Automating screen grabs

March 4, 2006

There’s probably a terribly simple answer out there which will help me save some time. For a while now I’ve been considering how to best manage things I see which I like the design of in some way or another. Here’s some of the methods I’ve used in the past:

  1. Bookmarking them in my browser - Completely messy
  2. Screenshot, paste into Fireworks, crop, save to a folder called Scrapbook - Nice because I can see at a glance all the site designs I like but it’s time-consuming and it’s located on my computer
  3. Bookmarking them at delicious - ok because I can access them from any computer but I can’t see the designs at a glance

I like how Andy Budd has his design inspiration photoset over at Flickr. It means I can see the designs at a glance and they’re not located on my computer. However, it seems that this is also the most time consuming: screen shot, paste, crop, save, upload, organise.

Are there any shortcuts?

See also
Comments

  1. I save websites that are basically long copy sales letters with SnagIt ! I click capture and save them to a ” swipe ” file, in case I ever write a sales letter on that subject.

    About 2 clicks and having them on my computer is not all that bad. At least I know they’re safe and I could put them on some other media.

    We use SnagIt ! to capture images for our 14 blogs.

    — Mike, March 4, 2006

  2. an extension for firefox called “scrapbook” is your friend. here’s a link that tells you all you need to know http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/

    cheers.

    — Mario, March 4, 2006

  3. Mario - thanks so much. I had a look at scrapbook and it will come in handy for saving code :) I had a look around for other Firefox extensions and found ScreenGrab! which will save me some time - no more editing it in Firefox, the extension even stitches the page together if it’s longer than the window :D

    — Rachel, March 4, 2006

  4. Thumblicious could be the perfect online solution for you:
    http://thumblicio.us/

    Take a look for example at my del.icio.us bookmarks tagged as good, web and design:
    http://thumblicio.us/index.php?username=strict%2Fgood%2Bweb%2Bdesign

    — strict, March 5, 2006

  5. Also thanxzzzz from my side for scrapbook. One of the biggest tips sinds the last month.

    — redstar, March 5, 2006

  6. Cropper also makes taking screenshots and cropping them a WHOLE lot easier. I used to do the whole copy/paste/fireworks/crop thing too, and it just doesn’t make much sense.

    Try using cropper, it’s really easy to use and totally worthwhile.

    — Brian Shih, March 8, 2006

  7. Brian, that’s awesome! I just downloaded and tested out Cropper and I think that between the two (ScrrenGrab! for the whole page - including stuff that’s ‘below the fold’ and Cropper for little bits and pieces).

    I wish I’d thought to ask earlier!

    — Rachel, March 8, 2006

  8. If you are on a Mac, Paparazzi is awesome.
    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24625

    — Bart, March 22, 2006