How to Print Screen
Print screen is one of the most useful functions on your computer system. There are times that you may need to capture the full image displayed on your screen, or parts of the displayed image that cannot be captured by conventional copy-and-paste methods. Here’s how you can use the Print Screen function on your computer.
What Is Print Screen?
Print screen is a function on your computer that captures the entire image displayed on your desktop. It works just like conventional copy-and-paste, although you don’t have to right-click on images or press Ctrl + C every time the image is displayed on your computer. After you made the screen shot, you can then paste the image from the clipboard to a graphics editor program or save it as a file.
All standard keyboards come with a “Print Screen” function on the set of keys to the right of the Function keys, near Scroll Lock and Pause/Break. Your computer must be able to support Print Screen for you to be able to use it.
Evidence. For journalists and bloggers, the static image right on the screen can prove to be a very useful tool to provide evidence for hard-hitting news or commentary.
Design. Print screen is particularly useful for designs based on dynamic objects, like moving pictures, fractals, or animation.
Advertising. For movie producers, animators, and game designers, print screen is the most reliable and most common way of presenting screen shots.
Print Screen Tips
While print screen can be performed with the push of a button, you can improve the quality of the screenshot with these tips:
Maximize the resolution. A higher resolution gives you more pixels to work with, which results in clearer images with minimal pixellation.
Time the function. For moving images like fractals, real-time computer game test-runs, and movies, you need to be precise with print screen.
Have enough memory and space. Screen captures with very high resolution can take up much space on your hard drive and a lot of system resources. If you’re going to make many high-resolution screenshots, make sure that you have the system resources needed to complete, edit, and save your screen captures.
Whether you’re looking for good evidence to back up your opinions or you’re marketing a new game, you can do a lot with print screen. With these tips, you can put that often-ignored function to good use.