How do I capture an image of a GUI

I have noticed that many of the members include an image of an application's GUI to show what is being displayed on their screen. I do not know how to do this and would appreciate it if a member could tell me how it is done.

I am having problems with a security application and it is hard to describe just what I need to relay. An image would do the trick.

 

see
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=850865&postcount=4

 

Search for "screen capture" apps. In Windows 7, you can use the included Snipping Tool. You can capture a fixed image (PNG, JPG). It is also possible to capture a video. For video capture, try BB FlashBack Express edition (free).

 

The snipping tool is also included in Vista (except Home Basic).There are a few more suggestions here:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-screen-capture-utility.htm

 

Can't you Alt + PrintScreen and paste into Paint?

 

I am that lazy, that I want to avoid the Paint step.... LOL


@emmjay If you dont have Win7/Vista you could try Hoversnap which is free.
http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

 

Hi there, as mentioned in a earlier post, using Print Screen (usually shown as Prt Scr on your keyboard) will take a screen shot of what you currently see. Alt+Print Screen will take a screen shot ONLY of the active window. Which is perfect for GUI's and such. Afterwords you MUST "paste" it into an image editing program and save it.

Cheers!

 

A freebie from the makers of Snagit called "Jing" - http://www.jingproject.com/

 

Thank you to everybody who responded. I will check out all the suggestions.

I do have one more question if that is OK...

When I send the image to the specific forum here, should I compress it as I am not sure if the PNG/GIF of the GUI will be large. Is there is a MB limit per image that I should be aware of?

 

Emmjay, that's covered here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=63957

 

Tnx Crofttk. I did look at this but did not realize that it was stating the limit(s) for this site. OK I can see it is 300K max with GIF or PNG (and I should not use BMP, got it). I use GIF mostly so I will check what the size is before I send and if it is greater than 300K I will compress it. I'll check out the snipping tools too as I think this will help me also. Tnx again to everyone.

 

I used PrintScreen for a long time before discovering there were capture apps out there. Come to find out I already had capture capability with an app I already had, Irfanview. PrintScreen works but a simple capture is a 1000 times easier.

 

Download the last free version of faststone capture:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=775

Save images of menus as PNG format, or photos as jpeg. Faststone can resize, crop, etc etc.

Once you have a file saved to your desktop, click on 'manage attachments' when creating a post. "Choose file" and then "upload".

To insert the images in the text on this forum, or in between paragraphs (instead of at the end of the post) copy and paste the relevant ATTACH tags which will have [square brackets] around them and a number in between.