Options window
The options window looks like this (it may vary depending on
the version, but the functionality should be the same):
Save Image As
This area lets you choose which image format to use. A quick rundown of these
3 formats:
- BMP: uncompressed bitmap. Higher filesize. This format is lossless since it's practically a raw image.
- PNG: compressed image. This type of compression does not affect the image's quality. Good size vs quality ratio.
- JPG: compressed image. This type of compression can affect the image's quality. This is the default setting since
it's a format most people are familiar with. The quality can be adjusted on a scale from 1 to 100, where 1 is poor
quality and 100 is best quality. The default is 100.
Generate filenames automatically
This option tells the program to automatically generate a filename for the screenshot. The current format for the filename is
img_YYYYMMDD-HHmmSSmss.jpg (although this might change in future versions).
The capital letters have a special meaning, YYYY means full year, MM the month, DD the day, and so on. So for example let's say
today is Tuesday, September 11, 2008 and its 11:27pm (with 12 seconds and 230 milliseconds) then the filename will be:
img_20080911-232712230.jpg. This might seem like a bit of overkill, but when you have 3 years worth of
screenshots in one folder, believe me it pays off. It also makes it easier to take succesive screenshots. For example if I manage
to press the print screen key 10 times in a second, I'll get 10 different screenshots which I can then view in perfect chronological
order. I'm considering adding the option to make your own name patterns sometime in the near future.
Of course, if you don't want it to generate the names automatically, you can disable this option. This brings up the familiar
"Save As..." window and then you can choose whichever name and folder you want to save the image to.
Enable taking screenshots of video/movie windows
The way video playback works in MS Windows makes it impossible to catch a screenshot
of a video/movie with standard methods. This option enables a workaround that lets the program
capture any and all video playback without issue. There are slight limitations when using
multiple monitors for display, and those are discussed in the known issues section.
Note: this option required a program restart in version 2.1 and older. After version 2.2 a restart is no longer necessary.
Use Clipboard
Select if you wish to save the image data to the clipboard as well as the regular file. This allows you to paste the image
data into other programs if you also wish to do that. This option was disabled before version 2.2 and there was no way to
enable it.
Place screenshots in
This is the place where you specify where you want the program to store the automatically generated screenshots.
Clicking on the "..." button brings up a window that lets you choose the folder.
Validation
You may notice that the window has an odd gap between the last item and the Ok/Cancel buttons. This area is reserved space
for the validation messages. This was added in version 2.2 to give richer feedback to the user as to why the OK button is
disabled.