Need simple Applescript to Take Screenshot and save to Clipboard.

[pjdube]

Hey guys,

I have been searching around this site to no avail.

i need simple Applescript to Take Screenshot and save to Clipboard, so that I can use this in my Automator workflow. The current Take Screenshot Action in Automator does not work.

Thanks a lot guys.

Regards,

Phil

[McUsrII]

Hello.

I’ll provide you with a way to read in an image file to the clipboard, this way, ( «class PNGf» ) works at least for jpeg files as well, since the files are stored with different formats. Which you can see if you log clipboard info.

set stuff to read alias "Hfs:path:to:pngfile" as «class PNGf»
set the clipboard to stuff

As far as I remember, there are several threads here concerning how to get a screen shot from applescript, but here is my take on it. (Having customized someone elses work. )

As you can set where to store the files and so on, via defaults settings, I’ll leave it up to you, to figure out under what filename, and such. If you use Finder to sort every item by date of that item kind, then you should be able to get the correct name of the most recent screen shot. (You’ll find examples here.)

-- flat5 http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=38482
tell application "System Events" -- get frontmost process
	set frontmostProcess to first process where it is frontmost -- this will be the script process
	set visible of frontmostProcess to false -- hide the script process
	repeat while (frontmostProcess is frontmost) -- wait until the script is hided
		delay 0.2
	end repeat
	set secondFrontmost to name of first process where it is frontmost -- get name of frontmost process (ignoring the script process)
	set frontmost of frontmostProcess to true -- unhide the script process
end tell
tell application secondFrontmost to set winID to id of window 1 -- get WindowID of frontmost window of frontmost process
do shell script "screencapture -c -x -w "
--" & winID

-- -c is used to store it in the clipboard. -x is used to mute the sound. -l is used to refer to the prefered windowid.

Have a look at the thread referred to in the script, and man screencapture

@man screencapture

SCREENCAPTURE(1) BSD General Commands Manual SCREENCAPTURE(1)

NAME
screencapture – capture images from the screen and save them to a file or the clipboard

SYNOPSIS
screencapture [-SWCTMPcimswxto] file

DESCRIPTION
The screencapture utility is not very well documented to date. A list of options follows.

  -c      Force screen capture to go to the clipboard.

  -C      Capture the cursor as well as the screen.  Only allowed in non-interactive modes.

  -i      Capture screen interactively, by selection or window.  The control key will cause the screen shot to go to the clipboard.  The space key will toggle between
          mouse selection and window selection modes.  The escape key will cancel the interactive screen shot.

  -m      Only capture the main monitor, undefined if -i is set.

  -M      Open the taken picture in a new Mail message.

  -o      In window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window.

  -P      Open the taken picture in a Preview window.

  -s      Only allow mouse selection mode.

  -S      In window capture mode, capture the screen instead of the window.

  -t      <format> Image format to create, default is png (other options include pdf, jpg, tiff and other formats).

  -T      <seconds> Take the picture after a delay of <seconds>, default is 5.

  -w      Only allow window selection mode.

  -W      Start interaction in window selection mode.

  -x      Do not play sounds.

  files   where to save the screen capture, 1 file per screen