[SOLVED] High quality screenshots for book printing

[bigal]

Mint 20.1 Cinnamon

I am writing an article and need to include several screenshots to illustrate various points. These screenshots will include Mint menu items as well as various other views. The normal screenshot tool provided with Mint works well but the results are of a lower definition and only really suitable for internet/web use. Is there a facility that will take a screenshot suitable for high quality printing, equivalent to images seen in the best books? Taking a normal photograph on a monitor does not result in acceptable images. Camera photographs create files in the MB range while screenshots seem to create small files in the kB range.

‘Shutter’ is mentioned in one post but it does not show up in Synaptic. Flameshot, also mentioned and is available but does not install fully, shewing a ‘root file error.

Is there a way around this please?

[BenTrabetere]

Take a look at ksnip. It is available as a .DEB, a flatpak, and a Snap package. Even better, IMO, it is also available as an AppImage. I switched from Shutter to ksnip about a year ago, and I use the AppImage. Download the file, make it executable, and run.
https://github.com/ksnip/ksnip

[Mick-Cork]

I'm not sure how it compares quality wise to other options, but if you have Gimp installed try File/Create/Screenshot. Set the timer option on it and minimise the Gimp window before the shot is taken. The image will open up in Gimp once taken.

Zooming in to 100% it looks pretty good to my eyes. Worth a try if you have it installed, see what you think.

[AndyMH]

Shutter is now available as a ppa:
https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/10/s ... 0-and.html
Your images are going to be limited by your screen resolution.

[gittiest personITW]

Camera photographs create files in the MB range while screenshots seem to create small files in the kB range.

You have to make up your mind whether you want high def pictures, or pictures that only take up a little amount of space.
You can't have both.
There is a point in any application where the tradeoffs become acceptable.

If you take a photo, then that can be reduced very easily in Nemo (right click, resize images) to whatever you want. You can experiment with that to find your acceptable tradeoff.

If you are printing picture that take up A6 (1/4 size of A4), you don't need that high definition - but of course exactly how much depends on the size of the font on the screen and what is acceptable for your application.

[absque fenestris]

The normal screenshot tool provided with Mint works well but the results are of a lower definition and only really suitable for internet/web use.

Gnome Screenshot, which comes with Mint Cinnamon, is no better or worse than the other screenshot programs as well: the program only records the pixels that are present at all and the PNG is saved with a print preset of 72 ppi.
To prepare such a screenshot image for printing, you just need to change the print resolution to 300 ppi in GIMP.
Either way, these print presets of photos for artwork need to be checked in an image editor like Gimp and adjusted if necessary.

Generally about the quality of screenshots: The more pixels the photographed screen provides, the higher the resolution. A Hi-DPI laptop monitor has a resolution between 220 pixels to about 280 pixels - about twice as much as a standard monitor.


Adjustment of two 3000 x 2000 pixels screenshots from 72 ppi to 300 ppi in GIMP.
The image sizes of the PNGs vary from about 2 MB to about 3.5 MB. Changing the print settings does not affect the size of the image file.

[bigal]

Thank you everyone for the input. It seems that I have got a whole new and unexpected learning curve to deal with screenshots. In my innocence I had thought that when all my editor asked me to illustrate my article with a few screenshots all would be fine. How wrong I was.

I’ll mark this post as solved and go away and scream a little.

[absque fenestris]

Thank you everyone for the input. It seems that I have got a whole new and unexpected learning curve to deal with screenshots. In my innocence I had thought that when all my editor asked me to illustrate my article with a few screenshots all would be fine. How wrong I was.

I’ll mark this post as solved and go away and scream a little.

So out of curiosity: how many screenshots are there in your book project?

[Flemur]

The normal screenshot tool provided with Mint works well but the results are of a lower definition and only really suitable for internet/web use. Is there a facility that will take a screenshot suitable for high quality printing, equivalent to images seen in the best books?

The screenshot programs by default make an exact copy of the display, and record exactly what was on the monitor. Why is that not good enough? If you want a better picture, get a better (more pixels) monitor.

‘Shutter’ is mentioned in one post but it does not show up in Synaptic. Flameshot, also mentioned and is available but does not install fully, shewing a ‘root file error.

Those won't give you a higher definition/resolution/quality.

[Flemur]

Changing the print settings does not affect the size of the image file.

