doc/ksnapshot/index.docbook

   1 <?xml version="1.0" ?>
   2 <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
   3   <!ENTITY kappname "&ksnapshot;">
   4   <!ENTITY package "kdegraphics">
   5   <!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
   6   <!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE" > <!-- change language only here -->
   7 ]>
   8
   9 <book lang="&language;">
  10
  11 <bookinfo>
  12 <title>The &ksnapshot; Handbook</title>
  13
  14 <authorgroup>
  15 <author>
  16 <firstname>Richard</firstname>
  17 <othername>J.</othername>
  18 <surname>Moore</surname>
  19 <affiliation>
  20 <address>&Richard.J.Moore.mail;</address>
  21 </affiliation>
  22 </author>
  23
  24 <author>
  25 <firstname>Robert</firstname>
  26 <othername>L.</othername>
  27 <surname>McCormick</surname>
  28 <affiliation>
  29 <address>&Robert.L.McCormick.mail;</address>
  30 </affiliation>
  31 </author>
  32
  33 <author>
  34 <firstname>Brad</firstname>
  35 <surname>Hards</surname>
  36 <affiliation>
  37 <address>&Brad.Hards.mail;</address>
  38 </affiliation>
  39 </author>
  40
  41 <othercredit role="reviewer">
  42 <firstname>Lauri</firstname>
  43 <surname>Watts</surname>
  44 <affiliation>
  45 <address>&Lauri.Watts.mail;</address>
  46 </affiliation>
  47 <contrib>Reviewer</contrib>
  48 </othercredit>
  49
  50 <othercredit role="developer">
  51 <firstname>Richard</firstname>
  52 <othername>J</othername>
  53 <surname>Moore</surname>
  54 <affiliation>
  55 <address>&Richard.J.Moore.mail;</address>
  56 </affiliation>
  57 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
  58 </othercredit>
  59
  60 <othercredit role="developer">
  61 <firstname>Matthias</firstname>
  62 <surname>Ettrich</surname>
  63 <affiliation>
  64 <address>&Matthias.Ettrich.mail;</address>
  65 </affiliation>
  66 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
  67 </othercredit>
  68
  69 <!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
  70 </authorgroup>
  71
  72 <copyright>
  73 <year>1997-2000</year>
  74 <holder>&Richard.J.Moore;</holder>
  75 </copyright>
  76
  77 <copyright>
  78 <year>2000</year>
  79 <holder>&Matthias.Ettrich;</holder>
  80 </copyright>
  81
  82 <legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>
  83
  84 <date>2006-07-05</date>
  85 <releaseinfo>0.7</releaseinfo>
  86
  87 <abstract>
  88 <para>&ksnapshot; is a simple applet for taking screenshots. It is capable
  89 of capturing images of the whole desktop, a single window, a section of a window or a selected
  90 region.  The images can then be saved in a variety of formats.</para>
  91 </abstract>
  92
  93 <keywordset>
  94 <keyword>KDE</keyword>
  95 <keyword>KSnapshot</keyword>
  96 <keyword>kdegraphics</keyword>
  97 <keyword>screen capture</keyword>
  98 <keyword>screen grab</keyword>
  99 </keywordset>
 100
 101 </bookinfo>
 102
 103 <chapter id="introduction">
 104 <title>Introduction</title>
 105
 106 <para>&ksnapshot; is a simple applet for taking screenshots. It is capable
 107 of capturing images of the whole desktop, a single window, a section of a window or a selected
 108 region.  The images can then be saved in a variety of formats.</para>
 109
 110 <para>Please report any problems or feature requests to the <ulink
 111 url="http://bugs.kde.org/wizard.cgi">&kde; Bug Tracking System</ulink></para>
 112
 113 </chapter>
 114
 115 <chapter id="using-ksapshot">
 116 <title>Using &ksnapshot;</title>
 117
 118 <para>This chapter describes the use of &ksnapshot; for capturing screen
 119 images.</para>
 120
 121 <sect1 id="starting">
 122 <title>Starting &ksnapshot;</title>
 123
 124 <para>&ksnapshot; may be started by one of several ways as described
 125 below.</para>
 126
 127 <itemizedlist>
 128 <listitem>
 129 <para>You may start &ksnapshot; by selecting it from the <menuchoice>
 130 <guimenu>K-Menu</guimenu><guisubmenu>Graphics</guisubmenu>
 131 <guimenuitem>&ksnapshot; (Screen Capture Program)</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.
