How do we make screenshots save as .jpg instead of PDF?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I recall reading about this somewhere but I can't find the answer, at osxhints or osxfaq or elsewhere. I found Kunvert which is nice but it would be better if I could just save as jpg. Thanks.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    Doesn't really change your situation but I use IMage instead of Kunvert.



    http://www.kokorozashi.org/products/iMage/
  • Reply 2 of 26
    It used to be that you just had to open terminal and type:

    Code:


    defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleScreenShotFormat JPEG







    But I do believe that 10.2 killed this.



    There is a pretty good tip that might work in this thread on OSXFAQ from user chipgaylor but to save you the time here is the post:



    Quote:

    I have the same frustration (arrived with Jaguar, no?). I am hoping to be able to specify TIFF or JPG once again but have not found a way. My workaround is presently a Quickeys keystroke shortcut to start the Grab utility. The Grab utility's command-shift-A keystroke works in a very similar way to the the finder's command-shift-4 and directly produces a TIFF. The whole thing, therefore, requires one extra keystroke to start the Grab utility, remembering how I set it up and, of course, knowing it would be a heck of a lot better to be able to specify the finder's screen capture file type output in the first place. Why do you suppose it was changed to PDF (it doesn't work to help me either)?



  • Reply 3 of 26
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquatic

    I found Kunvert which is nice but it would be better if I could just save as jpg. Thanks.



    What is wrong with using the export function of preview?
  • Reply 4 of 26
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PB

    What is wrong with using the export function of preview?



    Nothing. I just don't want extra steps to have a natural TIFF instead of inappropriate PDF. This sucks.
  • Reply 5 of 26
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    And what's wrong with PDF?
  • Reply 6 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    And what's wrong with PDF?



    I don't think that they are saying there is anything wrong with PDF it is just that they would prefer to have the screenshots save automatically as jpeg's (which you used to be able to do before 10.2).



    Yes, you can export from Preview, but the point is, you should not have to.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    And what's wrong with PDF?



    well, for one, apple doesn't give any ability to change the file size or compression of the resulting PDF. they tend to turn out unnecessarily large.
  • Reply 8 of 26
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Smaller than JPEG and JPEG2000 though, and way smaller than TIFF which someone suggested here. Only smaller format I could find was PNG.
  • Reply 9 of 26
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    Eh? With PDF, my 1024x768 screen shot is 460K, with JPG my screen shot is 352K.
  • Reply 10 of 26
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rok

    well, for one, apple doesn't give any ability to change the file size or compression of the resulting PDF. they tend to turn out unnecessarily large.



    oops, i was quoting PDFs from the print dialog box (with hi-res files to begin with). the screenshot ones aren't too bad.
  • Reply 11 of 26
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    If you have any image manipulation app which allows you to save as .JPG, you can just take the screenshot while also holding down the control key to save it to the pasteboard.
  • Reply 12 of 26
    keyboardf12keyboardf12 Posts: 1,379member
    buy snapz.



    its the bestest screen capture program for osx.
  • Reply 13 of 26
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by keyboardf12

    snapz



    Amen. I was just about to chime in with that and was disappinted to see you beat me to the punch.







    I find myself using it constantly.
  • Reply 14 of 26
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Count me as the third proud supporter/user of SnapzProX. The best, hands down. I use it ALL THE TIME and I'd recommend it to anyone finding themselves taking more than five screenshots a day.







    If you're a writer, trainer, creating tutorials, etc., it's really a "must have".
  • Reply 15 of 26
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    edited.
  • Reply 16 of 26
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    The Milkman you are in Lebanon! I am in Hartford! PM me or AIM me at AquaIX or something that is awesome.



    PDF sucks. It is not an image format. Can Word open PDF? Can Safari natively without a plugin? And it's annoying to always make Preview export or even use Kunvert. I don't do enough screenshots to buy Snapz but I do recognize that it's the man when it comes to screenshots. Thanks anway... I guess we can't make it save to jpg. I hope they change that in Panther.



    PDF should be just that, P should stand for Portable, not Proprietary. If Adobe wants people to use it they should open the standard up, so Safari can natively open PDF, search for text, select it, then copy.
  • Reply 17 of 26
    I always take a screen shot then right click on it and select my handy convert to jpeg function







    This is done with the software "On My Command". I love it.
  • Reply 18 of 26
    mokimoki Posts: 551member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kcmac

    Doesn't really change your situation but I use IMage instead of Kunvert.



    http://www.kokorozashi.org/products/iMage/




    Or you can use Snapz Pro X to save directly to .jpg, or any other format you like. It has many other features as well... http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/utilities/snapzprox/
  • Reply 19 of 26
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by moki

    Or you can use Snapz Pro X to save directly to .jpg, or any other format you like. It has many other features as well... http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/utilities/snapzprox/



    Well, moki, we all like Ambrosia SW and I, personally, have a deep respect for Snapz. The things is: taking a screenshot in a raster image format is the most obvious thing. Mac OS could do it since System 7 (or 6? It's been for so long that I can't even remember). Mac OS 10.0 through 10.1.x could do it as well. WTF?! Cocoa has NSImage which can do the thing automagically. Why PDF? It's the most strange choice (they just could not afford CMYK EPS, you know) to store a set of pixels representing a screen image. In fact, somebody at Apple must have gone crazy or unexpectedly got fired and taken revenge on all OS X users. I don't mind PDF when I print documents. I don't mind EPS at my pre-press work. I just can't think of any justification of the format chosen to save screen shots.
  • Reply 20 of 26
    123123 Posts: 278member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by costique

    Well, moki, we all like Ambrosia SW and I, personally, have a deep respect for Snapz. The things is: taking a screenshot in a raster image format is the most obvious thing. Mac OS could do it since System 7 (or 6? It's been for so long that I can't even remember). Mac OS 10.0 through 10.1.x could do it as well. WTF?! Cocoa has NSImage which can do the thing automagically. Why PDF? It's the most strange choice (they just could not afford CMYK EPS, you know) to store a set of pixels representing a screen image. In fact, somebody at Apple must have gone crazy or unexpectedly got fired and taken revenge on all OS X users. I don't mind PDF when I print documents. I don't mind EPS at my pre-press work. I just can't think of any justification of the format chosen to save screen shots.



    Well, they did it to stop people using jpeg (not suitable for screenshots at all) which I think is good. However, they should have gone with png instead of pdf.
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