Basic Use

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If run on the commandline without any arguments, MiniCap starts up in interactive capture mode, where you can select the object on screen to capture and then save the file with a filename and format of your choice.

 

However, the more common use for MiniCap is in non-interactive commandline mode.  You can use the following commandline arguments for non-interactive capture:

 

-save "OUTPUTFILENAME"

Tells MiniCap to automatically save the captured image using the specified filename, including path, and extension which should include the image format extension of your choice (.jpg, .gif, .pdf, .png, .bmp, .tiff).

 

You can use certain fields which will be replaced:
$appdir$ - application directory (useful if you want to save snapshot in same directory)
$appname$ - application exe name (without path)
$nicename$ - nice name of application exe (taken from exe resource)
$windowtitle$ - window caption
$uniquenum$ - adds unique number to filename to avoid overwriting existing files
$datetime$ , $date$ , $time$ - local date/time
$dt:%DATEFORMATSTRING$ - where DATEFORMATSTRING is made up from the following:

 

%a        Abbreviated weekday name

%A        Full weekday name

%b        Abbreviated month name

%B        Full month name

%c        Date and time representation appropriate for locale

%d        Day of month as decimal number (01 – 31)

%H        Hour in 24-hour format (00 – 23)

%I        Hour in 12-hour format (01 – 12)

%j        Day of year as decimal number (001 – 366)

%m        Month as decimal number (01 – 12)

%M        Minute as decimal number (00 – 59)

%p        Current locale's A.M./P.M. indicator for 12-hour clock

%S        Second as decimal number (00 – 59)

%U        Week of year as decimal number, with Sunday as first day of week (00 – 53)

%w        Weekday as decimal number (0 – 6; Sunday is 0)

%W        Week of year as decimal number, with Monday as first day of week (00 – 53)

%x        Date representation for current locale

%X        Time representation for current locale

%y        Year without century, as decimal number (00 – 99)

%Y        Year with century, as decimal number

%z        Time-zone name

%Z        Time-zone abbreviation

 

-closeapp

Tells the app that is run to close after screenshot is taken
If you don't specify -closeapp or -killapp then the app will be left running after the app is launched

 

-killapp

Closes app harshly if it won't close by normal request

 

-sleep #

Sleep # seconds before engaging capture

 

-capturescreeen

Capture current screen

 

-capturedesktop

Capture entire desktop workspace (all multimonitors if more than one exists)

 

-capturerunapp

Automatically capture the application specified by a -run argument

 

-capturehwnd #

Automatically capture the window with the specified handle number (specified in decimal)

 

-capturepid #

Automatically capture the main window of the application with the specified process id  (specified in decimal)

 

-captureregion left top right bottom

Capture screeen region specified

 

-captureregselect

Interactive capture of region (traditional style mode -- locked to current screen of multimonitor)

 

-captureredregselect

Interactive capture of region (red box mode)

 

-captureobjselect

Interactive capture of object (red box mode)

 

-captureappbyname "filename.exe"

Find the window of the running exe specified and capture it (specify filename with extension but no path)

 

-captureactivewin

Capture last active window

 

-exit

Exit minicap after the screenshot is saved
If you don't specify this then MiniCap will remain open after the capture.

 

-scrollcap

Use scrolling window capture more

 

-setfore

Set window to be captured to foreground before capturing

 

-client

Captures client area of the window, useful when capturing windows which have no borders/titlebar

 

-run "APPNAME" [args+]

Runs a specific application specified before capturing.
All arguments after appname are passed on the commandline to the app, so -run needs to be the last argument you specify

 

-runcap "APPNAME" [args+]

Same as calling with -run and automatically adds the following arguments for easy use:

"-closeapp -exit -sleep 3 -captureapp"

Like -run, this needs to be the LAST arguments you specify

 

-postrun "COMMANDLINEWITHARGS"

runs a program after the image is saved (use $file$ to replace saved image filename in commandline)

 

-compress #

Set compression quality from 1 to 10 (10 is highest quality and biggest image); default to 8

 

-clipimage

Copy the image to clipboard after capture

 

-clipimagepath

Copy the saved image filename (full path) to clipboard after capture

 

-bordershadow

Add a nice border and shadow to image

 

-promptsave

Asks user for filename to save immediately after a capture.
If combined with a filename specified using -save "FILENAME" then you will be prompted to save as with the filename pre-filled out.

 

-resizexp PERCENTAGE

resize x dimension to PERCENTAGE% of its original value (y will be scaled to preserve ratio if no y resize value specified)

 

-resizeyp PERCENTAGE

resize y dimension to PERCENTAGE% of its original value (x will be scaled to preserve ratio if no x resize value specified)

 

-resizex WIDTH

resize x dimension to exactly WIDTH pixels (y will be scaled to preserve ratio if no y resize value specified)

 

-resizey HEIGHT

resize y dimension to exactly HEIGHT pixels (y will be scaled to preserve ratio if no y resize value specified)

 

-print

print the captured image

 

-printpreview

show a print preview before printing and allow adjustment of margins, etc.

 

-setprinter PRINTERNAME

sets a specific printer for printing (to get a list invoke -setprinter list); you can use the full name or a substring

 

 

Example:

MiniCap.exe -save "C:\screen_$appname$$uniquenum$_$date$.jpg" -closeapp -exit -sleep 4 -capturerunapp -run "C:\Program Files\Macromedia\FlashPlayer.exe" "C:\MyMovie.swf"

 

MiniCap.exe -capturerunapp -exit -save "D:\desktop.png" -sleep 5 -closeapp -exit -run "C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe" "C:\WINDOWS\test.txt"

 

 

-save "E:\test.jpg" -runcap "C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe" "C:\WINDOWS\test.txt"