Screenshot
A screenshot, screen capture, screenie, or screen dump is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor or another visual output device. Usually this is a digital image taken by the host operating system or software running on the computer device, but it can also be a capture made by a camera or a device intercepting the video output of the computer.
Screenshots, screen dumps, or screen captures can be used to demonstrate a program, a particular problem a user might be having or generally when computer output needs to be shown to others or archived.
All three terms are often used interchangeably; however, some people distinguish between them as follows:
- Screenshot
- Outputting the entire screen in a common bitmap image format such as BMP, PNG, or JPEG.
- Screen dump
- The display system dumps what it is using internally upon request, such as XWD X Window Dump image data in the case of X11 or PDF in the case of Mac OS X. As of Mac OS X 10.4, pictures are no longer saved as PDF. They are saved as PNGs.
- Screen capture (screencaps)
- Capturing the screen over an extended period of time to form a video file. (video capture)
Video capture
Video capture usually refers to the various methods of digitizing analog video to a computer from an outside source, such as a VCR or TV signal.
The term "video capture" is sometimes used interchangeably with the term "video encoding". Analog video is digitally encoded during capture. However, "capture" is usually used to describe analog to digital conversion, and "encoding" is usually used to describe digital to digital conversion. A notable exception to this is the transfer of DV video from a digital DV tape to a computer via FireWire, which is nearly universally (but incorrectly) referred to as "DV capture".
From a purist standpoint, the correct term for analog to digital conversion is capture OR encoding, the correct term for digital to digital conversion is re-encoding or transcoding, and the correct term for digital to digital transfer (when the digital encoding is not changed) is transfer or copy.
Capturing full-motion video of what is displayed on a computer screen (to the same computer) is sometimes also called "video capture", but the correct terms for this are "video screen capture" or "screencast".
Capturing video from an outside source requires special hardware – like a video capture card.
Capturing video of what is displayed on the computer screen usually requires special software. None of the major operating systems have built-in mechanisms to record videos of the screen (recording how the user moves his mouse around, clicks icons, types text etc. as a movie). A multitude of utilities have come up to fill this void, though. Many computer games have built-in video screen capture capabilities.
Internet uses
It has become popular in the internet fandom culture to use screencaps of movies and television shows in the creation of fanart, most commonly as icons for LiveJournal, MSN Messenger, and Internet forums about those topics. Websites and various communities have been created to distribute these screencaps.
Copyright issues
Some companies believe the use of screenshots is an infringement of copyright on their program, as it is a derivative work of the widgets and other art created for the software.
This is one of the issues "solved" by Trusted Computing. Under Trusted Computing, programs will be able to block the taking of screenshots of their windows.
Screenshots may still be used under the principle of fair use, which (in U.S. law) permits copying of images or text for "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research". Similar laws exist in other countries, such as fair dealing.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Screenshot ]
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