How to take a Screenshot on Win 7

[Serne]

I'm playing Crawl 0.9.1 on Win 7 and I want to start building a collection of screenshots of interesting or funny things I find, but am having trouble with getting any of them to show anything other than a black mass.

I've tried using the Print Screen key, and a couple of utilities but they all produce the same black mass in a file.

So my question is this: Does anyone know of a program or utility that would let me capture a screenshot successfully?

Oh and another question: Is it possible to take the save file from a Windows installation of Crawl and put it in a Linux installation?

[slowcar]

the print screen key normally copies the screen into the clipboard.
i usually use paint.net, as it's free and reasonably fast, paste it in there and crop the screen. sometimes i combine several screens into one (skills section, spells etc)

[Serne]

I already know how to us Print Screen in that manner. what I'm saying is it doesn't grab ANYTHING. All I get is a pasted picture of pure #000000 black, and the same happens to screenshots captured by a few utilities I tried using.

[KoboldLord]

I've actually had this problem, too. It's something about the tiles build. Windows doesn't always seem to recognize that Crawl is the window in the foreground that I'm trying to screenshot, so it takes a screenshot of the last non-Crawl window I've done anything in. Crawl itself usually interprets the Print Scr button as an unknown command, and displays an error message even as an unwanted window gets copied to the clipboard. Usually I can get a Crawl tiles screenshot by repeatedly minimizing and restoring the Crawl window until it takes, but the error message tends to mar whatever I'm trying to take a screenshot of.

[Regnix]

Print screen works for me with 0.10 Tiles in Windows 7, though I do get the "Unknown command" message in Crawl. Have you tried Alt+Printscreen? This is meant to just capture the current active window.

Also worth checking that you have the correct graphics drivers installed for your system.

[Serne]

If I knew more about coding I'd try to add a command to take a screenshot and dump it in a PNG file inside a folder in the crawl directory called 'Screenshots'

[Pteriforever]

WIndows 7 has a program called the Snipping Tool. It also has options for capturing menus and things which disappear if they go out of focus, which is useful.

[Serne]

The problem with accomplishing that is that I have no way to get the app to run outside of fullscreen mode. I've tried changing relevant settings in the tiles_options and other files, but even once I've saved those changes it still runs full screen thus making the snipping tool moot.

[Krag]

If you don't already use it, you could give Irfanview a try. It has a capture function that doesn't (I think) rely on the clipboard.

http://www.irfanview.com/

[Regnix]

The problem with accomplishing that is that I have no way to get the app to run outside of fullscreen mode. I've tried changing relevant settings in the tiles_options and other files, but even once I've saved those changes it still runs full screen thus making the snipping tool moot.

I know you said you've changed the relevant settings, but I just wanted to clarify:

In the tiles_options.txt file you need to set "tile_full_screen = false"

Then, the other crucial part, is ensuring that you have removed the # symbol from the beginning of the line?

[minstrel]

Oh and another question: Is it possible to take the save file from a Windows installation of Crawl and put it in a Linux installation?

Yes - I do it all the time to move characters back and forth between my home pc running Debian Squeeze and my work pc running Windows 7. As long as the crawl versions are compatible (IE not moving a save file from trunk to .9, which wouldn't work even between PCs running the same OS) you'll be fine.

[KoboldLord]

I know you said you've changed the relevant settings, but I just wanted to clarify:

In the tiles_options.txt file you need to set "tile_full_screen = false"

Then, the other crucial part, is ensuring that you have removed the # symbol from the beginning of the line?

Hey, thanks. That worked pretty well. Do you happen to know how I can get rid of the 'Unknown command' error message in the message register?

[Serne]

GAH... color me stupid. I even read that part of the guide, and still forgot while editing it.