Taking Screengrabs

The easiest way to document your work is by taking a screenshot or making a video. It’s also the way most people will experience your work, and the vehicle by which your work will most likely live on. Let’s get adept at documenting our work this way.

Screenshot Images

You can take a screenshot of your application with an external tool or from within the app itself. You can then use PhotoshopGimp, or any number of utilities to crop and adjust the image. All operating systems have a native screenshot function:

  • How to take a screenshot in Mac OSX
  • How to take a screenshot in Windows
  • How to take a screenshot in Linux

Another method is to save a frame directly from your application itself:

Screen-Grabbed Video

To record video of your app running, you will need a screen recording application:

(You could also save out a sequence of frames, and compile them into video later.) After you have your video, it might be nice to do some editing … consider Premiere, AfterEffects, FinalCut, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc.