15 Ways To Create Website Screenshots

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15 Ways To Create Website Screenshots

August 24, 2007 - 11:18 am PDT - by Stan Schroeder 45 Comments
Taking screenshots of web sites is probably one of the most commonly done tasks on the internet - doubly so if you have a blog or work as a journalist. This week, we wrote about Thumbalizr, a service that lets you take screenshots of websites. However, there are several other tools for easy screenshot capturing - some standalone and some in the form of a browser plugin.

Plugins
Save as image - an aptly named Firefox plugin that lets you save a page, frame, or part of either as an image directly from Firefox.

Pearl Crescent Page Saver - Save images of web pages in jpg or png format; save the entire page or just a portion of it, with the ability to automatically scale the image to a smaller size.

Picnik for Firefox - if you use online image editor Picnik this Firefox plugin enables you to easily import a screenshot of the currently opened webpage into it.

Snissa - simple Firefox plugin for taking web page screenshots.

Screengrab! - a plugin that lets you save visible part of window, the entire page, just a selection, or a particular frame of a webpage.

ieSnapshotter - a shareware plugin for Internet Explorer that allows you to take screenshots and thumbnails of web pages.

Standalone programs
SnagIt - definitely one of the best programs for screenshot capturing, with all the options you might need. Integrates with Firefox, can replace the standard Windows print screen function, and enables you to create profiles for various types of use. Costs 39.95 bucks, but you can try out a free trial version before buying.

FastStone Capture - a powerful utility for taking screenshots with a floating control panel as well as the ability to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle regions, and even freehand-selected regions.

WebShot - a program that allows you to take screenshots and thumbnails of web pages or whole websites. Its main advantage is its powerful command line utility which enables you to automate the process of taking screenshots.

Paparazzi! - a tiny application for Mac OS X that lets you take screenshots of web pages.

PrintKey - replaces your print screen function with a better one with more features. There’s a commercial version but you can also find an older, unsupported, freeware version on the provided link.

I4X Screencatcher - take screenshots of the active window, entire screen, or the selected area with this tool.

InstantShot - an advanced but freeware application for Mac OS X that sits in your menu bar and gives you a myriad of screen capturing options, including capturing a region, hotkeys, several output formats, image scaling and many others.

Web based
WebShotsPro - enter a URL address and get a screenshot of the website in question. Simple. You might encounter quite a long queue before getting your screenshot, though.

Thumbalizr - already mentioned in a recent article, Thumbalizr lets you create screenshots of websites by pasting their URL; the only problem is that it doesn’t always work.
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45 Comments

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- Jaywe August 24, 2007 @ 11:25 am
  
  I use an app called Webthumb which has a great API (http://bluga.net/webthumb). Works very nicely!
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Travis Vocino August 24, 2007 @ 11:44 am
  
  Paparazzi! is such a nice and simple, clean little app.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- photographworks August 24, 2007 @ 11:51 am
  
  I use GRAB, which is built into Macbook, and which lets you capture
  
  a selection (drag the curser to cover what you want to GRAB)
  
  a window (and if you have multiple windows open you can specify which one with a click)
  
  a screen
  
  a timed screen
  
  and save them as TIFFS (so no lossy on saving)
  
  David
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Ross Boardman August 24, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
  
  The firefox extension screengrab has to be the best tool availble.
  
  The ability to screengrab an entire page is invaluable.
  
  I wish I had this 10 years ago. The times I have spent taking several screenshots and then compositing them in photoshop.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Gary August 24, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
  
  I would like to second FastStone Capture — it truly is the coolest little app out there for screen grabs [Shift]+[PrtScn] to capture active window;
  [Ctrl]+[PrtScn] capture rectangular region with corner zoom in viewer;
  [Alt]+[PrtScn] to capture a particular Window or Object;
  + Capture freehand region, capture scrolling window, full screen, etc. etc. all with keyboard shortcuts.
  
