View source for Documentation:Snapshots

{{RightMenu|Documentation TOC}}
There are two ways to take snapshots (i.e., screenshots or frame grabs) with VLC:
#Open the ''Video'' menu, and select the ''Snapshot'' menu item.
#Press the snapshot hotkey
#*Linux / Unix / Windows (Qt interface): <kbd>Shift+s</kbd>
#*Mac OS X: <kbd>Command+Alt+s</kbd>

When a snapshot is taken, it will briefly preview as a thumbnail with its filename and then fade away.

To change the hotkey, go to Tools → Preferences. If "Show settings" is set to Simple, click Hotkeys; if "Show settings" is set All, navigate to Interface → Hotkeys settings. Set the hotkey for Take video snapshot.

==Snapshot location, format and name==

The snapshot location depends upon your operating system:

*Windows XP: "%HOMEPATH%\My Pictures\"
*Windows Vista, 7, and 8: "%HOMEPATH%\Pictures\"
*Linux / Unix: ~/Pictures
*Mac OS X: Desktop/

===Configuring snapshot options under Windows:===
[[File:Basic snapshots config.png|550px|left|alt=]]
{{Clear|left}}
The location, format and name of snapshots may be changed in the ''Preferences'' menu item in the ''Tools'' tab, subsection ''Video''.

The default format for snapshots is PNG, but this may be changed to JPEG.  Also, the default name for snapshots is ''vlcsnap-'' followed by a timestamp that is ''not'' the time of the frame in the video you're viewing, but rather the current date and time--as in 2014-01-16-14h57m19s163.

Also, you may substitute other text for ''vlcsnap-'' in the ''Video snapshot file prefix'' and you may choose to have snapshots numbered sequentially (i.e., 000001, 000002, 000003, and so on) instead of with a timestamp.

As of version 0.9.0, you may even use [[Documentation:Play HowTo/Format String|variables]] in the text used for the filename.  For example, ''$T'' (must be upper case) will insert the video's time code into the file name.  If you were to change the prefix to ''Friends-$T-'' while watching a DVD of ''Friends'', then the snapshot filenames would look something like this: ''Friends-00_05_21-2014-01-16-14h57m19s163.png''.  This indicates a snapshot taken at 5 minutes and 21 seconds into the video; and it was taken on this day at this time: ''2014-01-16-14h57m19s163''. 

For a shorter file name, check the "Sequential numbering" option in the configuration box (below). Instead of numbers like ''2014-01-16-14h57m19s163'', VLC will simply insert the count of snapshots for that session&mdash;for example, ''00004''. Thus, in the example above, a snapshot with sequential numbering would look like this: ''Friends-00_05_21-000001.png''

For a full list of variables, please see [[Documentation:Play HowTo/Format String]].

{{Documentation}}