidden, so you can operate it only by using the hot keys. You must have enabled Quick Print, or Copy each capture to clipboard in the Capture settings tabs , earlier, or you could use this mode with the Quick save tab's Automatically save each capture... option enabled, too. Otherwise you won't be able to choose files or direct output to any useful location.
-dumpopts	Read the program's registry entries, and dump them to an INI file in the program's home directory. This is helpful for debugging problems (you can send the INI file in an e-mail to use for user support issues, if we request it).
-readopts	Read the program's registry entries from the file HSDX.INI and then save them to the Windows system registry. A great way to immediately set the program back to all defaults. For example, if you install the program, then run it once, the registry entries will be set to the defaults. If you then use the -dumpopts option, above, to create HSDX.INI, and keep that file in a safe place, should you wish to set the program back to the start-up status, this option will do that in one step. Mainly a technical support tool, and it can repair a corrupted registry entry as well.
-initfrom:filename	You'd use this option when you start HyperSnap-DX 4, for example: hprsnap.exe -initfrom:c:\hypersnap\hsdx3.ini. A quick method of supporting multiple hot key configurations or other options, such as on systems where multiple users prefer the program to operate differently. If you create a shortcut that loads the program using this switch and a valid INI file you've created with the -dumpopts setting, it's painless to have the program set up differently for many users on the same machine. Changes you make to its settings in this case do not go back to the registry (as normal) but they are written back to the INI file name you used to load it.
-snap	Capture a screen (or a portion) one time only, to immediately print or save it, and then exit. The HyperSnap-DX 4 window isn't displayed. This option takes several sub-options you must separate with a colon. Here are some examples. hsdx -snap:x60:y150:w200:h100 -save:bmp test.bmp :x is X pixel coordinate from which to start the capture, counted from the left. If omitted, 0 the program will assume 0, the absolute left-hand of the screen. :y is Y pixel coordinate from which to start the capture, counted from the top. If omitted, the program assumes you want a value of 0. :w is width of the area to capture, in pixels. If omitted, the program assumes the area from :x to the right edge of the screen should be captured. :h is height of the area to capture, in pixels. If omitted, the program will capture the area from :y to the bottom of the screen. :window allows the user to select with the mouse the window to capture. :region allows the user to select with the mouse a rectangular region to capture. :awin will capture the currently active window, including frame and title :acli will capture the currently active window without the title and frame (called the "client area").
-snapi	Works like -snap, above, but it inverts the colors of the captured image.
-open:[filename] or -open  [filename]	This option will run HyperSnap-DX 4 and open the specified file (if it exists, and is in a supported graphics file format). It will then perform the action set by any following command line options, such as -print or -save---perhaps in a different format as a quick way to convert one format to another. You can use this to print several graphics files in batch mode or to translate quickly between varying formats. The program exits when all prescribed operations are complete. Here are a few examples: To translate test.bmp to test.gif: hprsnap.exe -open:test.bmp -save:gif test.gif To print test.jpg file to the default system printer: hprsnap.exe -open test.jpg -print
-print	This function was designed to be used after -snap to force the printing of the captured picture. It takes several sub-options, all of which should be separated with a colon. :l print in Landscape mode. Default it portrait :inv invert black and white :bw print black and white colors only :fr draw a frame around printed picture :sNN scale, where NN is % of the size, default is 100% :af auto-fit the picture to fill the whole page (but preserving the aspect ratio) pd display Print Dialog, to select the printer etc. Prints to the default printer if :pd omitted. Here's an example: hprsnap.exe -snap -print:l:fr:s75  This example will snap the whole screen and print the resulting capture in landscape mode, with a frame, and scaled downward to 75% of the original size.
-save	This was designed to be used after the -snap option to save the file to a supported file format. The very next argument should be the filename to use for the saved data, including the extension. For example, snap.bmp, snap.gif, and so forth. Here's a list of possible formats as well as some examples using them: :gif save as a GIF file :gif:i save as Interlaced GIF file :jpg save as JPEG file with default quality of 75% :jpg:qNN save as JPEG file with quality NN% (where you replace NN with a number such as 90, representing the quality factor to retain). :jpg:p save as progressive JPEG file (:qNN may be added) :bmp save as BMP file (this is default, may be omitted). Bitmap pixel depth is the same as screen's. :bmp:c1 save as 1 bpp bitmap :bmp:c4 save as 4 bpp bitmap :bmp:c8 save as 8 bpp bitmap :bmp:c24 save as 24 bpp bitmap  The program accepts other file types as -save formats. Here's a complete list of all file types accepted during this command. These values should appear after the : in the command line: bmp, gif, jpg, tif, cmp, cal, fax, eps, img, raw, ica, pict, mac, msp, pcx, ras, tga, wfx, vfm, wpg, png With all of these file types, the following options are accepted, if valid for a given file type. If not, they will be ignored: :a append the picture to the specified file, if file format permits this. For example, GIF and TIFF files support appended frames to an existing file. :c1, :c4, :c8, :c24, :c32  represents the color resolution to use, in bits per pixel. :i, :p telles HyperSnap-DX 4 to save the file using either interlaced (GIF) or progressive (JPEG) format. :qNN quality persistence in %, valid for jpg and cmp files. The larger this number, the higher quality the final file will be. Here's more examples: Snap the whole screen and save in BMP file in the directory c:\tmp\. hprsnap.exe -snap -save c:\tmp\test.bmp Snap portion of screen, save as 8 bit per pixel bitmap in the current DOS directory (be sure you know where this is, or you'll "lose" your file!). hprsnap.exe -snap:x50:y80:w200:h100 -save:bmp:c8 btm.bmp Snap the whole screen, save to GIF file called test.gif. hprsnap.exe -snap -save:gif test.gif snap the whole screen and save it to a JPEG file with 85% quality hprsnap.exe -snap -save:jpg:q85 test.jpg
-onewin	If you run a second copy of HyperSnap-DX with this switch, it will only activate and bring to front the first copy, and the second one will exit instantly. If you run a second copy like this: hprsnap.exe -onewin filename it will cause the first copy to load the picture stored under the specified filename and then activate or bring to front that copy. The second copy, after sending the appropriate command to the first instance, will exit instantly.
-defprn:"printer name"	This command makes HyperSnap-DX 4 use a printer other than the "system default" as its default printer. The "printer name" parameter must be the exact same name as listed in your system Printers folder, and the name in the command must be enclosed in double quotes if it contains any spaces. If the name is one solid block without spaces, you can skip the quotes.