 132 </para></listitem>
 133 <listitem>
 134 <para>You may start &ksnapshot; by entering the following at the command
 135 prompt:</para>
 136 <screen width="40">
 137 <prompt>%</prompt> <command>ksnapshot &amp;</command>
 138 </screen>
 139 </listitem>
 140 <listitem><para>The mini command line (invoked with
 141 <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo>) may
 142 also be used to start &ksnapshot;</para></listitem>
 143 </itemizedlist>
 144
 145 <para>Once &ksnapshot; starts, you will see a window like the following:
 146 <mediaobject>
 147 <imageobject>
 148 <imagedata fileref="window.png" format="PNG"/>
 149 </imageobject>
 150 <textobject><phrase>&ksnapshot; Preview Window</phrase>
 151 </textobject>
 152 </mediaobject>
 153 </para>
 154
 155 </sect1>
 156
 157 <sect1 id="taking-snapshot">
 158 <title>Taking A Snapshot</title>
 159
 160 <para> &ksnapshot; grabs an image of your entire desktop immediately after it is
 161 started, but before it displays itself on screen. This allows you to quickly
 162 create full-desktop screenshot images.</para>
 163
 164 <para>The snapshot taken by &ksnapshot; is displayed in the preview window,
 165 which is located in the upper left of the &ksnapshot; application window.
 166 Below is an example of the preview window from &ksnapshot;. Your preview
 167 will differ depending on what you have displayed on the desktop.</para>
 168
 169 <mediaobject>
 170 <imageobject>
 171 <imagedata fileref="preview.png" format="PNG"/>
 172 </imageobject>
 173 <textobject><phrase>&ksnapshot; Preview Window</phrase>
 174 </textobject>
 175 </mediaobject>
 176
 177 <para>The snapshot can be saved by clicking on
 178 the <guibutton>Save As...</guibutton> button. This opens the standard &kde; save dialog,
 179 where you can choose the filename, the folder location, and the format that your snapshot
 180 will be saved in. If multiple snapshots are taken, the
 181 filename is automatically incremented to prevent you from overwriting previous
 182 snapshots. You may however edit the filename to anything you wish, including the name
 183 of a previously saved snapshot. </para>
 184
 185 <para>To take a snapshot of a single window, select the <guilabel>Window
 186 Under Cursor</guilabel> combo box entry (next to the <guilabel>Capture mode:</guilabel>
 187 label), and then click on the <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton> button.</para>
 188
 189 <para>Depending on your <guilabel>Snapshot delay:</guilabel> settings you
 190 get either a cross as the mouse pointer (for <guilabel>No delay</guilabel>),
 191 or a standard mouse cursor which you can use to work with a program until
 192 the delay is over and a snapshot is taken.</para>
 193
 194 <para>With <guilabel>No delay</guilabel>, the snapshot is taken immediately when you
 195 click into a window.</para>
 196
 197 <para>&ksnapshot; will display the new snapshot in the preview
 198 area, at which time you can choose to save the new image (by pressing
 199 <guibutton>Save As...</guibutton>)
 200 or to grab a new one, by pressing the
 201 <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton> button.</para>
 202
 203 <para>To take a new snapshot of the entire desktop, select the
 204 <guilabel>Full Screen</guilabel> combo box entry and then click on the
 205 <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton> button.
