InstantShot! » Comments


~ Links & comments we found ~

 

NosillaCast #86: «I give InstantShot! a 100% approval rating, I’ll definitely be using this tool all the time». A very nice description of the main features.

MacBreak Weekly 32: «it's about as straightforward as it can be».

DMSolutions' blog: the Japanese blog of one of our translator.

Lifehacker's download of the day

Glenn Wolsey's blog: «InstantShot! has taken the scene and made the task of taking screenshots as simple as one, two, three».

The Unofficial Apple Blog: «this little menubar utility waits quietly until you need to make a screenshot and is only a mouse-click away».

Digg.com: «crazy amount of options».

VersionTracker: «since it launched a few months ago, the developer has really listened to suggestions for improvements».

hackaddict.net: «InstantShot! receives a perfect 5 out of 5».

 

~ Your comments ~

 

barra spaziatrice

phill - 27 Dec 2006 10:43

bello il vs programma, peccatto che non ce il comandi cattura finestra (barra spaziatrice) se ce anche questo diventa fantastico !
 

Grande

davide - 15 Jan 2007 12:56

Gran bel proggramma, complimenti e grazie!
 

Hello

wilhel1812 - 15 Jan 2007 20:48

Hi! i don't understand this language, but i hope it's possible to give request for future features here.

When i used windows, i used an application called imageshack quick shot. It took pictures of your screen, but it also automatically uploaded the pics to imageshack. if this is easy to code, i think a lot of people would be glad. i've been looking for this for mac for a long time.

if you didn't understand a shit of my crappy language, you can mail me at wilhel1812 [ at ] gmail
 

re: Hello

Matteo - 16 Jan 2007 02:51

hello wilhel. Maybe you've not noticed but this article is available in English too, through the British flag in the upper right corner.
Anyway, we thank you for your feedback. We'll investigate the matter for a future release.
 

Great program

jazz-maido - 22 Jan 2007 18:18

Thank you for this very useful program....
I insalled it, and enjoy it already
 

Heaven-sent Software

Peter D - 22 Jan 2007 19:45

Literally yesterday I decided that I needed a way to take a picture of my screen every 5 minutes so that I would be able to better remember my activities so that I could accurately bill my clients. I searched the Internet but all screen capture programs were either for older Macs or cost a lot of money. Then today I saw a link to your program on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. That is kismet! Thank you for a wonderful, easy program!
 

multiple monitors

wil s - 22 Jan 2007 21:58

doesn't seem to work on multiple monitors
am I missing how to do this?
 

captures multiples dans un un

eliot - 23 Jan 2007 10:54

bien ...
mais un plus qui démarquerait des autres utilitaires de ce type, serait de pouvoir lancer des captures multiples dans un un rectangle ...
 

re: monitors & rectangles

Matteo - 23 Jan 2007 13:36

Thanks for your feedbacks!
We'll probably add support for multiple monitors on the next release.
We were already thinking about using rectangles for the timed shots, so it will be a feature to look for in the next release too.
 

Suggestions for next release

Scott - 23 Jan 2007 17:03

Great app, thanks! Here are a few ideas for the future:

Customizable keyboard shortcuts for the screen captures, so we can avoid mousing through your menus for each capture.

Allow the capture sound to be set by the user (I'd prefer a quick "click" to that clanking sound).

Remember the rectangle from the last capture, so if you're capturing the same spot repeatedly, the user doesn't have to keep re-drawing it.
 

re: suggestions

Matteo - 23 Jan 2007 20:30

Thanks Scott. We were already thinking about the "previous rectangle" feature. We'll also keep your other suggestions in high consideration!

Everyone: we're finding a new hosting solution for our projects as this unexpected popularity has outrun our current server's limits. In the meanwhile please do use the MacUpdate's mirror they are kindly offering us.
 

feature request

David K - 23 Jan 2007 21:26

Love the way this app works. I have one request which is a preference to prompt for filename after each capture.

Thanks!
 

re: feature request

Matteo - 23 Jan 2007 23:31

no problem!
 

Clipboard format

Jessica - 24 Jan 2007 06:42

Very valuable program. It appears that images captured to the clipboard are only in .tiff format which can't be used by a program I am using (ScreenSteps). Would it be possible to have a preference item for the clipboard format? Thanks.
 

How quick?

Andrew - 24 Jan 2007 23:40

How fast is this capable of taking screenshots? Because I set the multiple-shots mode it to 1/8 second intervals, and it wasn't keeping up.
 

re: clipboard & quickness

Matteo - 25 Jan 2007 02:40

@Jessica: I've just finished studying the problem, the option will surely be in the next version.

@Andrew: the gap you put is between the end of one shot and the start of the next one, otherwise if too short it would clog your machine. On my machine (a G4 1.67Ghz 1440x900) a shot takes between 0.1 and 0.2 seconds. The feature is actually thought to work in medium-to-long intervals (like 5 seconds to 5 minutes): when you put a very short interval the performance totally depends on your system's power. Also note that while choosing a compressed format (jpg) increases the time spent to compress the image, the data written to disk is much less.
 

Filename Prompt

Scott - 27 Jan 2007 01:31

If you add the prompt for filename, it would make a great app a perfect app!!!
 

Mirror link?

Darryl - 1 Feb 2007 16:53

I'll look for the MacUpdate mirror. It would definitely help your bandwidth to have a direct download link for various mirrors on this page.

I found this application from the Apple pages. Thanks!
 

Versiontracker mirror

Darryl - 1 Feb 2007 17:02

I found the page on Versiontracker for this application.

www.versiontracker.com
 

re: mirror

Matteo - 1 Feb 2007 21:49

Darryl, thanks for the link, I put it up myself and it's not pointing at any other mirror than our very one. The only other mirror apart from ours tha I know of is that of MacUpdate.
Anyway, our local mirror (on 110mb) should work perfectly now.
 

