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Last post Author Topic: Screenshot Captor v3 beta  (Read 19822 times)

mouser

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Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« on: January 28, 2012, 09:14 PM »
The next non-beta release of Screenshot Captor will be version 3.0 (!)

Version 2 came out on September 3rd, 2005 (six years ago) -- and about 106 updates ago.

The biggest addition in Version 3 over the last version 2 release (2.103) is what I believe is the most powerful scrolling capture seen in any screenshot tool (though i do not claim it's the easiest to use or the most automatic) -- but otherwise if you had the most recent version 2 release you won't notice too many other changes.  It just seemed like after six years it was time for new major version release.

The new version also marks the first break with the packaging method I have been using on my DC apps.

My setup .exe packages used to be zip-compatible, which meant you could run them to install the app, or unzip them to access the files manually.  But from now on, my programs will always come as 2 separate downloads -- one a standard installer, and one a portable .zip package.

I'm hoping this new procedure will solve a problem people occasionally have with their browser downloading a partial file and making the mistake of thinking the full file has downloaded but is corrupt (search for "not a valid 32 executable" on the forum for sampling of such errors).

The portable zip file will also come with a pre-configured config.dir file that will tell the program to run portably without the user having to make any modifications.  I hope this will be a little less confusing and make it even easier for portable users.

Furthermore setup files and executables will now be digitally signed with a DonationCoder certificate, which should eliminate some of the scary warnings that some browsers occasionally show.



I want to say thank you to all the Screenshot Captor users and testers, and especially the donators -- who have made it possible for me to keep working on the program for all these years.  If you're a user of Screenshot Captor but haven't yet made a donation -- I'm hoping you will take this opportunity to do so.

Also, I'm going to dedicate this version 3 to Gizmo's Tech Support Alert website, which gave Screenshot Captor its "Best in Class" award for screenshot tools.  Gizmo has always been super supportive of this site, and I can't express how honored I feel to have Screenshot Captor receive that award.  It motivated me to double my efforts to improve the program.


An early download of the v3 beta is here:

FEB 5, 2012: V3 has left beta; official thread is: here.

Screencast Videos: https://www.donation....com/screencasts/sc/

I hope to make it final this week.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2012, 02:43 AM by mouser »

db90h

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2012, 10:15 PM »
I will start using and begin testing mouser, as I *still* use this as my screenshot tool. For me, it is the best app you've ever created. It has just what I need, not too much, not too little. Glad to see progress being made and I'm glad to see you with that elusive creative impetus back in your pocket ;).

And glad you finally got on board with digital signing, the racket it is ;o. I'm hoping it comes down in cost in time, though who knows.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2012, 10:26 PM by db90h »

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2012, 10:18 PM »
Thanks db.  And I have to give you some of the credit for kicking me in the ass and telling me i needed to start digitally signing my executables.. even if i grumble all the way through it.

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2012, 10:20 PM »
Check out the new Splice Deluxe function with ragged edges.

db90h

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2012, 10:28 PM »
Ah, very cool :). These little simple effects and all the 'stuff' one would *need* to do to a screenshot is what makes SSC so cool I think, and the way the UI is designed.

IainB

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2012, 10:36 PM »
I have been busily trialling this ß over the last couple of days.
Very nice indeed.   :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
Still learning about it.
Thankyou.

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2012, 10:46 PM »
I will be posting a video screencast to show how to use the new scrolling capture feature in the next couple of days. 
Previous screencast videos can be found here: https://www.donation....com/screencasts/sc/

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2012, 08:59 PM »
New beta uploaded with smarter TEST WINDOW functionality.. it will now try to be smarter about setting scrolling options after testing a window.

Most specifically, it will try to find good settings to do a LINE-based scroll (instead of a page-based scroll), which has a higher chance of better overlaps, making it easier to align images (page based scrolling sometimes results in 0 overlap in some apps).

It's still not PERFECT but it does seem better.

Screencast tutorial coming soon.

ewemoa

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2012, 02:15 AM »
Tried the new beta (portable zip).

Attached are a sample from FF9 and one from IE8.

Results seem pretty good :)

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2012, 10:40 PM »
Congratulations.
But it's a pity for none multi-lang UI, none unicode support in "text object".
▌ I use & promote <b>freeware</b>:
▌ vim/7-Zip/Firefox/IrfanView/Wink/Audacity/EverNote/AutoHotkey/GIMP/PDFCreator.........
▌ just at  <b>http://xbeta.info</b>

dluby

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2012, 09:44 AM »
I may have discovered a possible bug in the beta version.  Since I installed v 3.00.00 I have discovered an anomaly.

