The capture decorations checkbox controls whether or not the titlebar and edges of a window are included. It is only relevant when Screen-Shooter is taking a picture of a single window rather than of the whole screen or of a rectangle you have selected. The default is for this to be checked and for the titlebar and window borders to be included in the shot.

The audio feedback checkbox controls whether or not Screen-Shooter will beep when it actually takes the shot. The default is to beep.

The spurious options checkbox controls whether some of Screen-Shooter's more esoteric options are available. The default is off (i.e., they are not available). Checking this option makes two sections called Spurious 1 and Spurious 2 visible in the preferences dialogue.

When taking shots of the desktop, you can set a delay between clicking on the Screen-Shooter and the shot being taken. The delay can be up to one minute. This can be very useful when you want to focus on a particular window or if you want to bring up a menu.

Compression quality does not refer to how tightly a file is compressed, but to how well it retains detail after compression. The higher the compression quality, the better the quality of the image, but the larger the size of the resulting file. It is relevant when you are saving something as a JPEG, a MIFF or a PNG file. The default compression quality is 75%.

A fairly self-explanatory option: if this is selected, the resulting image will be in monochrome. This is off by default.

Another self-explanatory option: if this is selected, the colours of the image are reversed so that white becomes black, pale purple becomes greenish, and so on. Lovely -- but rarely useful! Off by default.

The directory to save the shot in must exist already: Screen-Shooter will not create it for you. If you try to save it to somewhere that does not exist, then no screenshot will be taken. The default directory is ~/: your home directory.

Screen-Shooter is designed to allow the user maximum flexibility in naming each shot. The filename field (as well as the directory field) is passed to a shell for normal shell expansion before being used. This allows you to use the output of programs, scripts or environment variables to name your shots. The reason for this is to allow unique filenames. By default, Screen-Shooter will create a name which is based on the time and date it was taken: this of course should always be unique. The default filename is `date +%Y_%m_%d_%H%M%S`_shot.jpg. As you can see, the filename includes the output of the date command in order to generate a datestamp. So it makes up a name based on the date, using the format the percentage symbols and letters tell it. Then it adds the rest of the name from outside the backticks to the date it has used. Explanations of the cryptic percentage symbols can be found in man date, but the arguments in the default filename are:

Other examples of filenames you might use are:

• screenshot-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S`.jpg

• pic-`date +%H%M%S`.png

• myshot.jpg

• `my_own_script_to_create_a_filename`.jpg

The filename suffix determines the filetype. Screen-Shooter supports what can only be described as a ridiculous number of different image formats. Try your luck. For a full list, type man convert. You can even try .html to create a client-side image map, and wild things like that.

If your filename suffix is not something Screen-Shooter recognises, or you omit one, it will save the shot as a MIFF file. Use the convert utility to change the format later.

The view screenshot checkbox is unchecked by default. After checking it, you will get a view of the shot once it has been taken. You need to specify a viewer for this: the default is ee, which launches the Electric Eyes image viewing program.

None of the other options on this page will have any effect if create thumbnail is not checked. By default, it is off.

This is the percentage of the original's size that the thumbnail will be. The default is 25%.

This is the quality of compression to use. As with the general preferences, the better the quality of the compression, the more detail will be preserved, and the bigger the thumbnail will be. The default for a thumbnail is 50%.

This is the prefix to attach to the thumbnail filename to distinguish it from the full-sized shot. If you leave this blank, the thumbnail will overwrite the full-sized shot and you will lose the full-sized one. The default prefix is "thumb-".

The high-quality intermediate checkbox is off by default. It generates a MIFF image whilst making the thumbnail. A 'lossy' file format refers to a file format where data and detail is irretrievably lost, but which is typically much smaller than a non-lossy format image of the same thing. The typical example of a lossy file format is JPEG.

The normalize image checkbox transforms the image to span the full range of colour values. Default is off.

The equalize image checkbox enables histogram-based image equalization, which is a process which compensates for low contrast in an image and brings out more detail. Default is off.

The enhance image checkbox tells Screen-Shooter to clean up the image as best it can, and try to remove any noise. Default is off.

The despeckle image checkbox reduces spotting by removing single pixels which are very different in colour from their surroundings. The default is off.

Sharpening the image sharpens the image. The default is a factor of zero, but it can be raised to 100%.

This is how many degrees clockwise to rotate the image. The default is 0: unrotated.

The gamma checkbox enables you to adjust the gamma. The gamma value is a value to do with the intensity of the lightness of an image (and rather complicated). The range Screen-Shooter provides is from 0.8 to 2.3 with a default of 1.6. This is not a linear (straight) scale so you will need to experiment. Lowering the gamma produces a darker image. Raising it produces a lighter one.

The create frame checkbox is off by default. Checking it produces a frame around the shot taken. This frame is always grey, but Tom Gilbert notes, "if anybody requests it, I'll add options for setting its colour".

This determines the size of the frame in pixels. The range is from one pixel to fifty. The default frame is six pixels.

This gives a vertical mirror image of the shot. It can be combined with the following option. The default is unchecked.

This gives a horizontal mirror image of the shot. It can be combined with the preceding option. The default is unchecked.

Embossing an image produces an image drained of most colour and drawn in relief. The default is unchecked.

By placing a script or program name in the box and checking the send to checkbox, you can invoke that script or program to be automatically run on the image and thumbnail. This could be used to print the image out automatically, to invoke a script to catalogue the files, or to add the pictures to a website automatically. A sample script for the latter is available with Screen-Shooter.

The blur image checkbox is off by default and the blur factor is set to zero. By checking the checkbox and altering the blur factor you can blur the image. Even at the highest rating (100), a typical font on a typical terminal window is still just about decipherable.

The charcoal checkbox is off by default and the charcoal factor is set to zero. Charcoaling produces a monochrome image with a slight smudginess which increases with the charcoal factor. It does not deal with highlighted text very well, though. The maximum factor for this is 100.

The find edges checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Using it produces a monochrome image where, rather than highlighting areas of different colours, it highlights the edges and borders between areas of different colour. Very interesting on maps and astronomical photos. The maximum factor for this is 100.

The implode image checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Using it warps the resulting screenshot as if a weight had been pressed into the centre of the shot. The maximum factor for this is 100.

The painted effect checkbox is off by default and the radius to paint around each pixel is set to zero. Checking it with a radius of about 5 produces an effect like an Impressionist painting. Checking it with a radius of about 50 will eat your CPU cycles like mad for ten minutes on a reasonably powerful machine. The maximum radius is 100, but you will need either a large machine or a lot of patience for that.

The solarise checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Solarising is an effect first noticed in developing photographs from negatives. It results in a negative image with different colouring from that of the "inverted colours" option in the general preferences. A solarise factor of 5 will produce startling results, but the maximum factor is 100.

The spread image checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. The result of spreading the image pixels by a radius of about 5 is similar to looking through lightly frosted glass; for heavily-frosted glass, try 25. The maximum is 100.

The swirl pixels checkbox is off by default and the factor is set to zero. Swirling the pixels results in a distorted image similar to an imploded image except that it swirls around the central point rather than stretching to it. A radius of 20 produces an effect like a fairground distorting mirror, only not a mirror-image; 90 a much increased version (although text is still legible); at 180 the entire image is warped; and at the maximum of 360 a spiral effect is created.