Getting Quality Screen Grabs

[Mike Seddon]

Hi,

Not sure if this is precisely the right forum to post this in but here goes.

I produce various books (both as pdf ebooks and also "real" printed books).

A lot of my material features screen shots from my browser.

I find that these screen shots rarely print well.

I recall from previous advice here a long time ago that it's all about the resolution that I use to grab images.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to improve quality? Maybe you know of a tool that does this wonderfully!

Thanks

Mike

[Indizine]

I ust use Firefox's screengrab which suits my needs when I am using page examples in my powerpoints and handouts for courses I run and they certainly have enough clarity. It's just like a photocopy of the page really.

[custardfish]

Your right - they dont print well at a large size due to the fixed (image) resolution of web sites.

ie a 960px wide web design printed at the standard 300dpi (pixels per inch) will start to look poor over 3 inches wide.

You can't really do anything about it, you can re-size and play around in PhotoShop etc but if you start with 960px wide image you can't magically make extra detail appear from nowhere.

btw. We use WebShot to grab images which is nice.

[KevPartner]

Hi Mike,
I use SnagIt by Techsmith which is excellent and includes a nice editor so you can manipulate the image and add captions etc. I write for PCPro magazine so my screenshots are printed (albeit at a fairly small size). If you're looking to print them in a large size you might want to try converting them to greyscale as this tends to smooth out the image. It's worth a try!

[Mike Seddon]

Thanks all for the answers.

Kev. I use SnagIt as well (although version 7).

I want screen grabs for around an a5 size book so they will be smaller than captured. I'll try your grayscale approach. Thanks

Mike