Kudos and feature request

George - 5 Feb 2007 05:57

Thanks for a very useful piece of software.
The long interval between multiple shots is exactly what I was looking for.

Would like to be able to make multiple shots of a specific part of the screen.
Start multiple shots inside rect>
 

re: feature request

Matteo - 5 Feb 2007 13:41

thanks for your feedback George. As a matter of fact we're already working on that feature for the next version :)
 

timing in multiple shot mode

macosnoob - 8 Feb 2007 00:52

Why does the time vary between shots when using "multiple shots"? When I set the "multiple shots every..." preference to 5 seconds and timestamp the images (with the ":t" setting in preferences), most images are 5 seconds apart, but some are 6 seconds. The same thing happens if I set the preference to 10 seconds: most images are 10 seconds apart, but some are 11. My CPU in Activity Monitor is fine--never more than 15% (on a MacBookPro, 2Ghz, 1M RAM).

I wanted to take the images from InstantShot! and make them into a movie using QuickTime's "Open Image Sequence..." command, but InstantShot!'s multiple shot timing doesn't seem regular enough to do it.

Even so, this is a handy application!
 

re: timing

Matteo - 8 Feb 2007 02:11

thanks for your feedback. Please read the previous comment "re: clipboard & quickness". You're actually setting an interval between the end of a shot (grab & save to disk with compression) and the start of the next one, so the timing can't never be very precise.
We're considering to put an option for "exact timings" but I think it may be dangerous for very short intervals - it may very well hang your computer or expose unexpected problems. And anyway I guess that really exact timings would be utopian to achieve no matter what.
 

MUITO BOM

rafael - 13 Feb 2007 21:43

Im from brazil! and i use stant shot!
Geeting from brazil!
www.rfdslabs.com.br
Cya
 

Capture a menu?

Meromo - 20 Feb 2007 10:35

Lovely app - and I second Scott's suggestions above.
I'm trying to capture a rectangle of iTune's File menu - any idea how I could do that?
Cheers,

Meromo.
 

cambio lingua

Vame - 6 Mar 2007 17:42

Salve

scusate, ma come si fa a cambiare la lingua del programma?

Grazie
 

re: cambio lingua

Matteo - 6 Mar 2007 21:27

@Vame: le lingue sono disponibili dalle informazioni sull'applicazione da finder: c'è una linguetta "lingue" dove sono spuntate le varie lingue: il sistema sceglie quella con la priorità più alta in base alle preferenze del sistema. Puoi cambiare le priorità per tutto il sistema nel pannello "Internazionale" delle preferenze, oppure puoi disattivare le lingue a priorità più alta di quella desiderata togliendo le spunte dal pannello di informazioni della specifica applicazione.
 

help needed to make the pop up

naz - 7 Mar 2007 00:19

i was very happy with instant shot until i downloaded the new version!!!
lovely app indeed...
this new version has an irritating pop up window below my screen when i select "shot inside a rec" option as i always do.
it says;
"click ona window to capture it or click and drag to define a generic rectangle.
right click to use the last rectangle.
press esc or cod- to cancel the operation"
OK, thats fine, i learned a lot from this, thank u; but there is no way to make it disappear!!!
i dont want this to appear in my shots, and it does!!!
i looked everywhere for a clue to turn it off but there seems to be no option for this.
i am a mac user, if this makes a difference in your comments.
please help...
thanx....naz
 

re: help needed

Matteo - 7 Mar 2007 03:21

@naz: I'm sorry you experience this problem. It really isn't supposed to happen and you are the first one to say it. Does also the red frame around a selected window or the size tooltip of the generic rectangle appear in the final image?
I'll look into it tomorrow. Thanks for your feedback.
 

Menu Bar Icon

SteveH - 12 Mar 2007 23:23

Great application. I found it as a result of a recommendation on the MacBreak Weekly podcast this week.

I really like the functionality provided by the application and it will be a useful tool to have available when required. I do find the icon in the menu bar to be over-intrusive compared to the others in the bar - Virtue Desktops, Slim Battery Monitor Menu Meters and then some from Apple. My preference would be to have the icon smaller and the lines thinner.
 

re: menu bar icon

Matteo - 13 Mar 2007 00:58

Thanks for your feedback, we'll ponder your idea for the next release!
 

grazie

marino - 19 Mar 2007 19:26

veramente bello. grazie. è utilissima la possibilità di poter selezionare una parte dello schermo. lo consiglio a tutti.
 

Edge Effect

Chris Wong - 20 Mar 2007 05:54

Would be great if you add the ability to add edge effects like drop shadow, torn edge, wave edge, saw edge, sharktooth edge, and beveled edge instead of just the plain straight edge.
 

Possibly the best

Georges Nicolaidis - 27 Mar 2007 16:12

Your InstantShot! is certainly one of the most useful Mac utilities I have ever come across. Congratulations and thank you for saving me time and for making life easier.
 

Extremely handy app

Eugenio Palisi - 11 Apr 2007 22:45

Congrats for an extremely useful and well built piece of software. Many thanks for keeping it free for all of us!
 

Command Line Support

Fran - 4 May 2007 21:45

How can I automate Instant Shot from the (Mac Terminal) command line?
What flags are supported on the command line? If no flags are supported, what are the defaults used by Instant Shot via command line?

If this is not yet supported, it would be a great feature, so that the application itself can be scripted with a shell script, for automated uses.
 