If I have SSC open in the background and not minimised to the system tray and I try to do a screenshot of a selected region on Lotus Notes 7 from either a keyboard shortcut or via the SSC system tray menu, I get a blend of Lotus Notes  and what appears to be SSC.  I have attached some screenshots to show you what I mean (I have had to blur some parts of the image).

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2012, 10:44 AM »
thanks dluby, i'll bet i removed a slight delay that i shouldn't have, to give the screen time to refresh when minimizing sc.  i'll fix.

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2012, 11:05 AM »
dluby, would you mind downloading the newest version of the beta and see if it fixes your problem?

dluby

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2012, 02:25 AM »
Hi Mouser,

It seems you have fixed it - thanks.  Just an observation though, the install says version 3.00.01 but the about box only says version 3.00.00.

Just some feedback on capturing a scrolling window.  I tried it on Lotus Notes window which needed horizontal and vertical scrolling and it overlapped quite a bit, I then tried it on Microsoft Word 2003.  I created a table with the contents Line 1, Line 2, Line 3... and while the document had 49 lines per visible page, it captured the first page multiple times but never got past line 49 (it went up as far as 127).  I have attached the captured image.

Maybe it is how I am using it!

Let me know if I can be of anymore help as I am a huge fan of SSC.

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2012, 03:32 AM »
You say:
"I tried it on Lotus Notes window which needed horizontal and vertical scrolling and it overlapped quite a bit, "

but it's supposed to overlap, and then you are supposed to click to guess margins and guess overlap.. and that is supposed to stitch it together and remove overlaps.  did you try that?

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #15 on: February 02, 2012, 04:27 AM »
For MS Word -- it will only work if you set ms word to show a full page, and then tell sc to capture pages use simulated keypress method.

dluby

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2012, 04:59 AM »
Don't I feel the stupid one?  :-[  That worked perfectly with Lotus Notes once I continued with the steps you mentioned.

After playing with the various options I got it to work just fine for MS Word.

You must have spent an awful long time on this functionality!

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2012, 05:41 AM »
That worked perfectly with Lotus Notes once I continued with the steps you mentioned.
After playing with the various options I got it to work just fine for MS Word.

awesome!

You must have spent an awful long time on this functionality!

the new scrolling capture code was a LOT of work.. I'm happy to hear it's starting to be useful for a few people.

tomos

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2012, 07:15 AM »
I just did a scrolling capture of dopus with horizontal and vertical scrolling.
It doesnt work well with default settings (scrolling "by pages"), but once I do a "Test window...", settings are changed to "by rows" & it works absolutely perfectly without me having to adjust anything.
It's very impressive :up:

Some comments/queries, mainly on options & interface (- I'm not loking for answers, just throwing ideas out)

1) "Rows" being better than "Pages" (as said above) makes me wonder should default scrolling be "by rows" ? (I know I'm basing this question on one capture, but just thought I'd ask anyways).

2)
~ if horizontal scrolling is activated when there is no horizontal scrolling in the window, it doesnt work
~ if horizontal scrolling is *not* activated where there *is* horizontal scrolling in the window, it doesnt work.
I think that initially this is not clear - I wonder could it be indicated in some more definite way? (one possible option could be to say: if there's horizontal scrolling, please do a "Test Window..." as that seems to work well. Or Please turn Horizontal scrolling on/off as appropriate. Or...

3) Not important I guess: I have no idea what "Capture until max below" means...

I think improved layout/display of options for the scrolling capture would be helpful -
wouldn't need any big changes, I dont think. Some suggestions:

4) First window once scrolling capture selected:

a) maybe move [Test windows & guess Settings] above "Miscellaneous options"

b) Could VERTICAL and HORIZONTAL SCROLLING be emphasised more?

c) Could [OK begin scrolling...] be emaphasised more - made double height maybe? stronger icon maybe?

5) Second Window

move Steps 1 & 2 above the more detailed margins settings?
Tom

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2012, 12:54 PM »
Thanks for the suggestions.

Some quick comments:

1) "Rows" being better than "Pages" (as said above) makes me wonder should default scrolling be "by rows" ? (I know I'm basing this question on one capture, but just thought I'd ask anyways).

