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From: jjs_ascii@yahoo.com
Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
Subject: screen capture, gifs, etc.
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Date: 16 Jun 2001 08:17:26 GMT
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The best way to take a screen capture is with a program made specially for 
that. They allow you to choose file format, choose the area to capture, or 
a fixed picture size - example: a 300 x 400 rectangle that can be moved to 
center the ascii in the picture); and auto-scroll down a web page (it will 
make a picture of the entire page even if doesn't all fit on your monitor 
at one time). I find this useful for capturing tables or charts on a page 
that won't print properly with the file-> print command. They have many other
options as well.

I recommend SnagIt (its shareware, trial period - then you pay for it; but 
I guess if you're stingy you could find a crack), or CaptureEze pro (also
shareware). There are many free ones to try that can be found on
shareware/freeware sites: search for "screen capture"

http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/
http://download.cnet.com/
http://www.tucows.com/

The best format for ascii art is a .gif in 2-bit color (black and white 
only, no colors or shades of grey). It'll be sharper than a .jpeg (which 
will have artifacting and blurring) and be a much smaller file size 
(because jpegs are minimum 256-bit color). Capture in .bmp if you want to edit
or color the picture with  photo software, then convert to jpeg or gif.

To turn a picture of ascii art back into editable text, the best bet would 
be an OCR program (optical charater recognition). Most scanners come 
bundled with OCR software, or try the above links, search for "ocr".

For windows users Desktop Arcitect (freeware) allows you to easily change the
startup and shutdown screens with any same size bitmaps, (it also makes
desktop themes).

A good image browser, converter, etc. is ACDSee (free with ad banner).



 ____________________________________________________
 |       {)~~~,                                     |
 |   -=__co\_=            John Stachowicz           |
 |        V)                                        |
 |       //             jjs_ascii@yahoo.com         |
 |      / \                                         |
 |jjs_ /   \ __Don't you think you've seen enough?__|








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