 Power user?

What's a Power User? It's somebody who knows more than you or I do, no matter how much you or I might know. We usually know a Power User when we see one. And he or she knows things we simply can't comprehend or don't want to take the ten years of reading we'd need to get to the same skill level.

Power Users are often amazing folks. But...the first step of becoming one (in case you want to do so) is to learn to use the keyboard (instead of the rodent) to run your software. And that means learning these command line tools!

Enjoy.


 User support

Before contacting us for technical support, please check first the "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" list at our web site. The answer to your question may be already there! Click below to access the FAQ page.

 FAQ page

Support for HyperSnap-DX is always close at hand. An E-mail message will get the quickest response. Be certain to provide as much background information as possible.

Include (at least) the following information if you encounter a problem with the software:

 Your operating system, for example Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000.

 How much RAM your computer has installed.

 Your computer's CPU and speed (for example, Pentium III, 750MHZ).

 Your video card's color depth and resolution. You can usually find this information by right-clicking the wallpaper area on your desktop, picking Properties, and then examining the tab that's called Settings. A typical setting might report, "1024 X 768" with the color drop-down listing, "True Color."

 A concise description of the problem and exactly what you did to get it to happen. If you can get it to repeat at will, please give us every step from beginning until the end, that will help us replicate your problem.

 You don't need to e-mail us graphics you had problems with, or screen captures, or other large items unless we request them from you. Please wait for us to request them before sending such matter in your support requests.

We welcome your comments and input for future releases of HyperSnap-DX. Write to: gregko@hyperionics.com.

If you have problems getting to us via the Internet, or you don't have net access (for example you got the program from a PC Magazine or other shareware CD-ROM), you can always mail your questions or comments to us.

Send your mail to:

Greg Kochaniak

Hyperionics

3146 Chestnut Street

Murrysville, PA 15668, USA

And visit our World Wide Web site to download our latest releases, read important announcements, and find out more information about HyperSnap-DX 4 and our other fine products: www.hyperionics.com.


FAQ page
 Frequently Asked Questions page

We've moved the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page from the on-line help and to our web support site. It changes so frequently, that we decided to always have the most up-to-date list of questions and answers, and that meant posting them on the web where we can change them as often as required. You can get to this page by following the link below:

 You must have an Internet link to use the FAQ page reference, below. If you don't, Windows will issue an error. If you have one, but have not yet connected, Windows will bring up the dialer and request that you connect in order to follow the link. Your default browser will be used to jump to the Hyperionics HyperSnap-DX 4 FAQ page.

 FAQ page


 web support links

You can jump directly to our support sources on the web by clicking any of the desired web page locations that are listed below. As you might suspect, the most up-to-date source for support, known issues, and new version information is always available on our web pages.

We'd like to encourage you to visit our worldwide web site frequently to check for new releases, entirely new products, as well as promotional efforts designed to better serve our users.

Click the description of the page you'd like to visit, and (as long as you have Internet access and a properly-installed browser) you'll be taken directly to that page. If you're not connected to the Internet, but have auto-connect enabled (most folks do) Windows will dial your Internet service provider and create a new connection for this purpose, then take you to the page.

 New sites will appear here as we add to our web page and then update HyperSnap-DX 4. And as Hyperionics grows, we'll do our best to make the support we offer to our users the best of any shareware firm in the market.

