How to take a screenshot?

Is there any way in RiscOS to take a screenshot of your desktop? If so, how do you do it? Also how can you transfer that image to another OS? Need to know for my blog, thank you.

There’s a screenshot feature in Paint’s icon bar menu, although it’ll save to sprite format so you’ll need to convert it to another format. When I was doing screenshots for the User Guide I found it easier to use RPCEmu in Windows and take screenshots with that, as Windows Paint can save directly to PNG, but bear in mind that I was doing dozens/hundreds of screenshots so it was worth the setup time.

Start “!Paint”. Menu-click on the iconbar icon. Select “Snapshot…”, click on “Grab whole screen”, Clik on “OK”, drag the Sprite icon in a filer window or on a drive. Use “!ChangeFSI” to convert the sprite into a JPEG.

Start “!Paint”. Menu-click on the iconbar icon. Select “Snapshot…”, click on “Grab whole screen”, Clik on “OK”, drag the Sprite icon in a filer window or on a drive. Use “!ChangeFSI” to convert the sprite into a JPEG.

Thank you so much! This has helped me out so much, wish the process was easier though as it takes a while to take the screenshot, convert it and then move it to the USB drive. Wonder if in the future it can offer a PNG file or even RAW for better picture quality. Thinking out loud…Again, thank you.

You may prefer to use Snapper, which can screenshot the whole screen, a set area or a window and can save directly as a range of ‘foreign’ formats.

I believe it’s in Utilities on the Pi image, but is available to download from PlingStore too.

Wonder if in the future it can offer a PNG file or even RAW for better picture quality.

You want Snapper for this. It can save in several foreign formats, and if you do want a native sprite, it will also convert “modern” sprites into a suitable “old” format when saving.

The latter is important because the screen modes used on modern hardware can often be in a format that older versions of the OS don’t understand (with the R and B bytes swapped). If you “convert to RISC OS 3.5 format” on saving, you get a file which will load on all systems from the RiscPC onward.

People seem to have forgotten that there is an OS command ScreenSave.

This saves the current screen as a sprite in the current mode.

If you take the App spr2png in Darren Salt’s Spr2Png application and put it in your library, the following command sequence will give you the result as a png file:

screensave <Obey$Dir>.screen
spr2png <Obey$Dir>.screen <Obey$Dir>.screen/png

Call this in an ObeyFile with a hotkey of some sort, mission accomplished! Look in !Configure>Keyboard>Macro keys for some Hotkey options:

Wonder if in the future it can offer a PNG file or even RAW for better picture quality. Thinking out loud.

The sprite format is “raw”, in that it is lossless! The PNG isn’t, but is of good quality and convenient.

A few minutes of BASIC or Command programming and you could have your PNGs appended with a sequential number. I leave that to you.

OS command ScreenSave … App spr2png … put it in your library … in an ObeyFile … a hotkey of some sort …

That’s an awful lot of effort when Snapper does all of that out of the box, plus grabbing windows or arbitrary areas, optionally removing the background or including/losing the mouse pointer, converting RO5-only sprites…

Why reinvent the wheel?

The PNG isn’t

I thought that PNG was lossless?

PNG is lossless, check here or elsewhere…some people get confused with the compression level setting and they would think it affects image quality, but it’s not.

That’s an awful lot of effort when Snapper does all of that out of the box, plus grabbing windows or arbitrary areas, optionally removing the background or including/losing the mouse pointer, converting RO5-only sprites…

Why reinvent the wheel?

These are RISC OS users. Did you really have to ask? :)
It’s almost like they are practising to go and use Linux…

It’s almost like they are practising to go and use Linux…

We have to since ROOL moved from CVS to GIT.

Whilst I agree Snapper is great, it is worth reminding folks that the code for Paint to save/export JPEG/PNG has been written and works – Andy V completed it a good six months ago. This includes saving screenshots in those formats.

I’m not 100% sure what the hold-up is, but I think there’s an element of not wanting to step on any bounty toes. It may need a sanity check on the UI elements, but functionality-wise it exists.

Whilst I agree Snapper is great, it is worth reminding folks that the code for Paint to save/export JPEG/PNG has been written and works – Andy V completed it a good six months ago. This includes saving screenshots in those formats.
I’m not 100% sure what the hold-up is, but I think there’s an element of not wanting to step on any bounty toes. It may need a sanity check on the UI elements, but functionality-wise it exists.

I’ll need to give !Snapper a try, all I know is at this time !ChangeFSI did work for me(though for a first time RiscOS user it was really annoying trying to figure where it was and out how it worked…I mean that’s kind of the whole OS, but you know…) I also hope !Paint does have the option natively in the future to ease things a little bit.

PNG is lossless, check here or elsewhere

OK – but my point is that so is the sprite!

And the reason I wanted to show Braillynn the simple way to do it was to show that the OS is very capable at ground level, and producing a screenshot does not require a complicated multi-tasking application.

This, to me, is the beauty of RISC OS. A simple task like this can be done simply at a basic OS level, or with a few lines of BASIC as well.

Whether people coming from Windows™ or Linux will actually appreciate this I don’t know, but I do, and I feel Braillynn will too.

