SCREEN CAPTURE IN PSP7

Created January 6, 2003 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
This is my creation, any similarity to other tutorials on the Internet is unintentional.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you.

Recently I have had several people ask me how to do a screen capture, or screenshots, in PSP7. Many people think that doing a screen capture is only beneficial for those who write tutorials, this is not the case. Screenshots are helpful to the majority of us, whether you need a shot of a website that you have created and want to add to your portfolio, if you are having a technical problem and need to send a screenshot to the tech person so he can see what the problem might be, and of course for those of us who do write tutorials.

There are several ways that you can do a screenshot, everyone has their own way of doing it and it also depends on the resources on your computer. I will be showing you two ways to do this, my preferred way of doing screenshots does consume a lot of memory on your computer as you need to have two sessions of PSP open. I originally learned this technique from a very gifted tutorial writer, Mahogany, who unfortunately has shut down her site due to theft. Mah, please come back as you are sorely missed!

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at a beginners level. I am sure this can easily be done in Version 6 with a few adjustments in paths but I have only used Version 7 so I can't make promises *S*

FOR THIS TUTORIAL YOU WILL NEED:
JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE

METHOD 1

On the top of your keyboard, towards the right on most, is a button called PrtScn SysRq. If you press this button it copies your entire desktop. Activate your PSP and either go to Edit-->Paste-->As a New Image or Ctrl+V. (see the example below)

The shot I did was 1:4, which means I am going to have to do a LOT of resizing. The first thing you will want to do is take your crop tool and draw a rectangle around what you want for your screenshot. Either double click your screen to crop your image, or go to your tool options box and click on crop image. You will then need to resize your image for sending in email or for putting on your site - don't forget to sharpen your image after resizing. This is how my image came out after cropping and a lot of resizing/sharpening. It came out fine, but I do prefer the second method - but that's just my opinion.

METHOD TWO

In order to use the screen capture option in PSP you will need to setup your screen capture options. If you are writing a tutorial or need to capture something on your PSP Work Area, you will need to open two sessions of PSP. Remember, this will take up a lot of your resources and memory.

Step 1:
Open PSP. Go to Files-->Import-->Screen Capture-->Setup

When you click on setup you will get this pop up.

 

In the Capture panel, select the type of capture you want to make.

• Area - Lets you capture the size of the area
• Full Screen - Captures the entire screen
• Client area - Captures the workspace of the entire active window
• Window - Captures the entire active window
• Object - Captures a feature or group of features

I have mine set up as Object and will explain how to do this below.

In the Activate Capture Using panel, select which method you would like to use. Either right click, hot key, or delay timer. I have mine set for Hot Key F11. Choose whatever preference is most easy for you, however I will be using F11 in the examples below.

If you would like to include your cursor in the caption, select that option. Please note: you cannot include the cursor in an Area type capture. This is excellent if you need the cursor to show a special effect such as the for explaining curved vector text.

To make more than one capture at a time, select the Multiple captures check box. PSP will remain minimized until you manually reactivate it. I have not used this option myself, so I can't say too much about it.

Step 2:
There are a couple of ways to activate the Screen Capture function. If you are menu orientated, go to File-->Import-->Screen Capture-->Start. If you prefer keyboard shortcuts activate your function by pressing Shift+C. If you are icon orientated, like I am, click on the camera on your toolbar. As soon as you activate your Screen Capture, PSP will automatically minimize on your computer. This is why you need two sessions of PSP if you are making a screenshot of your PSP Work Area.

Step 3:
Press F11

Step 4:
Move the cursor over what you want captured and a black border will appear. As an example, I have an Inner Bevel box below. I have several black rectangles around where you could possibly take a screen shot of, including the entire inner bevel box.

Step 5:
Left click your mouse to make your screen capture. PSP will open with your screen capture in the workspace. I chose to capture the middle box (image), please see the screenshot below as to what my PSP looked like. Remember this screenshot is reduced for easier loading.

You can add your text and save it for applying to your tutorial, or sending in email to show someone what you are trying to explain to them.

Step 6:
Either activate another screenshot session or close your PSP if you are done.

I hope this helps you understand how to do screenshots using PSP. If you have any problems, comments or questions please do not hesitate to E-mail me.

To Moon's Designs

To Tutorials Index

If you would like to use this tutorial for group settings, please contact me. Just click on the above mail slot *S*

Tutorial written and created by Patti Wavinak for Moon's Designs. These Tutorials are copyrighted by law. You may LINK to them only. You may not remove any of the graphics, zip files or html within these pages to reproduce these Tutorials, without the expressed permission of Moon's Designs. These pages may not be removed from this website and sent via e-mail, nor saved, stored or archived in files in YahooGroups or other mailing list sites, nor may they be translated and placed on another site.
Creations made from these tutorials are your creations.
Moon's Designs holds the copyright to all selections, original tubes and original images that I have created and provided for use within my tutorials. Page backgrounds and images are created exclusively for this website and may not be downloaded or used without written permission.
If you would like to use any of my tutorials for group lessons please contact me.