How to Screen Capture Drop Shadows in Windows Vista Aero
Here are two screenshot images of Windows Media Player running on Windows Vista - can you spot a difference ?
OK, so the left image is a regular screen capture while the one on right is a screen grab of the same Media Player window but with the surrounding drop shadows so the image appear more attractive.
*Rounded corners, drop shadows and transparent translucent borders are part of Windows Aero Glass theme that is available in all Windows Vista editions except Home Basic.
How To Screen Capture Window Frames in Vista with Drop Shadows
None of the free screen capture programs can capture drop shadows in Vista - not even the Snipping Tool that ships with some editions of Windows Vista. So here’s a very simple workaround:
1. Minimize the desktop (Win + M), start Notepad and maximize the window.
2. Put Notepad in the background such that it covers the desktop. Now bring other application(s) to the foreground that you want to screen capture. (see example here)
3. Press the Print Screen Key or invoke any of your favorite screen capture program (like SnagIt) to take a snapshot of the full desktop screen. Save that as an image to the desktop.
4. Open this screenshot image in any editor (Photoshop Express, Picnik, Windows Photo Gallery, etc) - carefully draw a marquee selection around the drop shadows (no black are should selected) and finally crop.
Save the cropped image and you’ll be pretty happy to see the result.
PS: You can do this with running notepad if if your desktop background color is set to solid white and there are no icons on the desktop.
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Wow, so Vista got it too. It is part of the Mac OS X Screen Capture tool that you can do this too and there is a background-transparent Application Window capture with drop shadow.
Instead of so much hardwork.. just use the extremely efficient and simple freeware called Window Clippings.
Ed: Is Windows Clipping really free ? I am under the impression that they add a watermark to all screenshots captured through the free version.
Windows Clipping is free and the free version does a lot of cool things - including support for PNG alpha transparency for shadows of your windows. There is a commercial version with extra features but for a lot of us the free version gets the job done and gets it done very well!
Ed: Maybe I am missing something because the last time I checked Windows Clippings (free version), it inserted a big watermark on top of every screenshots. Did they change that in the new versions ?
Paste it into irfanview and crop, cut, paste and save, all in one program. irfanview.com is free and does a lot more too.
From http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2008/03/29/window-clippings-2-1.aspx :
“I’ve also made the decision to stop providing a completely free version of Window Clippings going forward. The good news for prospective users is that all of the features are now available to non-registered users so you can try any and all features before you decide to purchase a license. I believe this change will make it easier for new users to evaluate the product and allow me to invest more in the development of Window Clippings.”
…
“Saturday, March 29, 2008 9:29 PM by ck
Well I purchased a version and love it, but why would a person purchase a copy now? What is limited in the non-registered version?”
“ck: non-registered users get a watermark reading “windowclippings.com” in the bottom right corner of each image.”
I think Kerr’s decision was unfortunate and moronic. I am so glad I back up smaller programs like Window Clippings because I was able to pull back an unpilfered version, which DOES work without adding watermarks.
(The one I have is version 2.0.28 and still appears to be available at http://www.windowclippings.com/download/2.0.28/x86/WindowClippings.exe –I simply replaced the new version number with the old one–but there’s no telling if or when Kerr, the copyright owner, will decide to pull that off his site.)