Introduction

Capture Window is used to capture all or part of the display screen as an image. The captured image may be saved to the clipboard and/or a file, and it may be previewed and edited before it's saved.

There are three windows that the user may see. The main window is used to set options and initiate a capture. Hotkeys may also be used to initiate a capture. The preview window is used to edit the captured image before it’s saved to the clipboard or a file. The Jpeg Compession window is used to test compression settings.

Main Window

Upon starting Capture Window, the main application window appears. As can be seen, there are three types of window capture available from the main window.

• “Window” is used to capture a window or a window within a window. To perform this type of capture, click on that text area, keep the mouse button down, and start dragging. You will see visual feedback, i.e., a thick red rectangle around the area that will be captured when you release the mouse. When you are ready to capture the area you want, release the mouse button.
• “Desktop WorkArea” is used to capture the entire display without the Windows Taskbar (usually at the bottom of the screen). This can also be used to capture a maximized window.
• “Entire Desktop” is used to capture the entire display area.

Hotkeys

There are also two ways of capture which use a “hotkey”, that being the PrintScreen key (also called ‘PrtSc’ on many keyboards).

• Pressing PrtSc will immediately capture the top-level window that is at the current position of the mouse.
• Pressing Ctrl-PrtSc will immediately capture the sub window that is at the current position of the mouse.

If another application is already using either hotkey, you will be informed when starting up Capture Window and the hotkey will not work for Capture Window. Exiting Capture Window releases the hotkeys to their default Windows function.

Hotkeys are available no matter what application is currently being used. For example, you can have Capture Window running but minimized. Pressing Ctrl-PrtSc will capture the sub window where the mouse cursor is currently located. It's an easy way to use Capture Window.

In all cases, what happens after a window is captured depends on what options are in effect.

Main Window Options

Clicking on the main window’s “Options” menu or right-clicking anywhere inside the main window brings up the following menu:

The first three options can be toggled on and off, i.e., enabled (checked) or disabled (unchecked). As shown here, they are all enabled (by default).

• “Save to Clipboard” when enabled will save the captured image (after preview, if applicable) to the Windows Clipboard.
• “Save to File” when enabled will prompt (after preview, if applicable) to save the captured image to a file. You have the choice to save it in a number of formats, i.e., jpg, png, gif, bmp, or tif.
• “Preview image” when enabled will open the Preview window, where the captured image can be viewed and enhanced, before it’s saved (if applicable).
• “Jpeg Compression Quality…” prompts for a number (0 to 100) to set the image’s compression quality level when the image is saved as a jpeg (jpg) file.

Preview Window

The preview window (shown here with a window captured) allows for simple editing and adornment of the captured image. Commands in the main menu (also available by right-clicking) allow you to crop the captured image, add padding around it, add a border around it, add a title above it and a caption below it, resize it proportionally (smaller or larger), and save it to the clipboard or a file at any stage along the way. Unlimited undo is available (though no redo). Two buttons, “Proceed” and “Cancel” are available to make it easy to quickly proceed or cancel the capture. The status bar shows the width and height of the image as well as file sizes if the image were to be saved under various file types (‘comp’ is the jpeg compression).

For simple previewing, just click on “Proceed” or “Cancel”. “Proceed” closes the Preview Window and then saves it according to the options set in the main window. “Cancel” also closes the Preview Window and stops any saves from occurring.

Preview Window Commands

• “Open…” prompts for a file name and replaces the captured image with the image from file.
• “Save…” prompts for a file name and lets you save the captured image to a file (regardless of the main window options).
• “Proceed with capture” is the same as the “Proceed” button.
• “Exit – no capture” is the same as the “Cancel” button.

• “Undo” is enabled if the image has been edited or resized. Any number of operations can be undone.
• “Copy” saves the image to the clipboard (regardless of the main window options).
• “Crop” is enabled if the user has specified a cropping area. To specify a cropping area, click on the image and drag the mouse. A rectangle shows the area that will be cropped, i.e., the cropped image will contain only what’s within the rectangle. While dragging the mouse, the status bar (at the bottom) shows the corner points of the cropping rectangle. When done dragging the mouse, release it and choose “Crop” from the main or context menus or by double-clicking on the image.
• “Border” adds a thin black border around the image.
• “Padding” adds a small amount of white space around the entire image.
• “Title…” prompts for text and adds it centered above the image.
• “Caption…” prompts for text and adds it centered below the image.

• “Compression Quality…” prompts for a number (0 to 100) to set the image’s compression quality level. This is only used when the image is saved as a jpeg (jpg) file. It does not change the quality of the image as displayed in the preview window. For a given image, a low compression number results in a small file size, at the expense of image quality due to high compression. A high compression number retains high quality, at the expense of file size due to low compression. The default compression number is 80. The status bar shows the size of a jpeg file using the current compression.
• “Compression Viewer” offers more insight into setting the compression quality. Choosing this menu item will open another window where the current image is shown and the compression number can be easily changed and its effect on the image seen.

Items in the “Resize” menu are used to proportionally resize the image. You can use the presets or specify an exact percentage using “Custom…” In all cases, the new image size will appear in the window’s status bar.

JPEG Compression Viewer

Menu commands are available so that the current image can be saved to file or the clipboard. Images can also be pasted from the clipboard or loaded from a disk file.

Example Usage

The goal of this example is to capture a portion of the lower text area and then do some editing. Use the default options – preview, save to clipboard, and save to file. To capture the lower window, click on Capture Window and drag the mouse till the lower area’s border is highlighted, as shown below.

Release the mouse button and the Preview Window appears, showing the captured area. The status bar shows the image size (width and height) and file sizes.

To crop some of this image, click and drag the mouse. A highlighted rectangle shows the cropping area. The status bar shows the corners of the cropping rectangle.

Double-click the image to actually perform the cropping.

Add a little padding around the image, add a border, and add a caption.

Click “Proceed”. The image is copied to the clipboard and saved to file (not shown). Here’s the final image:

Have fun! If you have questions, comments, suggestions, corrections, etc., please let me know.

Louis Sumberg.