Users with fast high-bandwidth connections like T1 or DSL will find this works almost like an extension of the help file, it will load virtually instantly into a new browser window.

 Web link list

These sites are available for use by all HyperSnap-DX 4 users (registered or not). Feel free to drop by and visit any of these should you need help, want more information, or wish to investigate any of our other products.

 FAQ page

 E-mail support link

 Download page

 HyperSnap-DX 4 product information


 Uninstalling HyperSnap-DX 4

If you're reading this because you've had a problem with the program and have decided to remove it, please stop! Before you remove it, please contact us and tell us what the problem was, perhaps there's a simple solution for it. We want to hear about it and we want to help you solve it so you can successfully use HyperSnap-DX 4.

Contact us at the points listed in the User support section.

If you're reading this because you've bought a new machine and want to sell your old system (and properly so, you're removing your licensed software so as to not violate your single-user license), removing the program is exceedingly simple. Follow the directions below.

If you wish to repair a damaged installation, see the help for that, below.

 Removing the program

 Click on the Start menu, then Settings, then Control Panel.

 Double-click on the Add Remove Programs icon in Control Panel.

 Scroll through the list until you see the entry for HyperSnap-DX 4. Once you locate it, click on the button Add / Remove.

 Depending on your Windows version, this feature may be labeled or arranged slightly differently, for example Windows 2000 shows it as "Change/Remove."

 A dialog will appear asking you to confirm this operation and offering three selections: Automatic, Custom, Repair.

 If you wish to remove the program, choose Automatic and press Next.

 The uninstaller will remove the program and all icons, shortcuts, etc. from your system. Note that if you changed the icons in any way (for example moved them to a new group or re-named them) they will not be removed.

  Any files you've created and left in your HyperSnap-DX 4 directory will remain behind, and in which case you will have to manually delete these.

 Repairing a damaged installation

 If something has damaged your HyperSnap-DX 4 installation, you can repair it using the procedure here.

 Click on the Start menu, then Settings, then Control Panel.

 Double-click on the Add Remove Programs icon in Control Panel.

 Scroll through the list until you see the entry for HyperSnap-DX 4. Once you locate it, click on the button Add / Remove.

 Depending on your Windows version, this feature may be labeled or arranged slightly differently, for example Windows 2000 shows it as "Change/Remove."

 A dialog will appear asking you to confirm this operation and offering three selections: Automatic, Custom, Repair.

 Choose Repair. The installation will request may request the contents of the original archive file that you downloaded or received on CD.

 Follow the prompts that appear and the installation will be automatically repaired, and all missing files will be replaced.


 Licensing HyperSnap-DX 4

You can license the program right from our web page: www.hyperionics.com.

One big plus if you buy your license on our web page is that you'll get a temporary registration number within a few minutes. Your permanent license will arrive by email, usually on the same day (but sometimes it may be the following day).

If you don't have web access, you can mail payment to us directly. Your payment must be in U.S. dollars drawn on a United States or Canadian bank. No other monetary formats accepted, sorry. Send your payment and a completed registration form to:

Hyperionics

3146 Chestnut Street

Murrysville, PA 15668, USA

If you're sending a check or money order, please make it payable to Hyperionics.

Click the button below to run our registration utility.

Click the button to print a registration form if you encountered a problem with our REGISTER.EXE utility. Then click back or press the < key to return to this section.

You can use this form to mail in a credit card or any other mail-in order if you don't wish to use the web site for any reason.

 Note that single-user registrations apply to one individual only, and use running multiple copies concurrently on multiple systems requires the purchasing of a license for each computer system on which the program is to be installed. However you can install it on multiple systems if only one copy at one time will be running. See the Legal section for the exact terms of license.

 Non-US users should examine our list of International vendors, there might be one close to you.

 Available license packages

At this writing, the following license "packages" are available. Please consult this chart when filling out the prices on the printable order form.

Units	New user price	Upgrade from 3.x
1 to 5	$35.00	$10.00
6 to 10	$30.00	$8.00
11 to 20	$25.00	$6.00
21 to 50	$22.00	$5.00
Unlimited site license	$1,100.00	$350.00
Unlimited world-wide use	$3,000.00	$1,000.00
 The prices here may be different than those listed on the web site. The prices on the web site www.hyperionics.com. are always the most current.


HyperSnap-DX 4 Mail-in Registration form

Enter quantity required and subtotal cost where indicated, respectively. Be sure the amounts agree with those on the price list. Check or money order in US dollars drawn on US or Canadian bank and should be payable to Hyperionics. Thank you! Note: you can only FAX this form if you're paying by credit card! See the Licensing HyperSnap-DX 4 section for the mailing address.

Name:________________________________________________

Register to name (if different):______________________________________________

Postal shipping address (please provide Attention to name, if needed):

Address 1:_____________________________________________________

Address 2:_____________________________________________________

Country:___________________________________(leave blank for USA)

City:________________________________State/Province:______Zip/ Postal:______________

Daytime Phone area & number (required):_(_________)________________________________

Fax no:_(_________)________________________________

E-mail address (required, please print):______________________________________________

Note: use price table to calculate your order's cost.