Auto-Scroll

Chuck - 18 May 2007 15:27

Awesome app and very useful! The one feature I would love to see is the ability to take a screen shot and have it auto-scroll to capture the whole window. The Windows-only program Snagit does this and I would love to have this capability on the Mac.

Thanks!
 

Keep it capture-only

Mike from Boston - 11 Jun 2007 03:13

InstantShot! is really a perfect balance of features. I loved being able to have it launch GraphicConverter after each capture, making it easy to edit.

Now, I need to find a program that makes it easy to add call-outs and highlights.

I'd prefer you didn't put those features into InstantShot!

Great job!
 

Add captions with ImageWell

Mike from Boston - 11 Jun 2007 04:25

Check out ImageWell to add call-out balloons, shadows and other basic effects to screens, then automatically upload them to the site you specify.
 

Multiple screens

SuperGMM - 23 Jun 2007 13:15

What a great program, thanks for making this. Is it possible to extend the functionality to work with multiple screens?

I would like to take multiple shots of all screens simultaneously, either to a single file for each shot or separate files for each screen pr shot..
 

Multiple Screens solution

SuperGMM - 27 Jun 2007 16:48

in case someone else wants to do what I ask above, i found a way - just make a copy of the app and start both, so you have two icons in your menu bar. then just set each of them to work on its own screen, and other folder etc..

voila

you need a reasonably powerful computer
 

Re: Multiple Screen solution

Matteo - 27 Jun 2007 20:15

@SuperGMM: thanks, I'll try to add some features like those you ask for in the next version.
I'm sorry development has slowed down recently.
 

feature request

arthur - 23 Jul 2007 12:19

Thanks for your nice appication. There are two wishes:

Is it possible to optional add an preview icon to each screenshot?

I sometimes make screenshots in black images or movies but as the InstantShot cursor is also black I just can't see where I am to start. The workaround is to make a bigger screenshot and crop it in another application, but maybe you could do one of these features:
- show guidelines that cover the whole screen (like a crosshair)
- or add the ability to edit the starting point of the rechtangle (eg. by pressing a key combination before releasing the mouse)

thanks
 

re: feature request

Matteo - 23 Jul 2007 19:13

@arthur: thanks for your feedback.

As a matter of fact the feature to resize the rectangle after the initial choice is already done and will be included in the next release.

As for the thumbnail it can be nice but it can also take some more cpu, and that's quite a nuisance especially when you're taking multiple screenshots. I'll think about it tho. In the meantime you can go to the Finder's display options for the folder in which you save the screenshots and enable just for that folder the "preview" mode: that way any image will get a thumbnail as its icon.
 

re:re: feature request

arthur - 23 Jul 2007 22:40

Thanks for the quick answer.

A short explanation for the thumbnail request: I use custom icon for all my folders cause it looks good and it's easier for me to find the right folder. When I eg. want to get the appropiate icon for my "fun video" folder I take a screenshot of scene of my favorite movie in that folder. The finder's preview mode wouldn't help here as it produces no icon to copy/paste.

I see the point with the cpu so I#d like an option in the preferences to add an icon.

Of course I could use third party software, but you know I'm a bit lazy...
 

re:re:re: feature request

Matteo - 24 Jul 2007 19:04

or you can use OUR party software, FastIcns :)
The problem would be that you still would have to do copy+paste from icon to icon. So that would be the same number of operations of opening the image with Preview, copying it to the clipboard and pasting it over the icon in the Finder's info panel of the desired folder.

BTW as I said, I'll think about that feature for the next release.
 

Awesome app!

SHRIKEE - 28 Jul 2007 00:12

Hi there, i just installed and tried your app. It's awesome!!

One thing that could be nice though is a small option to have the image uploaded to an FTP server... But without it's just as good :)
 

Single file

Gollhy - 1 Aug 2007 09:26

Hello everybody and thanks for this little but helpfully application.

Does it possible to get a snapshoot with the same file. In fact, i want to get a periodic snapshoot of my server but i need to make a single file with the same name, not multiple file with a name and a number as extension.

Thanks
 

re: Single file

Matteo - 1 Aug 2007 13:45

@Gollhy: for now you could set a simple postprocessing script that mvs created files to a single file name.

@SHRIKEE: that is already possible via postprocessing scripts. It's not the simplest solution but I'll probably explain it in more details soon or later. I'm not sure on how to implement the upload directly in the application: it would contain too many options (ftp / http upload, usernames and passwords, proxies…) and I'm not really sure I want to add all that burden to such a simple application. My original idea for that was to make the user leverage another application or a script for that in some way. I'll work more on that in the future.
 

somy buggys :=)

tester - 16 Aug 2007 10:31

Capturing cursors does not seem to work (selected Capture Cursors Image)

Timer recording w/selection to Clipboard only worked every other time, had to do twice to get into Clipboard.

Looks like a nice program otherwise, easy to use and lots features-

:)
 

re: somy buggys

Matteo - 16 Aug 2007 13:41

@tester: thanks for your feedback. However I use the timed shot in a rectangle with the cursor grabbing enabled and a delay of 5 seconds all the time and you are the first to report such problems. Which Mac model and screen resolution are you using? How much delay have you set for the grab? If you can, please send us an email detailing the situation in which the problems occur. The email address is in the footer.
 

Print function request

Steve McGarrett - 18 Sep 2007 18:37

Thanks for the software! Would it be possible to add a print function to the app so that a hotkey could be configured to spit out the selected screenshot to the printer?
 

re:Print function request

Matteo - 18 Sep 2007 20:24

@Steve: thanks for the nice suggestion, I'll think about it.
In the meantime you can get that functionality like this (sorry it's a bit technical):
- create somewhere a text file called (for example) print.sh, with this content (two lines of code):


#!/bin/sh
open -a /Applications/Utilities/Printer Setup Utility.app "$1"


- from the terminal give it execution priviledges with the command (issued from its directory):

chmod 744 print.sh

- open InstantShot!'s preferences, go to System and add print.sh to the scripts to execute after a file is created by InstantShot!

