The Capture Menu

The Capture menu contains commands to capture images from the screen, and provides access to Screen Catcher's frequently used settings.  These items are covered in three sections, as indicated to the right of the illustration below.

 

















Capturing Images

Screen Catcher has three different image capturing modes:  Region, Window, and Screen.  Using these modes in combination with the Adjustable Selection option described below can make selecting the correct area for your screen capture quick and easy.

Region:  This is the classic "rubberband rectangle" with which most Macintosh users are familiar.  When you choose this capture method, the cursor turns into a crosshair.  Select the upper left corner of a rectangle by clicking, then drag the mouse down and to the right to expand the rectangle.  Release the mouse to complete the selection.  

Window:  This capture mode highlights the borders of the window currently under the mouse.  As you move the mouse around the screen, different windows will be outlined with a shadow.  When the mouse is clicked "inside" a window frame, the contents of the window will be captured.  If the cursor lies on the window's frame, the entire window will be captured, including its frame.

If you select a window from an application in the background or a window which is not frontmost, Screen Catcher will move that window to the front, take the snapshot, and return the window to its original location.

Screen:  This mode operates like the Mac OS' built-in ⌘-Shift-3 function key, taking a snapshot of the entire screen area.


Where the Image Goes

Once an image is captured, Screen Catcher can direct it to any one of four locations: 

To Window:  Screen Catcher will create a new window containing the image.   You can then copy or drag and drop the image to another application.  The commands in the Image menu can be used to modify the snapshot, and the Save and Save As commands in the File menu will save the contents of the window to a file.

To Clipboard:  If this item is selected, the captured image will be put directly onto the clipboard, so you can immediately paste it into the application of your choice. 

To File:  You will be prompted by a "Save As" dialog, with a selection of file format options (see "Saving Images" in the "File Menu" section of this manual).

 
























Auto File…  Screen Catcher will automatically name and save a new file with the options you select.  When you choose Auto File..., the dialog shown above prompts you for information about where to store images. 

Click the Choose… button to show Screen Catcher the folder where you'd like images to be stored.  In this folder, files will be named based on the Prefix and Suffix you specify in the corresponding boxes in the dialog.  A file format suffix will be appended if you turn on the Append type checkbox.

An example of a filename is shown in the Example box, indicating how your prefix and suffix settings will be used.  Note that Screen Catcher generates a new three-digit number for the filename each time an image is captured.  Three digits are used to ensure that the files always appear in sequential order when using "View by Name" in the Finder.

The Format menu allows you to select the file format in which captured images will be saved.  See the "File Menu" section of this manual for more details about the options for each file format that appear at the bottom of the dialog box.


Capture Options

Screen Catcher gives you a number of additional options to allow you to make adjustments to the image and to speed the capturing process.  Selecting these commands from the menu will toggle the options on an off.

Adjustable Selection:  After selecting a region, window, or screen, you can adjust and resize the region before taking the snapshot.  Adjustments can be made using either the mouse or the arrow and Tab keys on the keyboard.  The capture rectangle will remain on the screen, and the cursor will change to one of the following shapes, depending upon its location:

                 

These cursors appear when you move the cursor near the edge of the rectangle.  They allow you to grab the edges or corners of the rectangle and move them to alter the shape of the rectangle.

 

The move cursor appears when you hold down the shift key or space bar while the mouse is within the selection rectangle.  This allows you to "grab" the whole selection rectangle and move it around on the screen.

 

This cursor appears whenever the mouse is within the selection rectangle.  Clicking the mouse when the capture cursor is showing will take the picture.

 

This cursor appears whenever the mouse is outside the selection rectangle.  Clicking the mouse will abort the screen capture, erase the selection rectangle, and return you to what you were doing.

In addition to using the mouse, the arrow keys to precisely modify the selection one pixel at a time.  The selection rectangle has four square "handles" on it, one at each corner.  The "active" handle is filled with black and responds to the arrow keys.  The other "inactive" handles have white centers.  You can activate a different handle by clicking on it with the mouse or hitting the Tab key.  Pressing the Enter or Return key has the same effect as clicking inside the selection rectangle:  it takes the picture, completing the screen capturing process.

Include Cursor:  This option allows you to capture an image of the cursor along with your snapshot.  The cursor will be "stamped" onto the screen wherever it is located when you hit the hotkey.  Please note that this feature does not currently work on many newer PCI-based PowerPC Macintoshes.  We hope to correct this problem in a subsequent release.

Pop To Front:  After capturing an image, this option brings the Screen Catcher application to the front so you can perform further adjustments or save the image to a file.

Post Process…  You can automatically make changes to an image after it is captured and before it is sent to the clipboard, window, or file.  If you are concerned about file size, for instance, you will want to reduce images to a depth of 8 bits or less, and may want to convert them to grayscale or to the Web Browser palette, depending upon the intended use of the image.

To do this, choose Post Process… from the menu.  You will be presented with the dialog box shown below.

Selecting the After taking snapshot, convert to checkbox will turn on the post processing feature.   Select the type of image you want as an end result, either Indexed, 16 Bit RGB, or 24 Bit RGB.  If you choose indexed mode, you must also select a palette and bit depth for the image, and whether or not you want the image dithered when it is reduced to fewer colors.

For more details on selecting different image modes and color palettes, please see "Image Types" in the "Image Menu" section of this manual.