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Capturing Image Snapshots

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Tim Heuer's post on SnagIt and PNGOut got me thinking about my own convoluted snapshot process (and also got me investigating PNGOut). Currently, if I want a high quality screen capture I do the following:

  • PrtScr or Alt-PrtScr depending on whether I want the full screen or the current window
  • Start Paint.NET
  • File -> New (Paint.Net automatically sets the new image size to clipboard image size)
  • Ctrl-V (paste to Paint.NET)
  • Ctrl-R (re-size if required - to 600px width typically)
  • Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C (copy image to clipboard)
  • Start PowerPoint
  • Ctrl-V (paste to PowerPoint)
  • Picture Tools -> Format -> Change Picture Style to desired effect (eg dropshadow)
  • Right-click image and "Save as Picture"
  • Start Live Writer
  • Ctrl-L (Insert Picture)
  • Image Properties -> Advanced -> Image Size = Original
  • Image Properties -> Image -> Borders = None
  • Tadah!

And now I feel I should add an additional step to "compress with PNGOut" as the image in the last post was 30% smaller after I ran it through PNGOut (ie about 81kb reduction).

That's a pretty convoluted process (though it looks worse when you write it down - it only takes a few seconds to do but it involves a lot of steps). I know there are tools out there that would make this easier but I have a in-built reluctance to install any more "stuff" on my machine and I can guarantee it wont be on machine x or y when I need it and I'll have to fall back to my old process anyway.

I keep thinking I should do something to optimise my process and, TBH, one of the most annoying parts is Live Writer which shrinks and adds a border to my image when I don't want it to - at least all the other steps add some value (in my mind at least).

So two obvious things to do would be to create something that can re-size the clipboard image on the fly or paste an image into Live Writer at its original size and with no borders. Unless of course there's a setting in Live Writer that allows me to control this behaviour...

Technorati Tags: Live Writer,Paint.NET,PNGOut