 206 &ksnapshot; will now capture the entire desktop if you press
 207 <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton>.</para>
 208
 209 <para>Similarly, to take a snapshot of a region, select the
 210 <guilabel>Region</guilabel> combo box entry and set the
 211 <guilabel>Snapshot delay</guilabel> to <guilabel>No delay</guilabel>,
 212 and then click on the <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton> button. The
 213 mouse cursor will then change into a cross, and you can then use the
 214 mouse to select the region you want to capture. </para>
 215
 216 <para>To take a new snapshot of a section of a window, select the
 217 <guilabel>Section of Window</guilabel> combo box entry and then click on the
 218 <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton> button. With <guilabel>No delay</guilabel>
 219 you get a cross as the mouse pointer and you have to click once with the &LMB; into
 220 the window. The section of the window under the mouse cursor is now highlighted
 221 with a red border. Move the mouse to the wanted section and click the &LMB;
 222 to capture the screenshot.
 223 </para>
 224
 225 </sect1>
 226
 227 <sect1 id="additional-features">
 228 <title>Additional Features</title>
 229
 230 <sect2 id="delay">
 231 <title>Snapshot Delay</title>
 232
 233 <para>The <guilabel>Snapshot Delay:</guilabel> box allows you to enter an
 234 arbitrary time delay, in seconds, between the time that you press the
 235 <guibutton>New Snapshot</guibutton> button and the time that the snapshot is
 236 taken.</para>
 237
 238 <para>When a delay time has been set, you do not have to click the mouse
 239 button to capture a screenshot.  This enables you to open a drop down menu,
 240 and take a picture of it.</para>
 241
 242 </sect2>
 243
 244 <sect2 id="window-decoration">
 245 <title>Exclude Window decorations</title>
 246
 247 <para><guilabel>Include window decorations</guilabel> is enabled by default.</para>
 248
 249 <para>When you only want to capture the application itself without the surrounding
 250 window decoration, disable this option and take a new snapshot.</para>
 251
 252 </sect2>
 253
 254 <sect2 id="print-snapshot">
 255 <title>Print</title>
 256
 257 <para>When you want to print your snapshot from the preview, just click
 258 <guibutton>Print...</guibutton> and you get the standard &kde; Print dialog, from
 259 where you can directly print your snapshot.</para>
 260 </sect2>
 261
 262 <sect2 id="copy-snapshot">
 263 <title>Copy to Clipboard</title>
 264
 265 <para>When you want to edit your snapshot in a graphics application without saving
 266 the snapshot, just click <guibutton>Copy to Clipboard</guibutton> and insert the image
 267 into a viewer or graphics application.</para>
 268 </sect2>
 269
 270
 271 <sect2 id="bottom-buttons">
 272 <title>Buttons</title>
 273
 274 <para>There are two further buttons located at the bottom of the
 275 &ksnapshot; window. Their function is described below.</para>
 276
 277 <variablelist>
 278 <varlistentry>
 279 <term><guibutton>Help</guibutton></term>
 280 <listitem><para>Gives you a menu where you can open the
 281 <guimenuitem>&ksnapshot; Handbook</guimenuitem>, report a bug or
 282 get some more information <guimenuitem>About &ksnapshot;</guimenuitem>
 283 and <guimenuitem>About &kde;</guimenuitem>.