- make sure to check the boxes to execute the script in the situations you want to use it

Now whenever you use InstantShot! to create a file on disk (not when you're copying it to the clipboard), it will be sent to the (default) printer too.
 

correction

Matteo - 18 Sep 2007 20:25

before each space in "Printer Setup Utility.app" you have to put a backslash, like this (hope it renders):

Printer\ Setup\ Utility.app
 

Praise & Request

Ropher - 20 Oct 2007 20:36

Great tool. Freesnap seems to have finally given up the ghost and this is the best replacement tool I've seen. A couple requests:

1) It would be nice to have an option to "Always copy to clipboard" in addition to showing in preview, with the copy being saved in the same format the file is saved as -- just as Freesnap has always done.

2) It would be wonderful to have an option for taking "another shot" upon command of the last rectangular area that was previously captured.

Thanks so much!
 

re: Praise & Request

Matteo - 21 Oct 2007 14:14

@Ropher: thanks for your feedback
1) do you mean an option to save to clipboard a screenshot while also saving it on disk?
2) When you're asked for a rectangle, a single right mouse button click means "use the last rectangle".
 

Pick a rectangle "dialog

PSA - 26 Oct 2007 07:13

Is there a way to "hide" this dialog box when taking a screen capture..? Even though the warning is transparent and at the bottom of my screen it is often difficult to see exactly what your are shooting if you are doing a large screen capture.

Love the app....THX...!!!
 

re: Pick a rectangle

Matteo - 26 Oct 2007 13:37

@PSA: thanks for your feedback. The option to show it or not will be present in the next version.
 

Does support Leopard ?

monta - 28 Oct 2007 14:42

Thank you for great program.
I installed InstantShot! on Leopard, the program did start, could set preferences, and worked multiple shots mode (I didn't try normal taking screenshots). Seemed to be working fine.
But when restarting the program, it couldn't showing menu from menubar, the program had stopped. It's still working multiple shots.

Sorry for my poor English, I hope if possible works fine on Leopard. Thank you.
 

re: Leopard

Matteo - 28 Oct 2007 16:20

@monta: at the moment I've no Leopard to test it on and I've not received any other feedback about this problem so I don't know how to answer :)
Let me understand: if you launch it once it works well but if you close it and then re-open it, the icon doesn't show up in the menubar?
 

re:re: Leopard

monta - 29 Oct 2007 00:10

Thank you for quick answer.
When restarts the program, icon shows up in the menubar and works with multiple shots mode (images are saved). But if clicking the icon, it's going to go away.
 

capturing below the fold???

Blake - 4 Nov 2007 21:53

How do I take a single screen grab of a page that scrolls below the fold rather than what is visible. Great app by the way.
 

re:re: Leopard

monta - 5 Nov 2007 05:54

Hello. Excuse me many times, I noticed that problem is occuring during the multiple shot mode. If the multiple shot mode is disabled, the program works fine, can set the preferences and take normal screenshots. When the multiple shot mode is enabled, the program takes screenshots normaly. But if I click the menubar icon, the program will stop.

I shoot the screencast if it's slightly difficult to explain in English.
You can see it here -> screencast.com
Thanks again.
 

thanks

Matteo - 5 Nov 2007 20:06

thanks monta for the screencast: it seems like a bug on Leopard… I'll see it as soon as I install Leopard, in the next few days.

@Blake: unfortunately that's not possible on OSX, as scrollpanes are private objects of the applications. That means that without tampering with private objects and / or private APIs I see no way to do that in a reliable way.
 

Feature request.

Kurt - 6 Nov 2007 18:25

Great application! very useful. Thank you! It would be a great feature to have a mode where you specify a fixed capture rectangle size in pixels (x and y). Then you just move the rectangle around to frame the portion of the screen that you want to capture. I often do screen captures for presentations and need all my images to be exactly the same size (ex.: 1024 x 768 pixels). The function I am suggesting would be great for this. When the 'fixed rectangle' function is invoked again, the previous rectangle position should be shown. The user would have the option to move it or simply hit return to grab. The x,y size of the rectangle would be entered in the preferences. Thanks again for the great work.
 

re: request

Matteo - 6 Nov 2007 19:09

@Kurt: that's a feature already coming in the next version, stay tuned :)
 

re: Feature request.

Kurt - 6 Nov 2007 19:53

Great! Glad to hear this functinality will be available soon. Keep up the good work. Thanks.
 

Grayed out Buttons

Alex - 11 Nov 2007 03:49

Sorry if this has been addressed before. Is there a way of using "shoot inside a rectangle" and capturing the Finder or Safari windows with the full color close/minimize/expand buttons? I always get grayed out buttons when I try to capture with the rectangle option.
 

only save changed images / sha

Michael - 11 Nov 2007 17:15

What a fabulous program, thank you so much! I intend to use it for images in enhanced Podcasts and would find it quite helpful if these two features could please be in the next version.

* only save changed images: this would compare the previous image taken with the current image. If the same, then no file would be saved. This would take into account the mouse cursor being hidden / shown (I usually hide it.) Only saving changed images would save a lot of disk space for multiple shot sessions with short capture times.

* image sharpening (with slider to control sharpening amount): this would make reduced-screen size images crisper and smaller text more readable.