Qty:_____single user HyperSnap-DX 4 or upgrade at $___________

Limited area site license or Worldwide license (circle one) $___________

Pennsylvania U.S. residents must add 6% tax $___________

Shipping (read this note!) $5.00 if shipped by US or International postal mail$___________

 Check one - amount enclosed [   ] or [   ] bill my credit card, below  Total sale amount: $___________

Name on Credit card:_________________________________________________

Credit card number:__________________________Expires:______month ______year

Circle your card type:  VISA   MASTERCARD   DISCOVER   AMEX

If this is a credit card order, by submitting this form I hereby authorize Hyperionics™ to charge my credit card account the total sale amount specified on this form.

Card billing address (if different from shipping address, above):

Address 1:_____________________________________________________

Address 2:_____________________________________________________

Country:___________________________________(leave blank for USA)

City:________________________________State/Province:______Zip/ Postal:______________

Authorized signature:____________________________________date_____________________


 Shipping note

There is NO shipping fee if you accept receipt of your product via E-mail. This means you'll get your registration numbers sent to you in an E-mail message. If you wish to receive it this way, do not include a shipping fee, and make sure your E-mail address is on the order form, and clearly printed so we can read it.


 International distributors

For the most current list of Hyperionics international distributors, please visit our Web site at www.hyperionics.com. This list may be of interest mostly to those who need to pay by check. Hyperionics can only accept checks drawn on a US bank, but you may use local checks with our non-U.S. distributors. Users in the US should see the previous section, and if they wish to pay by check, print and fill out the registration form they can get to from that section.

Here is a list of our international distributors includes (countries listed in alphabetical order) active at this writing.

Australia - Shareware-Australia

http://ww.shareware-australia.com

Germany - Sharible (HyperCam in Germany is sold under WinCorder name)

Vogel Datentechnik

sharible Leserservice

Masurenweg 1

D-85521 Ottobrunn, Germany

phone and fax (ISDN) is: +49 +89 6085 1220

http://www.sharible.de/software/hyperionics/

Japan - OddieSoft

Email: esteban@oddie.com

http://www.oddie.com

Korea - CMI Company (SoftBuy)

#3001, Korea World Trade Center,

Samsung-dong 159

Gangnamgu, Seoul, KOREA

Email: softbuy@softbuy.co.kr

http://www.softbuy.co/kr

The Netherlands France, and Belgium - BTSoftware BV Shareware Registration & Distribution

P.O Box 4911

5604  CC Eindhoven

The Netherlands

Fax: +31 40 290 6460

Email: Info@BTSoftware.com

http://www.btsoftware.com

Poland - CreamSoftware, Poland

http://www.creamsoft.com

United Kingdom - Grey Matter Ltd.

Prigg Meadow, Ashburton

Devon, UK. TQ13 7DF

Tel: +44 (0)1364 654 100

Fax: +44 (0)1364 654 200

Email: maildesk@greymatter.co.uk

www.greymatter.co.uk


 Other Hyperionics software

In addition to this fine product, we make several other utilities. Drop by our web page at www.hyperionics.com which always contains links where you can download the latest versions of all of our programs or those programs that meet our standards so that we're confident enough in them to offer them for sale through our site..

At the time this file was written, here's a list of software we either have authored or sell on our site.

 Available products from Hyperionics

 HyperCam - another quality product from Hyperionics, that allows you to record the action from your Windows 9x or NT screen as an AVI movie. You can include cursor movements and sound, and take advantage of many other options. HyperCam was designed with the same attention to quality and detail as was HyperSnap-DX.

 FileBox eXtender - this product enhances the standard Windows file dialogs in a totally new, elegant and non-intrusive way---by placing small icon buttons in the title bars of these windows. The buttons provide easy one click access to your favorite folders and documents as well as to a list of recently used folders.


 Curtain calls

This section lists the people behind the software, and provides a tip 'o the hat to people who have helped us in special ways during the development of this utility. Without the support of our users and their suggestions, HyperSnap-DX 4 would not be as good a tool as we think it is.

HyperSnap-DX 4 was designed and written by

Greg Kochaniak of Hyperionics

www.hyperionics.com

gregko@hyperionics.com

Program documentation and custom interface graphics created by

Todd Henschell of Dangerous Cybernetics

the_scrazner@hotmail.com

home.pacbell.net/scrazner

Special thanks to the following people:

rap@aci.net

Samuel N. Ceccola

http://www.jspcservices.com

Martin Sperlich

Mike Healey

Mark Anderson

http://www.yeardley.demon.co.uk


 Legal information

HyperSnap-DX 4 is marketed as a fully functional trial version. Its only limitation is that the screen captures it makes are "branded" to indicate you are using it during a trial period. After thirty days of use you must license this software to continue to use it legally.

