Microsoft switched to the Windows Aero theme engine in Windows Vista, and kept that core engine in Windows 7 as well. Aero, among other things, adds eye candy to the Windows desktop. It adds transparency effects and shadows to windows, which is all fine and good, unless a screenshot needs to be taken.
Screenshots with Aero effects enabled look unprofessional, largely because of the transparency effect, as the underlying colors of windows or the desktop are automatically included in the screenshot.
Take a look at two screenshots of the same window, the first with Aero enabled.
screenshots windows aero
screenshot without aero
The second screenshot was taken with the portable software Shotty, and Windows Aero enabled. An alternative to that is to change the default theme of Windows Vista or Windows 7, so that Aero is disabled. This allows the creation of screenshots without transparency and shadow effects.
But Shotty is probably the better solution for many users, who want to work with Windows Aero, but need to take screenshots without Aero effects.
Shotty comes with an installer, that offers to install the program or extract it and make it a portable application. An icon is placed in the system tray upon startup, which contains configuration settings, and links to program features.
shotty screenshot
Screenshots are created by pressing Ctrl-Print on the keyboard, or by left-clicking the system tray icon. Both can take screenshots of the full screen, or a single window, but not a custom selection.
Shotty takes high quality screenshots by default, this and the default keyboard shortcut can be changed in the program’s options.
The screenshot is displayed directly in the included (basic) image editor if the keyboard shortcut has been used to take it. The system tray icon on the other hand offers controls to directly save the screenshot, send it to the editor or to one of the supported image hosts.
shotty controls
The image editor includes several popular image editing options, including the ability to highlight or diffuse an area, add text to the screenshot, or to cut the image to keep only the selected region.
image editor
Screenshots that have been edited may be saved to the local computer, uploaded to one of the supported image hosts, or discarded. Shotty supports four different image hosts currently. There is unfortunately no option to add a custom ftp server to the upload options.
Shotty is an excellent tool to create screenshots in Windows, especially for users who regularly take screenshots but do not want Aero effects included in the shots. The download is provided at the developer’s website, the program is compatible with Windows 2000 or alter and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0, which is included in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
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That isn’t what Shotty is supposed to do at all, see lifehacker’s post on it.
http://lifehacker.com/5598528/shotty-captures-screenshots-while-preserving-aero+glass-effects
It’s supposed to save the transparency, like ZScreen, WindowClippings and others.
Alan, well if I take a screenshot with Shotty it removes the transparency effects from it. From the Lifehacker article it seems as if Shotty would use transparency on the screenshot borders. Several comments at Lifehacker state that it is not working for them as well, some say it is working.
Here’s a comment from the LH page.
liquidfoo: Update: [Preserving transparency] seems to only work when pressing Ctrl+PrtScr not when clicking on the tray icon. Still of course no blur..
I assume that it is just a bug, should be easy to fix.
Ah, now I get it. So we are both right, somehow.
just a note that screenshot captor can capture aero transparency effects as well, and preserve the transparency in the captured png images; it also has some additional tweaks and tricks to improve the look of these aero windows that use shadows:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/screenshotcaptor/index.html
-mouser
I had looked at SC before (being a FARR user with a lifetime license :), but it’s definitely far too much for me.
I just want an app that I can run, take a screenshot, automatically save it and then it closes, no interaction needed (for full-screen captures, anyway). One day, I might actually make it, if I don’t find it.
Thanks for your review (even it’s not really correct ^^)
Indeed, I haven’t thought this would be a problem for so many users. Shotty was originally designed with the idea to take _real_ screenshots. That means, if aero glass is enabled it takes an real copy of the application window (that’s why it flickers during taking screenshot). So there is no need to make border and shadow redraw like in some other applications.
The screenshot list (left click on the systray icon) was basically for fullscreen shots. Anyways this way you can create screenshots of (some) minimized applications (but not in high quality, this requires the application to be completely visible on screen).
But I will see what I can do for the next version, to make it at least clearer to understand.
To make Aero screenshots (with _real_ transparency, see http://shotty.devs-on.net/LiveExample/ for an example, the notepad window is moveable) please click on the application to create a screenshot from and press the hotkey (default is [ctrl]+[print]). Thats all :)
Sorry that this was causing some problems!
I forgot:
Of course the generated (semitransparent) image don’t blur with the background. This is not possible because no image format supports that. This is not an issue by Shotty, WindowClippings, ZScreen, whatever.