Print Screen Utility 1

[JockMullin]

Howdy, folks.

I am looking for a very simple print screen utility which will copy the current screen to the printer and which runs under XP Pro and which will also print the text from a DOS box, even if full screen. I don't really need capture or preview or image editing or any of that - just DOS text onto paper preferably black on white.

I know there are dozens out there, and so I am looking to hear from anyone who has had experience using them to help me shortcut the evaluation cycle.

This is for a cust, so (reasonable) cost is not a problem.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Jock

 

[linney]

In XP bring up DOS Screen.
Right click and Select All.
Right click again and this will silently (no messages) copy text to clip board.
Paste clip board to Notepad and print from there.

 

[bcastner]

1. In XP hitting the Print Scrn key captures the screen to the keyboard. Open paint and then Ctrl-C to copy the screen for editing.

2. In XP hitting Alt-Print Scr key captures the Active Window. Open in paint as above.

3. Irfranview is not only a powerful and fast little image viewer and editor, it includes a screen capture utility as well. Freeware. http:\\

http://www.irfanview.com

Especially recommended for linney.

4. Gadwin PrintScreen is freeware and well praised:

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr

5. Hyper-Snap DX I like quite a bit. http:\\

http://www.hyperionics.com

6. SnatiIt is very good:

http://www.techsmith.com/

 

[JockMullin]

Hi, guys, thanks very much for the responses.

Linney: yeah I know about the capture to clipboard and that is what I initially showed to the cust. However they don't like all the extra effort just to get to the printer. Also for unknown reasons sometimes plain text gets copied with CR at end of line and sometimes as one long line so they have to manipulate the text before printing. All of which interrupts their usual flow which is: see the screen, print the screen, move on - usually without even waiting for the toner to hit the paper.

BCastner: Great set of references, thanks. I didn't know that about irfanview, and I already use it!

I tried Gadwin which is pretty good especially for Windows stuff but does not work well with DOS in full screen mode. Gives blank pages or all-black on different machines.

I will take a look at Hyper-Snap for sure.

Snagit I also found in my search and that is in fact what I installed. It is a little pricey ($40) and has way more features than I need but it works well in full screen DOS mode because it captures the text and prints it as text so removes colors which is better on a B&W laser and it works quite quickly. The only hassle is it puts the DOS screen into a window, so the user has to alt-enter it back to full screen but that's not a problem.

One added note: for a DOS shortcut you can go into properties and on the MISC tab un-tick Print Screen as a Windows key and then use the print screen much as in DOS - it will go to the printer not to the clipboard. However that didn't work for my app because my shortcut runs CMD and XP doesn't give you a Misc tab on a command prompt shortcut.

As usual, 99 ways to do anything. Your input is gratefully appreciated, guys.

Jock