Keep up the great work!
 

buttons and changed images

Matteo - 12 Nov 2007 19:55

@Alex: I usually do that with the timed shot in a rectangle. After I select the rectangle I give myself 5 seconds to enable the windows that I want to grab and to put the cursor where I want. You could put it over the buttons to enable them. Sometimes it can be necessary to click on another window (or the desktop) and again on the window to enable, if it was the current window when calling InstantShot!.

@Michael: I'll consider both your interesting suggestions. At least the first one can be done with some effort using the script-after-grab facility, anyway :).
 

Thanks!

Alex - 13 Nov 2007 00:27

Thanks for that tip. i was ready to look for a new screen capture app.
 

love the continuous numbering

Gabriel Radic - 16 Nov 2007 11:37

Hi,

I just love it that InstantShot creates files with continuous names instead of taking the lowest number/file name available. If would be great if it kept going forever...

-- GR
 

timestamp is cool, transparenc

Gabriel Radic - 16 Nov 2007 12:23

Just noticed the timestamp file name options, very cool! Having continuous file numbers is no longer a big deal.

Question: is there an option to make object captures have a transparent bg? The area behind the rounded top corners of windows and the expanded rectangle space to be invisible.
 

Menu Bar Icon?

kricor - 29 Nov 2007 07:56

Is it at all possible not to have a menubar icon there? Just have it running as sort of a background application that you can bring up the preferences with by going to the app in the applications folder? Know what I mean? I'm trying to save space up there, Ive got so much shit in my menubar now....
 

front window becomes inactive

Gabriel Radic - 4 Dec 2007 12:08

If I invoke InstantShot's window capture mode, the current window becomes inactive. Quite weird.
 

re: front window

Matteo - 4 Dec 2007 13:40

@Gabriel: that's needed because the choice is made on a InstantShot window. If you enable Universal Access' services the window on which you click should be also brought in front before the capture. The best way is to use the timed capture with a short delay (5-6 sec) in which you can give focus to whatever you like.
 

Mouse cursor missing on Intel

Jan - 12 Dec 2007 20:24

Hmm, the mouse cursor isn't visible on my Intel MacBook, though the same version of InstantShot does this just fine on my PPC Mac. Both are running 10.4.11 - any ideas what's going on there?
Otherwise many thanks for a great tool!
 

Still using it!

Kyle - 14 Dec 2007 18:26

This is a great ap, Thanks!
 

multiple captures simultaneous

cyee - 27 Dec 2007 20:56

can you capture multiple image areas simultaneously?
I need to capture up to six images in different areas of each page as I flip through several pages. The images always appear in the same place on each page.

thanks!
 

Better than ever now!

Scott - 29 Dec 2007 20:06

I'm an enthusiastic user since January 2007 (I have the 7th comment here). I LOVE this program, and the recent changes have made a great thing even better. The two custom sizes, and the various abilities to adjust the overlay rectangle before taking the screenshot, are fantastic. They make even a tedious process like taking a hundred screenshots of images into a very easy one. This is excellent software. Software I would pay for tomorrow if you started charging. It's almost too good to give away free! Thanks for all your work.
 

What happened?

Bert - 4 Jan 2008 17:11

What happened . . . all of a sudden every time I try to take a screen shot I get an error message. I simply says "Error saving the screenshot!"

Any ideas of what is wrong? I'm using InstantShot 2.5 on a Dual 2 GHz G5 with 3.5 GB RAM.
Thanks
 

re: what happened

Matteo - 4 Jan 2008 18:57

are you saving to clipboard or to file? does it work in the other way or with another file/clipboard format (the clipboard format can be changed in the preferences)?
Also check that your disk is not full and try changing the output folder.
 

GOOD stuff

Rima - 11 Jan 2008 11:03

I loved it !!!because its simple and fast and lite .. dont need to open a new app to take the screenshots
 

Good Tool

TNB (School News) - 7 Feb 2008 15:08

Great for iMovie. Use it a lot.
 

Icon

janeethatcher@earthlink.net - 13 Feb 2008 20:24

The programs icon only shows in the menubar when finder is open. It disappears with any other app. How can I have it permanently in the menubar?

Mac OSX 10.4.1
 

Broken with 10.5.2

Stephen - 13 Feb 2008 21:16

InstantShot unfortunately gets broken when updating to Leopard 10.5.2
 

re: Broken

Matteo - 14 Feb 2008 00:23

about the icon: it should disappear only when the menus are too many and OSX decides to hide some icons to make space for them... in any case in the preferences you can set up keybindings for most functions so that you can use them without accessing the menu from the icon in the menu bar.

@Stephen: what is broken? it seems to work fine to me... Do you get a crash? if that's so, send the report over by email please.
 

Never mind

Stephen - 20 Feb 2008 20:27

I was getting errors instead of captures. I quite InstantShot, restarted, and relaunched and it is working now!
 

Excellent produit

jean-christophe Courte - 23 Feb 2008 15:03

Utilisateur de cette application depuis quelques mois, je suis très satisfait de pouvoir enfin capturer des menus sans encombre et nourrir mon site web beaucoup plus vite grâce à l'option rectangle…
De plus cette application est en français, ce qui ne gâte rien…
Vous pouvez lire sur le lien qui suit un résumé de mon utilisation…
www.urbanbike.com
Bravo encore pour l'ergonomie et l'intelligence des options proposées…
 

error saving screenshot

meme - 24 Feb 2008 11:57

was great, then stopped working. this happened after i had to reinstall os x using 'archive and install' option using 10.4.3 disks. now get "error saving the screenshot".
 

re: error

Matteo - 24 Feb 2008 20:03

@Jean-cristhophe: thanks for your feedback :)

@Meme: have you checked that the output folder is correct and still existing? Maybe it has changed after you archived and installed the system...
 

output folder?

meme - 29 Feb 2008 20:11

not sure what the output folder is but assuming its the 'path' then its still set at desktop as before. still not working after fiddling around altering settings and stuff -shame, i liked it.
 

re: output folder?