 If you don't register the software, it must be removed from your system before the thirty day period of usage expires or you are in violation of our copyright. Your permission to use the software in order to examine it is strictly limited to this fixed period.

 You can find purchase information in the Licensing section of the help file.

The following copyrights and trademarks are the property of Greg Kochaniak and Hyperionics, and All Rights are Reserved.

HyperSnap-DX 4, and Hyperionics

All associated documentation and written materials that accompany this program are the property of Greg Kochaniak and Hyperionics, and are Copyright (c) 2000.

Written documentation for this program was created by Dangerous Cybernetics and contains original graphics used by Hyperionics with license. These graphics may not be extracted and used by any other parties or individuals for any commercial purpose.

Anyone distributing the shareware version of HyperSnap-DX 4 for any kind of remuneration must contact Hyperionics---prior to including it within any distribution media---at the address below for authorization.

Hyperionics will automatically grant such authorization to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors. Such distributors may begin offering HyperSnap-DX 4 immediately without prior contact to gain permission.

No other party besides Hyperionics is authorized to grant permission for vendors not recognized by the ASP, and such permission must be requested by, and will be granted by, writing. (Such writing might be E-mail or via FAX or via traditional mail, it depends on the method the vendor uses to contact us, of course.)

However in any case, and with all vendors, Hyperionics must still be advised that the program has been made available to the public so that the distributor will always be provided with up-to-date versions of HyperSnap-DX. Upon receipt of the latest version, all vendors are to replace their previously included versions with the latest version in order to keep their permission current.

 Other copyrights

Other Copyrights and Trademarks (such as DirectX, Direct3D, 3dfx) used within the program's UI and throughout this help system are the properties of their respective owners, and as such, have no connection with Hyperionics whatsoever.

 OMBUDSMAN STATEMENT

Greg Kochaniak is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at:

ASP

157-F Love Ave.

Greenwood, IN 46142

USA

Or FAX 317-888-2195, or send email to omb@asp-shareware.org.

 DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT

Users of HyperSnap-DX must accept this disclaimer of warranty in order to use the project. By licensing it, you agree to accept the terms of use specified herein.

HyperSnap-DX 4 is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of HyperSnap-DX. User assumes all liability with respect to usage of the program and recognizes that under no circumstances will Hyperionics or Greg Kochaniak be held accountable for any loss of data, work product, time or productivity that may occur as a result of their usage of said program.

Translated: if HyperSnap-DX 4 eats that rare bitmap proving the other-worldly cause of the Bermuda Triangle that you were going to sell to a tabloid paper, or turns all of your images bright purple or orange with purple streaks, or causes strange problems with other software or hardware that begin to resemble interference from alternate dimensions (no matter if these appear to be from the 7th dimension or the 27th dimension), we're not responsible for the results.

Nor will we provide compensation in any manner or fashion for same. We'll feel very badly, indeed, about the purple images and the lost Bermuda Triangle photos, and of course the dimensional tear that originated in your hard disk will cause us a great deal of worry, but we will not be held responsible for these events. Thank you for your understanding.

 Single user license terms

License to use this program is provided only upon our receipt of payment of the required fee, and such license does not give the user a right to disassemble, reverse-compile, reverse-engineer, or otherwise examine the trade secrets contained in the program. Your registration numbers or your registered version of the software should not be distributed to any third party.

This software remains the property of Greg Kochaniak and Hyperionics and is used only under revocable license.

Your license covers the version or versions of the software as specified at the time you received it. All versions of the same "master" number (for example, 4.3, 4.5, 4.7---all 4.anything) are covered by your license. If you download and install a "point" release and need a new number because of changes to the program, please see the sections of this file regarding User support, and contact us. We'll provide you with a free upgrade to the "point" release.

Your license, should you purchase one, is similar to that of a book. You may use it on as many computer systems as you may own (be that one or two hundred). However the way you use the software should be such that only one copy at a time may be in use at one time by the licensee.

For example, many folks have a desktop and a laptop. You may install HyperSnap-DX 4 on both and license both copies, but you may not use the program on your laptop and your desktop at the same time. Think of it as you would a book: you can read it anywhere you like, but you can only read one copy of it at a time.

Hyperionics is a member of the Associate of Shareware Professionals and follows the bylaws as set down by that organization.

 Site license terms

License to use this program is provided only upon our receipt of payment of the required fee and your receipt of the proper license numbers.

Note to site license users: HyperSnap-DX 4 is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of HyperSnap-DX. User assumes all liability with respect to usage of the program and recognizes that under no circumstances will Hyperionics or Greg Kochaniak be held accountable for any loss of data, work product, time or productivity that may occur as a result of their usage of said program.

We offer two types of site licenses that cover varying types of usage, and one or the other should suite the purposes of medium to large business usage.