 284 </para></listitem>
 285 </varlistentry>
 286
 287 <varlistentry>
 288 <term><guibutton>Quit</guibutton></term>
 289 <listitem><para>Quits the &ksnapshot; application.</para></listitem>
 290 </varlistentry>
 291 </variablelist>
 292
 293 </sect2>
 294 </sect1>
 295 </chapter>
 296
 297 <chapter id="dcop">
 298
 299 <title>&DCOP; Interface</title>
 300
 301 <para>&ksnapshot; can be scripted using its &DCOP; interface. This
 302 chapter explains the various &DCOP; calls that you can use, and
 303 provides some examples of how you can use them.</para>
 304
 305 <para>As with all &DCOP; calls, you need to specify the application
 306 you want to interface with, and the particular interface. With &ksnapshot;
 307 you need to identify which particular application, which is
 308 <literal>ksnapshot-</literal> followed by the process number.</para>
 309
 310 <para>To start &ksnapshot; and obtain the right argument, use
 311 <command>dcopstart ksnapshot</command>, which returns the
 312 argument (such as <computeroutput>ksnapshot-20594</computeroutput>) on
 313 standard output.</para>
 314
 315 <para>You can get a list of the available &DCOP; interfaces, use
 316 the right arguments, as shown in this example:
 317 <screen width="60">
 318 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop `dcopstart ksnapshot` interface</command><computeroutput>
 319 QCStringList interfaces()
 320 QCStringList functions()
 321 QString url()
 322 void slotGrab()
 323 void slotPrint()
 324 void slotSave()
 325 bool save(QString filename)
 326 void slotSaveAs()
 327 void slotCopy()
 328 void setTime(int newTime)
 329 int timeout()
 330 void setURL(QString newURL)
 331 void setGrabMode(int grab)
 332 int grabMode()
 333 void slotMovePointer(int x,int y)
 334 void exit()
 335 </computeroutput>
 336 </screen>
 337 </para>
 338
 339 <para>
 340 In the examples following, the process is always
 341 <computeroutput>ksnapshot-23151</computeroutput>.
 342 </para>
 343
 344 <sect1 id="dcop-settings">
 345
 346 <title>&DCOP; Access to Settings</title>
 347
 348 <para>For each of the settings that you can control with the
 349 &GUI;, you can both obtain the current status of that setting,
 350 and modify the setting, using &DCOP;.
 351 </para>
 352
 353 <para>You can obtain the current capture mode using
 354 <literal>grabMode</literal>, as shown below:
 355 <screen width="60">
 356 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface grabMode</command>
 357 </screen>
 358 This will return <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> for full-screen capture,
 359 <computeroutput>1</computeroutput> for window capture, and <computeroutput>2</computeroutput>
 360 for region capture.
 361 </para>
 362
 363 <para>You can set the capture mode using <literal>setGrabMode</literal>,
 364 which requires an argument to identify the mode required (as for <literal>grabMode</literal>).
 365 So you can set window capture mode (<command>1</command>), using:
 366 <screen width="60">
 367 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface setGrabMode 1</command>
 368 </screen>
 369 </para>
 370
 371 <para>You can obtain the current timeout setting (the <guilabel>Snapshot delay:</guilabel>
 372 &GUI; item) using <literal>timeout</literal>, as shown below:
 373 <screen width="60">
 374 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface timeout</command>
 375 </screen>
 376 This will return the timeout setting in seconds, or zero if there is no delay
 377 (capture on click).
 378 </para>
 379
 380 <para>You can set the timeout using <literal>setTime</literal>,
 381 which requires an argument to identify the timeout duration. So you can
 382 set a delay of 4 seconds using:
 383 <screen width="60">
 384 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface setTime 4</command>
 385 </screen>
 386 </para>
 387
 388 <para>You can obtain the path that the snapshot will be saved to using
 389 <literal>url</literal>, as shown below:
 390 <screen width="60">
 391 <prompt>$</prompt><command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface url</command>
 392 </screen>
 393 This will return the filename, as a &URL; (eg as
 394 <computeroutput>file:///home/bradh/test2.png</computeroutput>).
