History for How to take a screen shot

changed:
-
There are times when we may find it useful to take a picture of what is on the screen.  Sometimes, it is to capture an error message which has been displayed.  Or, you may want to show off something you have done, such as a major feat in a game, or capturing some graphic from an application for including in some other document.  Or perhaps, you are writing a set of instructions to show someone how to create an account and login to a special server/service.  The process for doing this will depend on your operating system and desktop environment, but this How-To will at least get you started.<P>

<H2>Windows</H2> Since most folks are probably using some form of
Windows for playing UT2004, I will start there.  As normally
installed, all the bits and pieces needed to save a snapshot of your
screen into a file are all there.  All you need to do is the
following:

<OL>

<LI>Take the snapshot.  This is done by pressing the button labeled
``Print Screen'' (or ``PrtScrn'' or some variant thereof).  This puts
a copy of the screen into the buffer used by cut/paste.

<LI> Startup a program which can receive a graphical paste.  My
favorite is Paint.  To start it on XP, you will need to go
``Start->All Programs->Accessories'' and find/select it under there.

<LI>Once Paint has started, paste the snapshot into the drawing area.
You can do this either by going to the ``Edit'' menu and selecting
paste there, or by pressing ``CTRL-v'' (the control key and while
holding it, the ``v'' key).  You will see the paint canvas filled with
the contents of your screen, and it will automatically be sized to
hold the image.  If you have extended your Windows desktop over onto a
second display, then your image will have the contents of both
displays side-by-side, just as you see them.

<LI>Save your image.  You will likely want to go to the ``File'' menu,
and select ``Save As...''.  You will then be presented with a pop-up
dialog box, where you will enter your filename, pick the directory in
which to save the image, and select the format in which to save the
image.  I would recommend against using BMP format, as it is an
uncompressed format which is very wasteful of disk space.  Instead, I
would recommend using either JPEG format or GIF format, as they are
the most portable formats.  Of the two, I would suggest JPEG, as it
has the better compression algorithm.

</OL>

<H2>UN*X/X11</H2>

If you are using the X Window System on some form of UN*X (Linux,
NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.), then there are a number of tools
available to you for capturing a screenshot.  I will have to assume
that you at least know how to obtain software programs, and compile
them if necessary.  To that end, I will list a few programs here, and
suggest that you take a look at either the graphics or x11 section of
<A
HREF="ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc/README.html">The
NetBSD Packages Collection</A>, where you can often find pointers to
the home pages for the various packages.  There is also support for
operating systems other than NetBSD, and you less inclined to build
your own may also be able to find pre-compiled binaries there for your
use.<P>

Packages which can be used to capture screenshots of your display include:

<UL>

<LI><B>xv</B> - An oldie but a goodie.  When you run xv and display
the menu window, you will see a button labeled ``Grab''.  Press this
button, and you will have a dialog box where you will be able to enter
a delay, select whether or not to hide the xv windows, and how you
want to perform the grab (e.g. grab a window or a rectangular area).
This dialog box is pretty much self-explanatory, and when the image is
captured, it will be displayed as xv displays all other images.  From
there, you will be able to manipulate and save the image.

<LI><B>xvidcap</B> - Another nice program.  Not only does it allow you
to capture the entire screen (or a portion of it) through a GUI
interface, but it also allows you to do so from the command line.
What is more, you can capture a group of snapshots, and even have them
encoded into a MPEG video.  However, the frame rate you will be able
to achieve will depend greatly upon the power of your hardware.

</UL>

In addition to these stand-alone programs, it is quite possible that
your desktop environment has added the means to perform the screen
captures, perhaps by using one of the programs above, or using its own
built-in functionality.  Browse through your desktop menus and
documentation for more information.

<H2>UT2004</H2>
If like me, you play UT2004, you should know by now that UT2004 binds the 
F9 key to take a screen shot which is saved in the <B>UT2004/ScreenShots</B> directory,