 Limited area site license - purchasers of this type of license may use an unlimited number of copies concurrently running over an extended radius of 100 miles. In other words, a company or organization's license will cover as many users as they have employed within that area. Individuals, branches, or offices that fall outside of the covered area will need licenses purchased as necessary to cover additional locations.

 Unlimited worldwide site license - this license covers worldwide corporate area no matter the locations or numbers of users. If your company is likely to expand beyond the dimensional restrictions of the other site license's terms, this option is the best for you. Not only is the upgrade cost between versions fairly low, the fact that you do not have to track locations and ranges from the home office makes it a real winner.

We'd like to encourage all corporations looking for a site license to purchase this license type, which will greatly simplify their use of the program.


terms
 Technical terminology

If you're new to graphics, or making screen captures, or just PCs in general, you might find some of the terms used here a bit confusing. This list will give you a brief definition of the terms used repeatedly within this file, in alphabetical order. This list isn't intended to give you everything you need to know about every technical term in use within the document, but it should help most users avoid massive confusion.

3dfx	A maker of advanced video chipsets and video boards used to rapidly draw 3D content onto your screen. These include the Voodoo product line and other products.
Bit depth	The amount of colors a picture contains, typically limited to the values of 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32, representing monochromatic, 16 color, 256 color, 16 million colors, and "true color" format. Files with 24 bit color typically can display more colors than most people are able to detect.
BMP (bitmap)	A file format developed by Microsoft to display image content. It is a non-compressed, fairly space-wasting format that's used for wallpaper, and also for user-interface graphics such as toolbar glyphs. The biggest advantage to this format is that it loads fast into most applications supporting it, and it supports virtually all color depths.
Border	Refers to the region "around" an application window. It's the area you "grab" onto with your mouse when you want to size a window.
Button	A control device used by software to actuate a function. It may appear to actually "depress" when clicked, which is an illusion caused by the operating system.
Chroma	Refers to "color" or the color "palette" of an image, and sometimes to the color "balance" of an image when used slightly incorrectly. The "chroma" of an image is a compressed reference to its chromatic content, or it's "color content."
Clipboard	Windows has a built-in "holding space" for all sorts of data (both text and graphics) that was designed as an easy way to get data from one program to another, possibly incompatible program. For example, you cannot directly edit a painting with Microsoft Wordpad, but you can edit one in Paint, copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it through the clipboard into Wordpad so it appears in your document. An information interchange device, basically.
Color depth	The same as "bit depth," essentially, as mentioned above. Refers to the amount of colors in an image.
Color palette	The "table" of colors used to draw an image. In some formats, this may be limited to a certain range (for example, GIF files are "palette-based" images. Each pixel contains, essentially, a pointer to a certain "place" in the palette. If you change the palette, that pointer will now direct the pixel to a different color. This is called "palette-shifting." The larger the palette, the more colors the image can display. Not all image types use palettes, some contain within their pixel data a direct color reference rather than a "lookup" value.
Control	A class of devices used on software (such as a button or list box) that allows you to make the software "do" things. Everything you "touch" with your mouse on software (buttons, lists, checkboxes) are called "controls" by programmers.
Crop	To cut a region from an image, or to trim off excess material from around a more desirable area. Sometimes incorrectly used when the word zoom is a better choice (to "crop in" on an object, for example, is not really accurate).
Cursor	The pointing device on your Windows screen, it may be an arrow or something else. It provides a way for you to interact with software "controls" and make the system behave the way you wish it to. (Well, most of the time.)
Desktop	The background of your Windows screen. It's the area where you put icons that are not in your Start menu, and the area where you may apply wallpaper, if you have done that.
Direct3D	An accelerated display technology developed by Microsoft. The idea behind it was to provide a list of tools for game developers to allow them to create 3D content without having to directly access the display hardware, something Windows likes to prevent for reasons having to do with stability.
Directory	The original name for "folder," which is a place where you store files and even other directories. Microsoft changed the name (or tried to) to "folder" to sound more like the Macintosh when they released Windows 95.
DirectX	An accelerated sound, video, and game controller technology developed by Microsoft. It allows game and other software developers to have high-speed, closely-timed access to the hardware like they used to have within DOS, but without direct access to the hardware, something not desirable within a multitasking operating system.
Dithering	A process of applying a dot pattern to an image, usually to attempt to make an image reduced in color to appear more closely like the original. The idea is that dots next to each other can affect how they appear, and by adjusting the patterns, the final effect may "simulate" colors no longer present within the image.
DPI (dots per inch)	The number of pixels the image has per inch of content. The higher it is, the higher we say its "resolution" is. An image with 300 DPI that is 300 pixels across will print out at 1 inch on the page of a printer with 300 DPI resolution. The relationship can be changed by other settings, but basically this refers to a device's capability (such as a screen or printer) or the data format of the file itself.