Matteo - 29 Feb 2008 20:17

@meme: yes is the path you set on the first page... It's quite strange, I never heard problems like these. Try closing the application, removing the preferences' file at ~/Library/Preferences/net.digitalwaters.InstantShot.plist and restarting it and setting the preferences anew. Thanks for your feedback anyway.
 

re: output folder?

meme - 29 Feb 2008 20:25

hi, i tried that didnt work sorry. i also deleted instantshot/prefs and downloaded again. still the same. works fine otherwise, just doesnt take screenshots.
 

Good job !

kasimodem - 18 May 2008 01:17

Great program, I love it ! Thanks a lot, go on please :)
 

I LOVE THIS APP

Cliff Gardner - 10 Jun 2008 14:43

This is truly amazing. We use our Mac for documentation and technical writing and it is great to have a software application like this. Perfect 10!
 

"show background window&q

Eric - 11 Jun 2008 17:59

Each time I reboot, the "Show Background Window" is checked. I have to click it to get rid of the white background. Shouldn't it remember that i have unchecked this setting when restarting?
 

re: show background

Matteo - 11 Jun 2008 22:48

@Eric: There's an option in the first panel of the preferences to show the background window up at start. Just uncheck it and you should be fine.
 

re: show background

Eric - 13 Jun 2008 18:26

I have done that. and when I reboot, it is checked again. It does not remember that I unchecked it earlier.
 

thank you

Robert - 16 Jun 2008 16:46

Great Program! Thank you. I've been using a mac forever and this is the best screen capture for my needs. Love the new features.
 

Hot Keys

Dice - 15 Jul 2008 21:58

I have learned objective-c for a few month and I don't know how to create applications with hot keys. Could you give me your advice or tell me any good pages on the web if you have some?
 

re: Hot Keys

Matteo - 15 Jul 2008 23:06

@Dice: google for "Shortcut recorder". That's what InstantShot! and a lot of other softwares are using.
 

thank you!

Dice - 17 Jul 2008 00:26

Matteo, Thank you!!
 

Leopard and Desktop Background

Lindsay - 25 Jul 2008 07:54

This is one of my favorite little apps and I use it all the time. But I got a new laptop at work with Leopard (10.5.4) and I just figured out something depressing -- InstantShot is causing my desktop background to crash, and it is causing my desktop plist file to become corrupted. :( Very unhappy times. Any update on making this Leopard compatible?
 

TimeSnapper alternative

elv - 13 Aug 2008 02:36

I just discovered this app, and it seems to work wonders!
When I worked on a PC I used TimeSnapper to record my activity and better track my time.
InstantShot! is a good alternative. TimeSnapper has two useful features:
- a replay window to browse the recorded screenshots easily with a cursor, much like a video. But you can browse InstantShot! files easily in Leopard with the coverflow mode, it's really nice. Just add date and time to the file names and you're all set!
- in TimeSnapper you can set how long the files are kept, so you can tell it to keep only a week of screenshots and be sure your HD won't be filled if you forget to empty the capture folder once in a while.

I realize InstantSHot! is primarily a screenshot app, not a time tracking tool though :) It's already very useful to me as it is right now.
Thank you!
 

Saver

elv - 13 Aug 2008 14:48

I just noticed InstantShot! doesn't stop shooting when the screensaver is active. It would be a handy option to stop taking screenshots when obviously nothing happens on the screen.
 

Capture rectangle within ACTIV

François - 20 Aug 2008 16:05

When you capture with a rectangle, the active window is deactivated when the InstantShot keystroke is entered.

Is there a way to start a rectangle capture, but also maintain the top-most window active? (Title bar not greyed out, etc.)
 

re: Capure rectangle in window

Matteo - 20 Aug 2008 22:56

for how the operating system works it is slightly difficult to have that. Your best chance is to used a timed shot in a rectangle with a very short delay that allows you to focus the window.
 

Profiles

Totoro - 21 Aug 2008 14:30

Is there a way not to embed the display's color profile in each file?
I use a custom LUT profile, created with ColorEyes Pro, and the profile itself is 320Kb (compared to about 4Kb for the stock profiles in OSX) because they use a 3D table instead of a simple matrix.
Then even a small screenshot becomes quite heavy. A 20Kb jpeg becomes a big 340Kb one! I need to profile my screen for creative work, so I'm stuck.
 

re: Profiles

Matteo - 21 Aug 2008 20:21

@Totoro: of course it's possible (I think one of the first versions did that) but then what would you do? Use the 'standard' RGB profile? Doing that you'll get images that are different from what you see…
 

excellent !

Antonio - 2 Sep 2008 00:48

just excellent. Stable, effective, simple, flexible, FREE. Much better than the corresponding application by Apple. I am impressed.
 

Nice application ... but

Dr Bob - 3 Dec 2008 14:43

An unobtrusive application that takes a quick capture with nice flexibility. However, for me (10.4.11), it refuses to allow a "paste" into the "save as" field when naming the capture file. Really weakens the usability in scripts. Anyone with similar problem or suggestions?
 