  Lots of cool details like width/height previewing at different places, extra tools, etc. And it’s small footprint, non-obtrusive with its own valuable lightning fast image viewer for your screen grabs. Free for home use. I gladly voluntarily paid the $19.95 for my commercial usage to support excellent software.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- 100wordpressplugins August 24, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
  
  A very nice list. Will use some of the apps. Tanks
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Alan August 25, 2007 @ 4:07 am
  
  You missed browsershots.org. Very good site if you don’t mind the actual browser window in the image too. Choice of browsers is quite extensive also.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Andreas Gohr August 25, 2007 @ 5:16 am
  
  I just did a post on various available free website thumbnail services. See http://www.splitbrain.org/blog/2007-08/23-free_website_thumbnail_services
  
  Reply to this comment »
- samuro August 25, 2007 @ 8:51 am
  
  Great list!. Thanks
  Btw, I am also write a post about capture screenshots of webpage:
  http://www.bisnis-net.info/2007/07/17/capture-and-save-screenshots-of-webpages/
  
  There’s just two tools on my post that Usually I use to capture screenshots
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Carlos Granier-Phelps August 26, 2007 @ 8:20 am
  
  If you’re on a Mac you can use a number of key-combinations for screen capture:
  
  ⌘-Shift-3: Captures the entire screen to a file on your desktop.
  
  Ctrl-⌘-Shift-3: Captures the entire screen to the clipboard.
  
  ⌘-Shift-4: Captures a user-selectable region to a file on your desktop (pressing SpaceBar when the crosshairs is over a window will select that window).
  
  Ctrl-⌘-Shift-4: Captures a user-selectable region to the clipboard.
  
  Sharpshooter for Mac (http://www.iwankerl.com/Software/Sharpshooter/) will intercept these captures and let you rename the file before saving it.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- trent August 26, 2007 @ 8:56 am
  
  Check out Thumbnailspro.com, they are FREE while in beta any allow to request thumbnails directly from your website, any size you want up to 1000pixels! WOW! thats Thumbnailspro.com
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Darren August 26, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
  
  I’ve been using WebSnapr for recent projects.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Arvind August 29, 2007 @ 2:55 am
  
  I use Screenshot Captor. Very nice tool.
  
  http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/screenshotcaptor/index.html
  
  Reply to this comment »
- screen shot man September 5, 2007 @ 1:16 am
  
  Hi,
  I’d like to introduce the plugin that takes screenshot of loaded webpage and performs various bitmap operations with it. It could be useful both for users and developers to save webpage fragments and quickly create text and graphic annotations over captured image. Screenshots could be saved to disk in PNG, BMP and JPEG formats, copied to clipboard, e-mailed and exported to external editor.
  It’s absolutely free, you can download it from: http://screenshot-program.com/fireshot/fireshot.xpi
  
  To get it installed in firefox simply type this link in address bar.
  
  Screenshots are availabe at: https://addons.mozilla.org/ru/firefox/addon/5648
  
  Any comments and reviews will be appreciated!
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Olaf September 16, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
  
  Another one (free!): Webswoon
  Download from:
  http://www.alcenia.com/webswoon/
  
  Reply to this comment »
- K Haugen October 4, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
  
  Good list, but where is Skitch (plasq.com) for quickly snapping, writing or drawing on and posting screen shots, web cam shots, iPhoto images, etc.?? Relatively new kid on the block, but fun and fantastic.
  Also, from yellowmug.com, the more stoic EasyCrop makes scaling and saving screen shots into different formats and folders super easy.
  I alternate between the two and together, they’ve saved me tons of time.
  Thanks for the cool tips on other programs out there, too.
  
  Reply to this comment »
- seven October 9, 2007 @ 11:38 am
  
  Your post just saved my life
  thanks for the list
  I used Save As Image
  it was just what I was looking for
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Michael October 17, 2007 @ 6:19 am
  
  picoshot.com is another free web based service for thumbnails.
  
  Reply to this comment »