Photographing Software Screen

padu

I need a high resolution screen capture. I tried capturing the screen using the regular print screen method and then upsizing using bicubic (and bicubic sharp) on photoshop.

Results are ok, but I'd like to have sharper and higher res pictures. I tried taking several shots of the screen, and it's very bad (maybe it is my monitor, a SyncMaster CRT). Some nasty moire patterns appear.

The best result so far was using a narrow aperture (about f/16) and ISO 80. One of the problems is that the screen I want to capture is dynamic... so I have a problem with slow speeds.

I tried using a median filter and then downsizing the image on photoshop. It gets better, but still unnaceptable. Next I will try on a LCD monitor.

Any other suggestions?

Cheers

silica

Check out this program:

http://www.screencapture.com/ezepro.htm

According to the documentation, it can produce high resolution TIFF images. And there's a free trial.

padu

silica wrote:

Check out this program:

http://www.screencapture.com/ezepro.htm

According to the documentation, it can produce high resolution TIFF images. And there's a free trial.

I believe that no matter what capture program you use, the resolution will always be 72ppi. If you want to increase that, you need to perform upsizing. I'll take a look at that program, but I believe it just does what I'm doing with photoshop but in fewer steps...

colourbox

padu wrote:

I believe that no matter what capture program you use, the resolution will always be 72ppi.

Actually, it's like a digital camera. There is no intrinsic resolution, it's all about the total number of pixels. A 1024x768 screen is going to be one resolution on a 14" monitor and a much lower resolution on a 17" monitor.

Regardless, I don't think you can get a better picture by photographing it. The only benefit I see from that is fuzzing the edges through the act of photographing. That's an analog attempt at edge smoothing (anti-aliasing), not sharpening or increasing resolution.

If you are on Windows, I would try enlarging the user interface so that each object and letter uses more pixels. First set the monitor to its maximum "resolution" (what that really means for monitors is "pixel dimensions"). Then adjust Windows so that the title bar, UI text, etc. uses larger fonts. If it's on a web page, hike up the font size. This might not work for everything, but it's worth a shot. This will definitely work for text, but since images are often locked to the screen grid they may not enlarge well or at all. The Mac has fewer controls for size of UI elements.

Future versions of Mac OS X and Windows are supposed to have resolution-independent user interface so that scaling and screen shots don't have jaggies.

Shay Stephens

Since the screen is made up of discreat pixels, taking a picture with a camera that has higher resolution than the screen is not going to result in a better image. In otherwords, a square pixel is going to look square regardless if it is composed of a single pixel or dozens. Blocky is as blocky looks ;-)

Upsize the screen grab if you must, it will look better than a photo taken of the screen everytime.

padu

Shay Stephens wrote:

Since the screen is made up of discreat pixels, taking a picture with a camera that has higher resolution than the screen is not going to result in a better image. In otherwords, a square pixel is going to look square regardless if it is composed of a single pixel or dozens. Blocky is as blocky looks ;-)

Upsize the screen grab if you must, it will look better than a photo taken of the screen everytime.

Yes, I quickly realized that, silly me.

Thanks!

Art Scott

I personally have never liked using PS for ANY upresing....Go to ONONE software and get a trial version of the latest Genuine fractals....make your screen grab....go to image size and only check constrain proportions make 300dpi....this image will get much smalller while retaining all of the pixels...now take into GF and upres as much as 600% to get the size you want at 300dpi.

They yellow ONONE is your link to the 30day trial download page for GF PrintPro 4.1......{The Genuine Fractals Print Pro demo allows you to scale 20 images and then the demo will expire. }

It is the 3rd from the top of the download page.

I have been using GF since it was at version3 and you ahd to save a .stn then go thru saving as a jpg ...now that is all obsolete and everythig can pretty much be done all at once....

Good luck and post us the results to see the outcome if you don't mind.