 395 </para>
 396
 397 <para>You can set the path using <literal>setURL</literal>,
 398 which requires a string argument to identify the new path. So you can
 399 set the path to <literal>file:///home/bradh/snapshot.jpg</literal>
 400 using:
 401 <screen width="60">
 402 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface setURL file:///home/bradh/snapshot.jpg</command>
 403 </screen>
 404 </para>
 405
 406 </sect1>
 407
 408 <sect1 id="dcop-snapshot">
 409 <title>Taking Screenshots with &DCOP;</title>
 410
 411 <para>
 412 The key to taking screenshots with &DCOP; is use of <literal>slotGrab</literal>,
 413 as shown below:
 414 <screen width="60">
 415 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface slotGrab</command>
 416 </screen>
 417 </para>
 418
 419 <para>
 420 This will take a snapshot using the current snapshot mode and timeout settings
 421 (as described above). If you want to save the snapshot image, there are a
 422 number of calls you can use. If you just want to save the image to the current
 423 path (as returned by <literal>url</literal> or changed by
 424 <literal>setURL</literal>), you can use <literal>slotSave</literal>, as shown
 425 below:
 426 <screen width="60">
 427 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface slotSave</command>
 428 </screen>
 429 </para>
 430
 431 <para>
 432 If you want the user to be able to specify a filename (and path), you can use
 433 <literal>slotSaveAs</literal>, which will bring up a standard &kde; file
 434 save dialog.</para>
 435
 436 <para>
 437 If you want to save the image to a different name (or path) without
 438 changing the path with <literal>setURL</literal>, you can use
 439 <literal>save</literal>, providing the &URL; to save to as an argument. So if you
 440 want to save the snapshot to <filename>file:///tmp/tempshot.png</filename>, you
 441 can do the following:
 442 <screen width="60">
 443 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface save file:///tmp/tempshot.png</command>
 444 </screen>
 445 Note that this will return true if the snapshot was successfully saved, and false
 446 otherwise. Also, you should be aware that if the file already exists, the user
 447 will get a standard &kde; dialog that requires the user to decide whether to overwrite
 448 or not.
 449 </para>
 450
 451 <para>
 452 In addition to saving the snapshot, you can also copy it to the clipboard, using
 453 <literal>slotCopy</literal>, as shown below:
 454 <screen width="60">
 455 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface slotCopy</command>
 456 </screen>
 457 </para>
 458
 459 <para>
 460 If you need to select a window that may not be under the mouse cursor, you
 461 can use <literal>slotMovePointer</literal>, passing the x position
 462 (in screen pixels) and the y position (also in screen pixels) as arguments.
 463 So to move the mouse to the top left hand corner of the screen (0,0), you
 464 can do the following:
 465 <screen width="60">
 466 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface slotMoveMouse 0 0</command>
 467 </screen>
 468 </para>
 469 </sect1>
 470
 471 <sect1 id="dcop-print">
 472 <title>Printing Screenshots with &DCOP;</title>
 473
 474 <para>
 475 You can print the current screenshot (which may or may not have been saved)
 476 using <literal>printSlot</literal>, as shown below:
 477 <screen width="60">
 478 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface slotPrint</command>
 479 </screen>
 480 </para>
 481
 482 <para>
 483 Note that this will bring up the normal &kde; print dialog, which may require
 484 user interaction.
 485 </para>
 486
 487 </sect1>
 488
 489 <sect1 id="dcop-exit">
 490 <title>&DCOP; Application control</title>
 491
 492 <para>
 493 You can cause &ksnapshot; to exit by using <literal>exit</literal>,
 494 as shown below.
 495 <screen width="60">
 496 <prompt>$</prompt> <command>dcop ksnapshot-23151 interface exit</command>
 497 </screen>
 498 </para>
 499
 500 </sect1>
 501
 502 </chapter>
 503
 504 <chapter id="credits">
 505
 506 <title>Credits and License</title>
 507
 508 <para>Program copyright</para>
 509 <itemizedlist>
 510 <listitem><para>1997-2000 &Richard.J.Moore; &Richard.J.Moore.mail;</para></listitem>
 511 <listitem><para>2000 &Matthias.Ettrich; &Matthias.Ettrich.mail;</para></listitem>
 512 </itemizedlist>
 513
 514 <para>Documentation based on the original, copyright 1997-2000 &Richard.J.Moore;
 515 &Richard.J.Moore.mail;</para>
 516 <!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->
 517
 518 &underFDL;
 519 &underGPL;
 520
 521 </chapter>
 522
 523 &documentation.index;
 524 </book>
 525
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