Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Freeware
Camouflage 1.20
If you're like me, then you like to take screenshots and send them to people -- maybe it's to help them through an issue with their computer, or just to document something -- either way, icons on your desktop can get in the way. There are a couple things you could do to get rid of the icons: use command + shift + 4 + space bar to only take a picture of the current window, or you could move all of your icons to a folder.This is where Camouflage comes in. It allows you to hide your desktop icons with a single click. Just click it's menu bar icon and ... BOOM ... the icons fade off your desktop. Click the menu bar icon again to have them fade back in. You can also assign a hot key and use a custom wallpaper when it is activated. Sometimes it's the simple things that amaze me.
Best of all, Camouflage is absolutely free (donations are accepted). You can download Camouflage from the developer's website.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Lilly said 12:23PM on 2-12-2008
Camouflage is cool, but I use Desktopple (http://foggynoggin.com/desktopple). The "Pro" version is well worth the $17, and they've got a free version, too. I paid for the Pro version for all the productivity extras.
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Jonathan said 12:28PM on 2-12-2008
It just places an image (by default this will be your desktop picture) on top of your desktop, really. If you hit F11 you will see your original desktop with the icons.
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Mat Lu said 12:29PM on 2-12-2008
I like Backdrop for this because it's a stand-alone application that I can launch and then quit when I'm done with the screenshots. That way you don't waste system resources the majority of the time when you're not using it. I also like to use the default Leopard desktop for screenshots instead of my actual desktop.
http://www.johnhaney.com/backdrop/
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Karsten said 1:18PM on 2-12-2008
Hi,
thanks for blogging about Camouflage!
Actually, the feature of using Camouflage for screenshots is just a side-effect of Camouflage's actual idea: It hides the icons away so that you can work with your desktop in a different way. You can still drop files on it, but as soon as you need to access the files on your desktop you'll just have to double-click on it and a finder window will pop up showing the desktop folder. If this window is set to always open in list view it is much easier and way faster to work with the desktop than in the normal way, at least if you have a lot of files there.
That's also the reason why Camouflage is a background application so that it doesn't get in your way.
Karsten
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Luigi193 said 1:48PM on 2-12-2008
Or you could add the quit item to the finder
defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem 1
And then apple Q and all the icons disappear...
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geoffmitch said 2:47PM on 2-12-2008
"Desktop Curtain" from ManyTricks has been around for some time and elegantly does the same thing, and it's donationware to boot. http://www.manytricks.com/desktopcurtain/
Or there's always 'Spaces'; active, drag what you want to capture, select that space and take your best shot
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rp said 7:22PM on 2-13-2008
Great, but everyone still knows (how many times do I have to tell you people?) that no self respecting Mac user clutters up their desktop with files and folders that shouldn't be there. You see, that's why they created these things called "folders." Folders exist so you can put things into them. This is called "organization."
Also, hot keys. Use hot keys.
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Gilla said 9:40PM on 2-13-2008
This program does not work for me. It sits in my Application folder dead in the water. When I click on it, it highlights, but nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?
G
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newsray said 2:32PM on 2-12-2008
When you click on it, Camouflage opens to the menu bar. You will need to configure it from there to see anything.