ImageMagick - Capture an X Server Screen

NAME

import - capture some or all of an X server screen and save the image to a file.

Contents

Description
Examples
Options
Environment
Authors
Copyright

Synopsis

import [ options ... ] file

Description

Import reads an image from any visible window on an X server and outputs it as an image file. You can capture a single window, the entire screen, or any rectangular portion of the screen. Use display for redisplay, printing, editing, formatting, archiving, image processing, etc. of the captured image.

The target window can be specified by id, name, or may be selected by clicking the mouse in the desired window. If you press a button and then drag, a rectangle will form which expands and contracts as the mouse moves. To save the portion of the screen defined by the rectangle, just release the button. The keyboard bell is rung once at the beginning of the screen capture and twice when it completes.

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Examples

To select an X window or an area of the screen with the mouse and save it in the MIFF image format to a file entitled window.miff, use:

    import window.miff

To select an X window or an area of the screen with the mouse and save it in the Encapsulated PostScript format to include in another document, use:

    import figure.eps

To capture the entire X server screen in the JPEG image format in a file entitled root.jpeg, without using the mouse, use:

    import -window root root.jpeg

To capture the 512x256 area at the upper right corner of the X server screen in the PNG image format in a well-compressed file entitled corner.png, without using the mouse, use:

    import -window root -crop 512x256-0+0 -quality 90
           corner.png

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Options

Options are processed in command line order. Any option you specify on the command line remains in effect until it is explicitly changed by specifying the option again with a different effect.

Import options can appear on the command line or in your X resources file. See X(1). Options on the command line supersede values specified in your X resources file.

For a more detailed description of each option, see ImageMagick(1).

-bordercolor <color>

the border color

-cache <threshold>

(This option has been replaced by the -limit option)

-colors <value>

preferred number of colors in the image

-colorspace <value>

the type of colorspace

-comment <string>

annotate an image with a comment

-crop <width>x<height>{+-}<x>{+-}<y>{%}

preferred size and location of the cropped image

-debug <events>

enable debug printout

-delay <1/100ths of a second>

display the next image after pausing

-density <width>x<height>

vertical and horizontal resolution in pixels of the image

-depth <value>

depth of the image

-descend

obtain image by descending window hierarchy

-display <host:display[.screen]>

specifies the X server to contact

-dispose <method>

GIF disposal method

-dither

apply Floyd/Steinberg error diffusion to the image

-encoding <type>

specify the text encoding

-endian <type>

specify endianness (MSB or LSB) of output image

-extract <width>x<height>{+-}<x>{+-}<y>{%}{@} {!}{<}{>}

extract an area from the image while decoding

-frame

include the X window frame in the imported image

-geometry <width>x<height>{+-}<x>{+-}<y>{%}{@} {!}{<}{>}

preferred size and location of the Image window.

-help

print usage instructions

-interlace <type>

the type of interlacing scheme

-label <name>

assign a label to an image

-limit <type> <value>

Disk, File, Map, or Memory resource limit

-log <string>

-monochrome

transform the image to black and white

-negate

replace every pixel with its complementary color

-page <width>x<height>{+-}<x>{+-}<y>{%}{!}{<}{>}

size and location of an image canvas

-pause <seconds>

pause between snapshots [import]

-ping

efficiently determine image characteristics

-pointsize <value>

pointsize of the PostScript, OPTION1, or TrueType font

-quality <value>

JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level

-resize <width>x<height>{%}{@}{!}{<}{>}

resize an image

-rotate <degrees>{<}{>}

apply Paeth image rotation to the image

-sampling-factor <horizontal_factor>x<vertical_factor>

sampling factors used by JPEG or MPEG-2 encoder and YUV decoder/encoder.

-scene <value>

set scene number

-screen

specify the screen to capture

-silent

operate silently

-snaps <value>

number of screen snapshots

-transparent <color>

make this color transparent within the image

-trim

trim an image

-verbose

print detailed information about the image

-version

print ImageMagick version string

For a more detailed description of each option, see ImageMagick(1).

Environment

DISPLAY

Authors

John Cristy, magick-users@imagemagick.org, ImageMagick Studio LLC,
Glenn Randers-Pehrson, randeg@alum.rpi.edu, ImageMagick Studio LLC.

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Copyright

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