Last week I told you about several applications which would enable you to take screenshots from your computer. They were SnagIt, Snipping Tool and Screenshot Captor. Those reviews led to several emails I received from readers so we will take a look at a couple of their questions.
Someone asked why they would need a screenshot. Well, many people may not; however, many others would desire this ability. It basically allows you to take a picture of anything you see on your computer.
I will pretend that you are looking at a new piece of furniture online that you would like to show your spouse. You could email them the link to the site but you could also just send a picture (that way the price is hidden…you sneak). Once you take the "picture" of the chair or whatever you can save it or edit it in your screenshot program. When you are ready you can insert it into an email and send it on its way.
Say you are going to do a presentation using a paper handout. You can include screenshots of anything which appears on your computer and is related to what you are promoting. You can add text, pointers and other graphics to make it more professional. Also, the same can be done with any slideshow software like Microsoft PowerPoint. You can make some very good looking and professional "shows."
Next, I received an email asking about which file type should be used for saving pictures. In many cases it is not vital to the average presentation. That being said there are a basic few to pick from. Basically today the standard is JPG which is a lossy format. This means that it cuts some of the pixels out when edited or losses resolution to some extent. A lossy format is not as clear and sharp the more you enlarge them. For finer resolution you can use a lossless format type.
The most common lossless formats are PNG or TIF which have better resolution but larger file sizes. You may see GIF occasionally but this is a very lossy format and not good except when you need a small graphic. Since GIFs have such a small file size they are often used on websites so the sites will load faster…less information to download to your computer.
My opinion is that if I plan to print it or enlarge it I prefer JPG or PNG. Yes, JPG is lossy but unless you make them very large or edit them a lot they will look very good. For emailing to friends and presentations go with any format; however, JPG is usually the winner for me. With a JPG containing up to 16.7 million individual colors it looks pretty good most of the time.
It is different for photography as RAW and TIF (or TIFF) are the highest color quality and resolution. But we are not looking at that.
According to research, January, 2014 marked the first time that mobile internet usage exceeded PC usage by approximately five percent. So friends you send screenshots and photos to, could very likely be looking at them on their phones or tablets, and resolution may not matter at all.
