Screenshot? How?? [Resolved]

I have searched through a tons of forums and other sites, but i cannot find any good code to make a screenshot and then save it as a *.jpg file. I know you can convert *.bmp to other formats quite easally with .net. Please, point me in the right direction!

:D
Noone answered so i solved it myself. For you that is interested how, here is my code:

VB Code:

Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32" (ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal bScan As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Integer, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Integer)
    Private Const VK_SNAPSHOT As Short = &H2Cs
 
 
Public Function SaveScreen()
        Call keybd_event(System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Snapshot, 0, 0, 0)
        Dim iData As IDataObject = Clipboard.GetDataObject()
        PictureBox1.Image = iData.GetData(DataFormats.Bitmap)
        PictureBox1.Image.Save("c:\test.jpg")
    End Function

Test it, works like a acharm... :wave:

Correction:

VB Code:

Call keybd_event(System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Snapshot, 0, 0, 0)

Change to

VB Code:

Call keybd_event(System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Snapshot, 1, 0, 0)

Very Cool. Thanks.

u sure that saves as jpg? It looks like its saving as a bitmap to me with a false file extentsion...
check the file size and check if its bmp or jpg, because i dont see anything (other than the filename) that could indicate any conversation from bitmap to jpeg. would be interesting to know.

edit:

Quote:

---

PictureBox1.Image = iData.GetData(DataFormats.Bitmap)

---

i may sound dumb, but seriously, that has to be a bitmap being saved here

LITHIA I think you are right about that. When I opened the image with iFranView it claimed it was a png file with the wrong extension.

It's working on my system...a 1024X768 bitmap is 2.25 MB!

The test.jpg is only 52.7 KB and opens up fine as a JPG.

wey97 is correct. The size depends on if you got alot of color or not in your screenshot. Lets say that you take a screenie with this forum open ( maxixmized ) then you got got a much much smaller bitmap the if you take a screenie where you got a lot of colors...

Stupid stupid me :mad: :blush: LITHIA was right, "It looks like its saving as a bitmap to me with a false file extentsion". I have worked on a real solution and came up with this:

VB Code:

Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32" (ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal bScan As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Integer, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Integer)
    Private Const VK_SNAPSHOT As Short = &H2CS
    
    
    Public Function SaveScreen(ByVal theFile As String) As Boolean
        Dim data As IDataObject
        data = Clipboard.GetDataObject()
        Dim bmap As Bitmap
        If data.GetDataPresent(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)) Then
            bmap = CType(data.GetData(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)), Bitmap)
            Me.PictureBox1.Image = bmap
            Me.PictureBox1.Image.Save(theFile)
            ConvertImage(theFile, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg, "c:\img.jpg")
        End If
    End Function
 
    Public Sub ConvertImage(ByVal Filename As String, _
      ByVal DesiredFormat As System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat, _
      ByVal NewFilename As String)
        Try
            Dim imgFile As System.Drawing.Image = _
              System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(Filename)
            imgFile.Save(NewFilename, DesiredFormat)
        Catch ex As Exception
            Throw ex
        End Try
    End Sub

Filesize before converted = 884Kb
Filesize after converted = 146Kb

This rocks!!

:afrog:

This was even better:

VB Code:

Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32" (ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal bScan As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Integer, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Integer)
    Private Const VK_SNAPSHOT As Short = &H2Cs
    
    
    Public Function SaveScreen(ByVal theFile As String) As Boolean
        Dim data As IDataObject
        data = Clipboard.GetDataObject()
        Dim bmap As Bitmap
        If data.GetDataPresent(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)) Then
            bmap = CType(data.GetData(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)), Bitmap)
            Me.PictureBox1.Image = bmap
            Me.PictureBox1.Image.Save(theFile, Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        End If
    End Function
 
    Private Sub Command2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Command2.Click
        Call keybd_event(System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Snapshot, 0, 0, 0)
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(200) ' To have time to catch the clipboard
        SaveScreen("c:\test.jpg")
    End Sub

nice, i had a problem like this in VB6 - had no idea how to convert to jpeg, looks a lot easier with .NET tho, thank goodness lol.

good work ;)

Thx! LITHIA> You´re right. I have fiddled around about one and a half week with VB.NET now, and damn its so much more powerful than VB6. Ooohhh! Im in love with .NET :rolleyes:

Wow ...cool

thanks for this thread.

Two Questions:

1. Must you have an picturebox in order for this to work?
2. Can we adapt this so that it can only capture the form which called it?

Cheers!

If you send the ALT key at the same time, you will only get the form that is in Focus.


ØØ

This is fully using managed framework code...

VB Code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
 
        If Not SaveScreen(Application.StartupPath & "\screen.jpg") Then
            MessageBox.Show("Sorry dude, couldn't do it.")
        End If
 
    End Sub
 
    Public Function SaveScreen(ByVal theFile As String) As Boolean
 
        Try
            SendKeys.Send("%{PRTSC}")            '<alt + printscreen>
            Application.DoEvents()
 
            Dim data As IDataObject
            data = Clipboard.GetDataObject()
            Dim bmp As Bitmap
            If data.GetDataPresent(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)) Then
                bmp = CType(data.GetData(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)), Bitmap)
                bmp.Save(theFile, Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
            End If
            Clipboard.SetDataObject(0)        'save memory by removing the image from the clipboard
            Return True
        Catch ex As Exception
            Return False
        End Try
 
    End Function

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but is it possible to get a screenshot of a MDI Child form? instead of the whole form?

I posted a thread about Blitting in the codebank a few months ago, the class therein contains a screengrab() function that you can pass the rectangle of yuor form into.