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Kingsly

macrumors 68040
Different versions of Mac OS X have different formats for screenshots.

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar): jpg
Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther): pdf
Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger): png
In Mac OS X 10.4, the default screenshot format can be changed, by opening Terminal (located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and typing in:

Code:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type image_format
killall SystemUIServer
Where image_format is jpg, tiff, pdf or png. The second line can be omitted, however if it is you will need to log out and in again for the changes to take effect.

Out of curiosity, what's the point? Is there a better format?
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Kingsly said:
Out of curiosity, what's the point? Is there a better format?
Well, I think that PNG is generally considered a better format than JPEG (not that JPEG is bad), and I for one hated the PDF default, as part of the point of taking a screenshot is to include it in something else and/or crop it, and PDF files don't accommodate either option all that easily.
 

Nukemkb

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2006
942
54
Columbia, SC
Geez - couple months I've had my Mac and wonder how to do a screen shot and save to desktop...as simple as command-shift-3!!:mad:
but now I am :D thanks!!
edited to add: 'tis easier not to post at all..
 

imacintel

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2006
1,581
0
Nukemkb said:
Geez - couple months I've had my Mac and wonder how to do a screen shot and save to desktop...as simple as command-shift-3!!:mad:
















but now I am :D thanks!!

Don't leave too much space please.
 

MacRy

macrumors 601
Apr 2, 2004
4,350
6,277
England
NickElls said:
Meh. I don't really like donationware that much.

You should try it before rejecting it out of hand, it's a fantastic widget! Not donationware either.
 

AlBDamned

macrumors 68030
Mar 14, 2005
2,641
15
Another neat trick on this which I only learned the other week is when you have the screenshot cursor up, press the spacebar and it will turn in to a camera, taking an exact shot of the window you want.
 
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