Rows won't always work.  For example it won't work in windows that require keypress simulated paging.  But when they do, they can be much easier for SC to align, since scrolling by pages can leave little or no overlap to discover.  That's why the "Test Window" procedure is basically trying to figure out if it can scroll by rows and how many rows at a time to scroll.  The problem with setting to ByRows manually is that it can eat up a lot of memory unless you set a high enough "rows per scroll multiplier" (which is what Test Window tries to determine).


~ if horizontal scrolling is activated when there is no horizontal scrolling in the window, it doesnt work
~ if horizontal scrolling is *not* activated where there *is* horizontal scrolling in the window, it doesnt work.

not sure what you mean by "doesn't work".  it should do fine capturing pure vertical content even if there is horizontal content and you disable it.  if you try to capture horizontal content and there is none, it shouldn't cause any problems just some wasted time trying to horizontally scroll when there is no content.  can you elaborate what didnt work?

Ath

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2012, 03:52 PM »
3) Not important I guess: I have no idea what "Capture until max below" means...
My wild guess:
"Keep capturing until the set number of captures have been taken, without bothering to check if the end of the scrollable area has been reached"
 ;)


And now for a, relatively small, feature request:

I'm a user of skwire's sWeather to view how it's outside, as I'm unable to view through a window sitting in my attic workspot :o

I thought I'd make a nice screenshot of the current weather in the 4 locations I've set. sWeather can change the current page by using PgDn/PgUp keys, but has the strange habit of scrolling in the opposite direction, so PgDn (or mouse-scroll down) actually goes from page 1 to 4, then 3, and then 2. Another PgDn returns to page 1.
This makes me best use the 'By Pages (default)' and 'Simulate Keypresses (PgDn/PgUp)' Vertical Scrolling settings for doing a capture.
This results in this captured image: (I highlighted the page-numbers)
Screenshot - 02-02-2012 , 22_41_55.pngScreenshot Captor v3 beta

My feature request would be that the scroll action by keypres can be reverted from PgDn/PgUp to PgUp/PgDn.
And it could be quite easily added by another entry in the combobox, something like 'Reverse Keypresses (PgUp/PgDn) (rare)'. The (rare) I added to emphasize that only in rare situations it would be used.
And I feel this could also go for the Left/Right keypresses of the Horizontal scroll setting.

mouser

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #21 on: February 02, 2012, 03:55 PM »
I think perhaps a more generic solution would be an option which allows user to set CUSTOM keypresses to simulate for vertical and horizontal scrolling.. that could be useful in handling odd cases.  thoughts?

Ath

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #22 on: February 02, 2012, 03:56 PM »
That's even better :up:, but a tad more work I guess :-[

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #23 on: February 02, 2012, 04:50 PM »
screenshot captor is the best all around tool in the genre.  Snagit is more powerful, but what I've learned over the years that for 99% of my screen capturing needs, it's far easier to do it with SC.  And that's before you realize it's free.  So, best bang for the buck --> screenshot captor.

tomos

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Re: Screenshot Captor v3 beta
« Reply #24 on: February 02, 2012, 04:52 PM »
... if you try to capture horizontal content and there is none, it shouldn't cause any problems just some wasted time trying to horizontally scroll when there is no content.  can you elaborate what didnt work?

This is probably a bit gratuitious as SC seems to have Horizontal scroll turned off by default (even if set to "on" the previous time), but here goes:

I try capturing a dopus window with only vertical scrolling content.
In SC I set horizontal scrolling to default/pages
The screenshot is not long, will be done in two screenshots. Lets call them
A
B

The initial screenshot is actually:
AA
BB

Now when I press #1 Guess Margins - there is no change.
#2 gives me the following message:

The vertical overlap value could not be guessed.  This means that either that the page
 contents have no overlap, or, more likely, that the overlap was too small to
 reliably detect or that the contents changed while scrolling.

Please check the stitched image and manually adjust the margin and overlap values.

Tip: After changing margins you might try pressing the "2" button to re-guess overlaps.

I tried changing various margins & overlaps with strange results, i.e. without success =STOP PRESS= I figured it out:
increasing the "trim and show" horizontal setting from 3 to 4 removed the doubled up image.

Again this is done without using "Test Window" - that works well, so if unsure I'll stick with it in future (maybe that's what I was supposed to do all along?)
Tom