Complimenti e Suggerimenti

Andrea V. - 10 Jan 2009 14:48

Tanti complimenti per questa applicazione, ne ho provate parecchie, ma questa è senza dubbio la migliore .
Non ho particolari suggerimenti per migliorare l'applicazione perchè secondo me è perfetta.
Al limite, l'unica opzione che aggiungerei è quella del "frozen screen", qualche volta potrebbe essere utile, ad esempio se si volessero fare più scatti a banner - gifts animati .
Per il resto è perfetta ed utilissima .
-
Many congratulations for this application, I have tried several apps, but
this is without doubt the best for single shoots .
I don't have specific suggestions for improving the application because I find it perfect.
The only option that would add is a "frozen screen" option:
sometimes it may be useful, for example, if you wanted to do more
shoots on animated gifts or flash movies on the web but it's not so important.
Anyway it's perfect and very useful .
-
 

My Compliments

Jona - 11 Feb 2009 07:15

Just wanted to say that Instant Shot is the first app I install whenever I re/install OSX. Its simplicity and ease of use make it the hands-down favourite of mine. Keep up the great work and thanks for all the time and effort you guys have put in thus far

Best Regards
Jona
 

Fantastic!

Kim - 19 Feb 2009 23:11

Thanks for making Instant Shot available to all. It's *the* best app I have come across in a long time.
 

Error saving the screenshot!

benoit - 1 Mar 2009 10:26

same here error saving the screenshot!, can't find the net.digitalwaters.InstantShot.plist in Library/Preferences?
Thanks
 

Can it capture 1920X1200 ?

Greg - 10 Mar 2009 05:30

I just got a new 24" HP monitor ( 2405FPW ) and it will not capture the new screen. It states "Error saving the screenshot", but works fine on my 20" iMac screen.

Anyone able to confirm that this is the case and it will not save 1920X1200 ?

Thanks.
 

Error saving screenshot

lubenoit - 15 Mar 2009 10:42

have the same problem here, can't find ~Library/Preferences/net.digitalwaters.InstantShot.plist, I have two mac the one not working is using ordinary keyboard (non-mac) but leopard OSx, while the working one is tiger. Is there any log file where I can view the problems?
Thanks.
 

preferences

Matteo - 15 Mar 2009 16:49

Guys, try deleting the preferences file. It has to be there if you've opened the application at all.

From your HOME folder look inside the Library/Preferences folder for a file called net.digitalwaters.InstantShot.plist and delete it while the application is closed.

Unfortunately I can't test the multi monitor features now as I don't have an extra monitor. It used to work, sorry...
 

preferences

lubenoit - 17 Mar 2009 06:50

Found the .plist file, but still not working, is it because I'm not using mac keyboard? is there a log file for the errors? thanks.
 

grab scrolling page

Brian - 26 May 2009 20:41

Hello,

Great program! How can I grab a scrolling window / full html page that requires scroll?
 

crazy

alejandra - 31 May 2009 02:21

Crazy. It has boiled down to me coming to your webpage every once in a while and downloading wathever new you have produced, eyes closed, and knowing it will be among the most useful and beautiful on my mac. How do you manage, I wonder...
 

REQ: arrow keys to move * resi

Matthew Cornell - 14 Jun 2009 16:13

Thanks a ton for your program. Well done. The only thing that would take it over the top would be making the arrow keys move the selection rectangle. This would tremendously help fine adjustments that are a pain with the mouse. For example, Up, Down, Left, and Right: move rectangle location. Shift Up and Down would adjust its size, i.e., the bottom right corner's location. Bonus: Option (or Control) would move in 10 pixel (instead of 1 pixel) increments.

What would it take to get your to add this? I'm at www.matthewcornell.org
 

Super

Antonio - 15 Sep 2009 22:05

really a well working tool. I use it every week in my Mac.
 

Reversed screens

Tommy Peters - 21 Sep 2009 20:03

It's working just fine but nothing what shift-command-3 or 4 does, but I am looking for an application that takes 'reversed' screens. Any ideas?
 

re: reversed screens

Matteo - 24 Sep 2009 02:15

@Tommy: what does 'reversed screens' mean?
 

Thanks and feature request

Louis - 29 Sep 2009 16:06

This is a great program, thank you very much!

Is there a way to have the program assume the same path as the last place you chose, but still ask for confirmation so you could change it?
 

re: Thanks and feature request

Matteo - 29 Sep 2009 18:49

@Louis: at the moment the only thing that is possible is to have the applicaiton use a single default path and ask each time for the confirmation of where to save (just enable one of the first check boxes of the second pages of the preferences). It won't automatically save the last selected folder as the default output folder.
 

Downloading in advance

Gabriel - 18 Oct 2009 22:41

Hiya.
Tomorrow I'm getting my Mac. I've used your product in a friend's Mac.

I. Loved. It.

Now, I'm just downloading it in order to have it on CD so when I get my new computer I'll already have this software I **NEED*** ready to be installed.

Thanks a lot.
 

consecutive numbering

francis glebas - 19 Oct 2009 00:18

Hi,
I teach film and often have to grab a series of hundreds of frames. Unfortunately, the numbering then runs 1, 10, 100, 2, 3 etc. If you keep a file labeled (prefix)0000.jpg in your shot-to folder, the numbers will then run 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004 etc. Just remember to leave the 0000. file in the folder when its time to start a new batch.

It's also great for shooting double page spreads in page layout programs like Apple's Pages.

I love the software. Thank you for creating it and making my life a little easier.
 

How do ya stop Multiple Shots,

kevin kendall - 19 Oct 2009 20:26

First off, I really like InstantShot. VERY handy, & pretty flexible, too. Many options.... However....

I tried clicking on "Multiple Shots" the other day, had em sent to Preview in JPGs. So after every shot, Preview'd bring up the new screenshot. And another. And another.....
Kept on clicking & clicking & clicking away.
Pretty soon I had screenshots of screenshots inside of screenshots, like a hall of mirrors! LOL! Looked funny...