Drop-down list	This is a control in Windows where if you click a downward-facing arrow, you're presented with a list of choices. These might be file format choices (see HyperSnap-DX 4's Save as dialog, for example) or a list of hard drives on your system.
FAQ	Shorthand for "Frequently Asked Questions" and often refers to a list kept by software manufacturers or others who are tired of answering the same old questions. They send curious users here first to save time. Best tip: read any FAQ page put up by a vendor BEFORE contacting that vendor!
File format	The actual data-type used by the file in question. In our case, it might be JPG, GIF, BMP, and so forth. It refers not to the "look" of the image (for example, a Portrait format image) but the binary encoding method used to create the file on your hard dis.
Folder	Microsoft's attempt to steal the Macintosh name for a directory. It's where you put files. Long-time users still call it a directory, and pretty much ignore "folder." It's a good way to tell how long somebody has used a computer, actually. See if they call this a directory a folder or a directory.
Gamma	The "brightness" content of your image. Not the same as just "brightness," but the balance of white on the overall image. An image with high gamma may appear very bright, but also may appear very washed out, even faded. An image with low gamma may appear "blocked up," and difficult to see.
GIF	Graphics Interchange Format. A file format developed by CompuServe and used a lot on the Worldwide Web and elsewhere. It is a palette-based format that supports no more than 256 colors, and it best for images containing solid-color areas. JPG is superior for most photographic content.
Glide	A technology developed by 3dfx for displaying 3D gaming or other content. It's a programming interface that allows game developers to write to 3dfx hardware more easily.
Hard disk	A spinning metal platter (sometimes multiple platters) that's inside virtually all computers and used to store data.
Hot key	A term referring to a special key combination that can cause a program to perform a specific operation or process without taking multiple steps. HyperSnap-DX 4 uses them to trigger screen captures of various types.
Hue	The balance of colors within an image. Refers to the relationship of the key colors of an image, just like how the "tint" control on some televisions works. Hue refers to the "cast" of the colors. It can sometimes be restricted to RGB hues (for example, saying an image has a Red, Green, or Blue cast) because many file formats are considered to be RGB-based.
Icon	The little picture on your desktop, start menu, or a program's toolbar that's used to identify the program or function that will launch when you click it (or double-click it). For example, the icon for Internet Explorer is a blue E.
INI file	A special file used by some software to hold important settings and other information. Windows itself used to be wholly based on two INI files, SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI, but with the release of Windows 95 the system began to be based on the more fragile (but more powerful) database-format "registry." HyperSnap-DX 4 can use INI files, see the command-line help .
Jpeg	The "true' extension for JPG, a common file format used for photographs, and throughout many web pages. It can be a true-color format, has the option of superb file compression (reducing size) and can produce very tiny files that still look quite good.
List	Within Windows, the items that appear when you click a "drop-down" button and are given some choices. HyperSnap-DX 4 uses a list within the Save as dialog for possible file format types (for example).
Luminance	Often referred to as the "brightness" of an image, it's the overall "light" within an image or scene. If you turn up or down the brightness of your television set, you're affecting the luminance, but not the color of the image. Gamma represents luminance values.
Maximize	Here refers to the behavior of an application within Windows. When it's "maximized" it means it has been set to be "full screen" and it's the only application you can see. It covers the entire desktop, all of your icons, and all other programs except for (in most cases) the task bar.
Memory	Sometimes refers to RAM, which is the chip-based storage space your computer uses to make its calculations. Its best not to use "memory" to mean hard disk space, you can confuse technical support staff. Say, "hard disk space," and "RAM," or "memory." But it's best to stick with the technical terms for both, leaving "memory" to the elephants.
Minimize	Means an application's window has been "sent down" to the task bar or (in the case of HyperSnap-DX 4) to the system tray area where the clock lives.
Monochrome	A black and white image. Not to be confused with "grayscale." Black and white is often used incorrectly, for example Black and white photos are actually grayscale photos. A true black and white image is made up only of dots of either black or white, with nothing else. How tightly they are packed, or how loosely, creates the illusion of other shades.
Overlay	A technology where a software application, like a DVD player, will "paper over" part of the Windows screen with content it is providing. It will use its window space to directly write content to the screen, bypassing Windows itself for this. Overlay functions are common with desktop TV tuners and DVD players, all of whom must show data at a rate much faster than Windows would be able to do, so Windows lets them "clip out" a region and then handle it themselves.
Palette	The table of colors used by certain image types, such as GIF. These files contain "pointers" to a location on the palette rather than actual pixel color values. If you change the palette, the image will change right with it. Sometimes the palette is stored internally, and in other (rare) cases, the palette can actually be loaded from another file and applied to the image itself, changing how it appears. Think of it as each pixel having an address to a house in your neighborhood. If you re-paint one house yellow, the pixels in the image pointing to that house will turn yellow.