I was tempted to mention something similar, but keeping in mind that "inches" and therefore the "dpi" values in the image information are both imaginary (unless you're scanning or printing**) and only the resolution actually matters, don't publishers sometimes want 300DPI files as well as having the images be a certain size in inches, like 5"x7" = the size when printed? ...So the actual image size could change, which is easy enough to do in gimp or whatever, but I've heard they also like Adobe-standard PSD files.

** So the images from a 13" monitor with 1920x1080 pixels be the same as the images from a 21" monitor of the same resolution.

[absque fenestris]

...but I've heard they also like Adobe-standard PSD files.
...

No, it doesn't have to be. An RGB-TIFF with an integrated sRGB profile, prepared in the correct size as a 300 ppi image is definitely accepted - however, there are additional costs for the conversion to CMYK and possible profile adjustments.
A professional print shop does this every day, but half-baked CMYKs with incorrect image(setter) data and an adventurous or even missing profiling cause a lot of trouble - an error that can quickly become very expensive.
Today an entire print project is also accepted as PDF/X: But be careful ! Every printing company will tell you exactly which type of PDF/X and which color profile will be accepted. When the company does the whole CMYK conversion, you can work relaxed with the Linux on-board tools GIMP and Scribus.

A very, very nice company could also provide you with all the control data for Scribus/Ghostscript - but this is rather unlikely because of the poor nutritional quality of air ...

[bigal]

So out of curiosity: how many screenshots are there in your book project?

At the moment around 10-15. As I haven't completed the text yet I am not absolutely sure.

[bigal]

Hi Flemur. As I said I have a learning curve. That has got to start with a dialogue between the editor and me to establish in more precise terms what he wants. It certainly looks like Gimp is going to be my friend in this. More next week I hope.

[Mick-Cork]

Are you planning to include everything on the screen in the print version, or crop and only show parts of it?

I'm thinking out loud, but wondering if the screen zoom function (preferences / accessibility) could be a possible option. Zoom into the part you want to capture, take the screenshot, then reduce the image size in a photo editor (e.g, Gimp). I'm not sure how the zoom function is coded, but presumably it maintains the screen resolution quality whilst increasing the size of what's visible.

Theoretically you could improve the end result as a consequence of reducing the image size, weird as that sounds. You'd have to try or maybe others could chip in if I'm talking nonsense

[Edit: ok, I've just tried the built in zoom option myself and I don't think it's maintaining quality unfortunately. I was hoping that as an accessibility function it would retain clarity. Hmmm?]

[absque fenestris]

So out of curiosity: how many screenshots are there in your book project?

At the moment around 10-15. As I haven't completed the text yet I am not absolutely sure.

Hi bigal
if these are actually no more than 15 screenshots and no completely impossible tasks, I can prepare them for you.
Email and things like that are already invented ...

[mikeflan]

I have tried almost all the methods mentioned here and I agree that the resolution is not optimal. If anybody finds a solution to this (absque fenestris perhaps), please share the method with us. Perhaps it is just fancy processing on the original, mediocre quality picture??

[Moonstone Man]

Hi Flemur. As I said I have a learning curve. That has got to start with a dialogue between the editor and me to establish in more precise terms what he wants. It certainly looks like Gimp is going to be my friend in this. More next week I hope.

Don't be too quick to go down the rabbit hole with the suggestions made so far because there is a major caveat to any application so far recommended. The only accurate advice you have been given is from Flemur, and hinted at by AndyMH:

The screenshot programs by default make an exact copy of the display, and record exactly what was on the monitor. Why is that not good enough? If you want a better picture, get a better (more pixels) monitor.

Not a single one of the package recommendations will make a pinch of difference if your current display is not up to scratch. To get the best image possible, you need a high resolution display. Screen shot applications directly read the video card's framebuffer to get their image so the resolution is, by definition, limited by your display resolution.

[linolenux]

One thing to consider is enabling Double (Hi-DPI) scaling in the display settings. A high dpi monitor is not required to do this although the effective Desktop will be half the size. As long as the item to be captured fits on the screen, the resolution of objects in the screenshot will be doubled.

[Moonstone Man]

As long as the item to be captured fits on the screen, the resolution of objects in the screenshot will be doubled.

lol

<shakes head>

[linolenux]

<shakes head in confusion>

Think it through -- you'll figure it out.