I tried all the usual shutoff keys: Esc (which I initially erroneously ASSUMED was the shutoff key, since there was no documentation as to which key it WAS, so I had to edu-guess), Cmnd-Q, Cmnd-S (stop... hell, I didn't know) even Cmnd-Opt-Esc to get the system's Quit Process window up. But that didn't work...... damn thing got covered up almost immediately by another screenshot being shown by Preview. Tried clicking on IS's menubar icon & clicking on Quit. THAT didn't work. Thought that my only option would be to hold down the power button on my Mactop, kill everything. But I didn't wanna do that 'cause I had good stuff open that'd disappear in a hail of electrons if I did that. Was actually gettin' kinda pissed.....

What I eventually did, after much trial & error, was get the system's Activity Monitor up, which I use often, & then when Preview brought up a new InstantShot screenshot I quickly killed Preview with Cmnd-Q, which gave me JUST enough time before Preview got re-invoked & then up & running by InstantShot (after 4 or 5 tries) to quickly Force Quit Instant Shot which was shown as a running process in the Activity Monitor window.

OK.... so.. ya'll have a good laugh??......
ok, so HOW is Instant Shot's multiple shooting STOPPED? Must be some key combination or somesuch. But darned if I could find it on this site or anywhere in IS's menu choices (for Help or useage, for example. HINT HINT).
Somebody drop me a line, would ya, anyone who KNOWS? (No questions about what system version I'm running, if I've got enough RAM left, & then speculative suggestions, please. Sorry, but I am looking for only the golden answer, that's all.)
Thank you!
 

re: How do you stop

Matteo - 19 Oct 2009 22:49

@kevin: the fact that Preview opens all images is probably due to the fact that you may have inadvertently enabled the option in the InstantShot's preferences to open all created files with Preview. You can disable such an option in the preferences from the system tab.

As for how to stop multiple shots, you can stop them from the InstantShot menu, clicking on the same item that starts them, renamed to "Stop multiple shots" when they are running. If you want you can also start/stop them through an hotkey, you can configure that in the last tab of the preferences. By default there's no key assigned for the function. You also don't want to specify a common key sequence as Esc or Cmd-C as that would stop other applications from getting them.
 

capturing a screen taller than

aaadesign - 22 Oct 2009 18:51

Started reading the comments, but I unfortunately don't have time to tread them all. So I apologize if this is answered somewhere. However, I have webpages that are so tall, they require I take several screen shots and manually put them together. Can this app do that for me? Thanks!
 

re: capturing a screen taller

Matteo - 22 Oct 2009 20:11

@aadesign: unfortunately that's not possible with our software as that can't be done from an external app on OSX. You can try using one of the several extensions available for Firefox to do just that or specific tools that do that using webkit (Safari).
 

very good

Antonio - 8 Nov 2009 03:05

the more I use it the more I like it
 

Great

Olivier Scherler - 15 Dec 2009 02:18

Excellent. It's the only software I found that lets me define a rectangle first and then take subsequent screenshots of that area without user interaction. You'd think that expensive applications like Snapz Pro or LitleSnapper would allow that, but no.

As I am a whiny little nit-pick, though, I'd have a couple of feature requests:

1. As Matthew Cornell mentioned earlier, it would be tremendously handy to be able to fine tune the rectangle using the keyboard. I don't think a loupe like Snapz Pro is needed, one can always use Pixie, but maybe a dashed line for the rectangle?;

2. A way to define the rectangle without taking a screenshot would also be nice, just to avoid clutter due to unnessecary screenshots.
 

Awesome - thanks!

Jay - 23 Jan 2010 04:38

Thanks for a great tool!
I do all my app sceenshots with InstantShot!, it's just way superior to the built-in screenshot functionality of OS X.
Gotta love the timed snapshot feature!!
 

"Error saving the screens

Kristen - 29 Mar 2010 17:45

None of my attempts to take screen captures are working- such a shame! I tried reinstalling the program. I tried changing the saved location. I tried changing the file format of the captures...nothing. Can you fix this??
 

“Error saving the screen

eric - 10 May 2010 23:50

same problem, have tried everything suggested here. anybody solved it?
 

“Error saving the screen

Stan - 11 May 2010 09:55

None of my attempts to take screen captures are working, pitty! I tried everything, reinstalling the program, changing the saved location, changing the file format of the captures, etc. Can you fix this?
 

Re: "Error saving..."

Juna - 14 May 2010 04:32

We can't reproduce the issue at the moment so we just can't check what the cause of the issue is.
Possible resolution steps are:

- Check for the path to be valid in preferences panel.

- Close the application and delete the
preferences file.

You can also try to change the destination folder or to use the clipboard as destination for the screenshot.
 

Annotations / Editing?

Eric Kestler - 5 Jul 2010 09:10

How about some simple annotation/editing of captured images? Such as: draw a box around; draw a rounded-corner box around; draw a circle/ellipse around; draw an arrow, draw a small textbox and text; choose line-color of all the above.
 

64 bit

tristan.k - 8 Jul 2010 05:56

InstantShot! has been a great apps, i have been using it for years. recently i switched my iMac to run in 64 bit kernel and noticed that this app is not on 64 bit yet. Can i ask if there is a plan to upgrade that in the near future ?
 

Re:64 bit

Juna - 30 Jul 2010 08:00

InstantShot! is not planned to be released on 64 bit.
 

Is this soft useful for Mac(Sn

Kosuge Koji - 1 Aug 2010 04:21

I noticed that this soft does not work by Mac(SnowLeopard).Is this correct?
 

@Re: Is this soft useful...

Juna - 27 Aug 2010 04:58

What kind of issues have you experienced?