RAM	Random Access Memory. It's the chip-based storage space used by your computer to run itself, and to execute programs. Generally, the more you have, the faster things run. It's best to call this RAM and not "memory," to avoid confusion.
Rectilinear	A region defined within a rectangular or straight-edged space. The box you draw when you crop an image is usually rectilinear in nature.
Region capture	To capture one or more "regions," or areas of your screen, application, or desktop. It means to only pick a part of what you can see rather than all of it. A useful tool when you only want to capture the important part of the screen.
Resolution	The resolution of an image is its dimensions in relation to its DPI values. An image of high resolution means it can contain "fine detail" and typically has a high DPI value as well as a high pixel count. A low resolution image typically has a low pixel count, and a low DPI value. Screen resolution is usually very low, only 96 DPI. Some printers are now printing well above 1,000 DPI. This means if you send an image that covers 1 inch of your screen to this printer, it's only going to cover a tenth of an inch on paper.
Saturation	Refers to how much "color" is in an image. A highly saturated image contains a lot of color, and may appear to be "overly-colored." Think of it as if it were paint on a brush. A brush dipped into paint only lightly will produce strokes of light color. A brush that's saturated will produce rich, thick color.
Scale (resize)	Refers to changing the dimensions or resolution of an image. This can be to make it print larger, smaller, or appear on the screen smaller or larger.
System	A common term to refer to your computer, or the operating system itself. It's a generic term, used to cover both the hardware or the operating system, or both working (with luck) in unison.
System tray	A feature of Windows 95 and later where you see a small recessed area in the taskbar that shows you a clock, and sometimes other icons. This allows you to keep tabs on running applications without them hogging space on the main taskbar. HyperSnap-DX 4 can be set to minimize to the system tray if you like.
Task bar	A feature of Windows 95 and later where icons are no longer minimized to the desktop, as they were in previous versions, but are sent to this window-within-Windows.   By the way, here's a usability tip: you can grab any blank area of the taskbar (not occupied by a program icon) and drag it up to the TOP of your desktop. If you do this, you'll save a lot of mouse motion---because all applications have their menus at the top, you'll only have to move the mouse a short hop to get to the taskbar rather than the huge motion all the way from the menu to the bottom. Try it, you'll like it!
Toolbar	Sometimes called "button bar," it's a row of icons within a program that contains buttons. When you click the buttons, the application will perform various functions. With most programs (including HyperSnap-DX 4) if you hold the mouse still over a button you'll see some brief help for that button.
True-color	Commonly used to refer to files that contain 16 million or more colors. This number of colors (and beyond) is essentially more than the human eye can see, so supporting more in a file format isn't practical or even logical.
Video buffer	Your computer's video board has some chips on it where it stores data it needs to display images. In the case of 3D accelerated hardware, this data buffer may contain entire screens. HyperSnap-DX 4 is able to "grab" data from this buffer when it captures 3dfx screens, for example. By storing the data here, rather than re-calculating it again, the video board is able to quickly re-supply the image content much faster than if it had to re-create it from scratch.
Wallpaper	This is the name of images that some people apply to their Windows desktop. To change your wallpaper, right-click your Windows desktop on any blank space (not on an icon) and pick Properties. There's a Background tab, and from this tab you can choose from available files to use as wallpaper.
Web	The shorthand name of the Worldwide Web, the thing on which we are all wasting far too much time.
Window	The place where a Windows application displays its data, but also in a technical sense, every part of that application is called a window. Programmers know that Windows itself calls every button, toolbar, and so forth a "window," and even gives each of them a "window name." Because of this, HyperSnap-DX 4 is able to capture even the smallest controls, because they are all "windows" in that way, and it can get their names---and content---from the system individually.
Window capture	This means to capture the entire window of an application, including its border (usually) and title bar.
Windows	This is the thing on which you are trying to get some work done. There have been many versions, going all the way back to 1.0 (which nobody used) through 2.x (which about fifty people used) and on to the current versions, Windows 9x, NT, and Windows 2000.


Welcome to HyperSnap-DX 4

 Start here

 Getting started with HyperSnap-DX 4

 A quick tutorial

 What's new in version 4?

 Feature overview

 HyperSnap-DX 4's menus

 File menu

 Edit menu

 View menu

 Capture menu

 Image menu

 Color menu

 Options menu

 Help menu

 Important dialogs

 Configure hot keys dialog

 Startup and tray icon dialog

 Default image resolution dialog

 HyperSnap-DX 4's toolbar

 Advanced use

 Tips & Hints

 Capture settings tabs

 Command line arguments

 Advanced tutorials

 DirectX and Glide capture dialog

 Need even more help?

 More about page setup

 More about region captures

 More about cropping images

 More about scaling

 More about resolution

 Terms used in this help file

 User support topics

 User support

 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page

 Web support links

 Uninstalling HyperSnap-DX 4

 Repairing a damaged installation

 Licensing HyperSnap-DX 4

 Licensing HyperSnap-DX 4

 International distributors

 Printable license form

 Other Hyperionics software

 The other stuff

 Curtain calls

 Legal information

 Legal information

 Single-user license terms

 Site license user terms