This may be superficially more complicated than using an app with a WimpSlot of 132K and occupying 777k of disc space, and which insists on appearing on any desktop screen you save, but it is much more instructive, in my opinion!

and which insists on appearing on any desktop screen you save,

I think you will find that snapper will take full screen shots without being on the iconbar. I am sure this is in the help files.

occupying 777k of disc space

Is this kind of worry really still a thing these days?

PS. 576K here.

Paint, Snapper or Commandline…
If you have the Screenshot use DPIngScan to change the size, format, cut …

The good thing about Snapper is the abiltity to have hot keys to enable a screen shot, so that menus and the pointer can be in the screen shot.

I did this for my recent release of Form Filler

https://kevsoft.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/another-form-filler-update/

OK – but my point is that so is the sprite!

The issue with sprite is I wasn’t sure if Linux could interpret the file. So that’s why I was hoping to get a PNG for better picture quality than JPEG since it will be used in my blog for my “RiscOS, First Impressions” post

And the reason I wanted to show Braillynn the simple way to do it was to show that the OS is very capable at ground level, and producing a screenshot does not require a complicated multi-tasking application.

Which is great to know, I’m not too familiar with Basic so I will need to give it a try. I don’t use RiscOS often because I have to unplug and use my ethernet cable, mouse, and keyboard from my main rig to use RiscOS on my Raspberry Pi 3b+

Whether people coming from Windows™ or Linux will actually appreciate this I don’t know, but I do, and I feel Braillynn will too.

I doubt so for your casual Windows user. For Linux users I’m sure they would. Installing programs from command line can be really handy and saves you time when setting up a new system.

OK – but my point is that so is the sprite!

True, but only one of them is understood by the rest of the world.
(hint: it isn’t the sprite)

and producing a screenshot does not require a complicated multi-tasking application.

You know, Paint itself can not only capture the entire screen, it can defer until n seconds from now (so one can open menus and such).

That said, Snapper is a lot better because once you’ve done “a screenshot”, you’ll probably be wanting to concentrate on how certain apps behave. For that, entire screenshots are wasteful. Snapper can capture arbitrary parts of the screen, the current window (with or without the window furniture), and the best bit – it can either move and hide the pointer, or paste it right into the image. This can be useful if wanting to hightlight something to click on (for example). You’ll find that since the pointer is (usually) a hardware cursor overlaid on the screen, screenshots do not normally capture the pointer.

an app with a WimpSlot of 132K and occupying 777k of disc space

I don’t think I’m alone in running some tools, a browser, a development environment, an editor, an entire DTP package, printer drivers, some other stuff… and still having about 900MiB free.
Ditto media. 8GiB, 16GiB… or larger. Huge in RISC OS terms.

my blog for my “RiscOS, First Impressions” post

The world will shortly tell you it is “RISC OS”, not “RiscOS”. ;-)

What’s the blog’s URL?

The world will shortly tell you it is “RISC OS”, not “RiscOS”. ;-) What’s the blog’s URL?

Noted, haha. The blog isn’t live yet, I’m getting my posts finished and then will put the link in the Announcement’s section. Can’t spoil the surprise before then ;)

True, but only one of them is understood by the rest of the world. (hint: it isn’t the sprite)

But you fail to acknowledge that my use of Darren Salt’s conversion app can result in the desired result of a PNG file in a few lines of Obey which others seem to believe is more easily achieved with a complex multi-tasking application!

I merely wish to highlight a “simpler”, in many ways, of achieving the same end!"

And which highlights the ability of RISC OS users to “do it for themselves!”.

A bit like “Women”!

For me, this is the essence of RISC OS!

It’s liberating!

more easily achieved

Press a hotkey, save window pops up, draggy draggy, job done.

You don’t omit the multi tasking stuff, you just defer it:

Look in !Configure>Keyboard>Macro keys for some Hotkey options:

It’s actually simpler with Snapper because you can give the image a name right there in the save box. With the obey method, taking multiple pictures means finding the file and renaming it each time.

with a complex multi-tasking application!

We’ll have to agree to disagree here. My yardstick of measuring application complexity¹ considers OvationPro/Impression, Artworks, and NetSurf to be “complex”, with Otter and the others as “insanely complex”. A screen capture utility? Useful, but not particularly complex.

A bit like “Women”!

🤦

¹ In more specific terms, it is based upon the measure of how big a book would need to be written in order to adequately describe the behaviour and operation of the software.

It’s actually simpler with Snapper because you can give the image a name right there in the save box.

Or, indeed, have Snapper just save each one direct to disc with a new, unique name.

Used in conjunction with Transient and its <Transient$TodayDir> variable, that’s quite convenient.

RISC OS: “Using lots of small applications together for a big effect”, or something.

What’s the blog’s URL?

https://librefree.me/risc-os-why-to-keep-your-eyes-on-it-going-into-2021
My website is very particular about images so I had to get this one from the internet as it would not accept my converted sprites to JPEG. I may give !Snapper a try for when I do an in-depth review of !ChatCube, and see if it will take those images or not. If not, then I may need to set up the RISC OS emulator on my PC.