Screen shot
Also known as a
screen dump,
snapshot, or
screen capture, a
screen shot or
screenshot is an image that is created from a
software program or the
operating system. Once a screen shot has been captured it can be saved as a image file, manipulated, and/or printed. For example, the image to the right is an example of a screen shot in the computer game
Caesar.
There are numerous different ways to capture a screen shot and often each of these methods depend on what computer operating system you are using and what you intend to take a screen shot of. Below is a listing of different methods of creating screen shots.
Microsoft Windows users and most other operating systems
Most computer users can easily create a screen shot by pressing the
print screen key on their computer
keyboard. This will usually take the screen shot and place it into the computer
clipboard. Once in the clipboard, a user can almost always
paste that screen shot into a graphic program.
Additional tip for Microsoft Windows users
Pressing and holding the
ALT key with the Print Screen key will enable you to create a screen shot only for the
window currently active.
Additional short cut keys can be
found here.
Games
Many games will include a screen shot option or setup that enables the players to simply press a key such as the
print screen key or
F11 key. This varies between games and it is recommended you refer to the game key options and/or the manual for information about this availability. If this is not available, see the next section.
Other software operating systems, programs, and/or games
Viewing, editing, and saving screen shots
Although many of the above programs will allow you to capture screen shots not all will allow you to save those screen shots in any format and/or edit the screen shots. Often you will need an image editor to perform these tasks. See
document CH000760 for a large listing of available image editors including many of the free popular image editors.
