Filed under: OS, Tips and tricks, Terminal Tips
Change Tiger's default screenshot to PDF
With Tiger, Apple changed the default screenshot format from PDF to PNG. I can understand why. You can easily create a PDF by "printing" any file from the Finder, and when I create a screenshot I'm typically going to use it as an image file anyway, so PNG works. But what if you typically create PDFs? There are a number of options available, of course, but if you'd like to just cut to the chase and change Tiger's default, Creative Bits shows you how.It's as simple as launching Terminal and typing
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf. That's it! To switch back, change the "pdf" to "png." They also provide a nice list of available screenshot commands. Check it out.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Different Computers said 8:56AM on 12-14-2005
Too bad that
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
sets it to jpg 2000.
type jpeg does the same.
Reply
Mark said 3:39PM on 12-13-2005
ok here's one for you? anyone know how to take Panther's default and change it from pdf to ANYTHING OTHER THAN PDF?
thanks.
Reply
axel said 10:16AM on 12-15-2005
I can't stop wondering who that boy on the pdf icon is. A young Steve Mayby?
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brian said 4:05PM on 12-13-2005
Googling for 'defaults write com.apple.screencapture type panther' yields this page, which seems to be bad news for those of us who hate Spotlight.
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-41072.html
Seems that there's no hope for 10.3 users. In the meantime, I use this:
http://www.pycs.net/bbum/2005/3/4/
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Noel said 4:25PM on 12-13-2005
I use Ego Systems Screenshots tiny app and choose from 11 different file types without even thinking of Terminal! Can I get a what what?
-N
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Tice said 5:17PM on 12-13-2005
You also can do this without the terminal using my script.app called ScreenshotFormatX ( http://www.mac4ever.de/software/ ). You can choose between BMP, GIF, JPEG 2000, JPG, PDF, PICT, PNG, PSD and TIFF.
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BJ Gilbert said 5:26PM on 12-13-2005
You can also do the same thing with jpg and gif.
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DF said 5:58PM on 12-13-2005
If you're not a fan of Terminal, there are also some great utilities that make the process even easier (and give you more choices, to boot):
savescreenie (free):
http://www.imovieplugins.com/other%20products/savescreenie.html
Screenshots Preference Pane ($2 and my personal favorite -- it also lets you choose where screenshots are saved):
http://www.ego-systems.com/Products/screenshotsprefpane.html
Screenshot Settings (free):
http://scriptbuilders.net/files/screenshotsettings1.0.1.html
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