import (1)
capture some or all of an X server screen and save the image to
a file.
SYNOPSIS
import
[ options ... ] [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
import reads an image from any visible window on an X server and
outputs it as an image file. You can capture a single window, the
entire screen, or any rectangular portion of the screen. Use
display (see display(1)) for redisplay, printing, editing,
formatting, archiving, image processing, etc. of the captured image.
The target window can be specified by id, name, or may be selected by
clicking the mouse in the desired window. If you press a button and
then drag, a rectangle will form which expands and contracts as
the mouse moves. To save the portion of the screen defined by the
rectangle, just release the button. The keyboard bell is rung once at
the beginning of the screen capture and twice when it completes.
EXAMPLES
To select an X window with the mouse and save it in the MIFF image
format to a file titled window.miff, use:
import window.miff
To select an X window and save it in the Encapsulated Postscript format
to include in another document, use:
import figure.eps
To capture the entire X server screen in the JPEG image format in a file
titled root.jpeg, use:
import -window root root.jpeg
OPTIONS
import options can appear on the command line or in your X resources
file (see X(1)). Options on the command line supersede values specified
in your X resources file.
-adjoin
join images into a single multi-image file.
By default, all images of an image sequence are stored in the same
file. However, some formats (e.g. JPEG) do not support more than one image
and are saved to separate files. Use +adjoin to force this behavior.
-border
include image borders in the output image.
-colors \fIvalue\fP
preferred number of colors in the image.
The actual number of colors in the image may be less than your request,
but never more. Note, this is a color reduction option. Images with
less unique colors than specified with this option will have any duplicate
or unused colors removed.
Refer to quantize(9) for more details.
Note, options -dither, -colorspace, and -treedepth affect
the color reduction algorithm.
-colorspace \fIvalue\fP
the type of colorspace: GRAY, OHTA, RGB,
Transparent, XYZ, YCbCr, YIQ, YPbPr,
YUV, or CMYK.
Color reduction, by default, takes place in the RGB color space.
Empirical evidence suggests that distances in color spaces such as YUV
or YIQ correspond to perceptual color differences more closely
than do distances in RGB space. These color spaces may give better
results when color reducing an image. Refer to quantize(9) for
more details.
The Transparent color space behaves uniquely in that it preserves
the matte channel of the image if it exists.
The -colors or -monochrome option is required for this option
to take effect.
-comment \fIstring\fP
annotate an image with a comment.
By default, each image is commented with its file name. Use this
option to assign a specific comment to the image. Optionally you can
include the image filename, type, width, height, or other image
attributes by embedding special format characters:
%b file size
%d directory
%e filename extension
%f filename
%h height
%m magick
%p page number
%s scene number
%t top of filename
%w width
%x x resolution
%y y resolution
\\n newline
\\r carriage return
For example,
-comment "%m:%f %wx%h"
produces an image comment of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image
titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.
If the first character of string is @, the image comment is read
from a file titled by the remaining characters in the string.
-compress \fItype\fP
the type of image compression: None, BZip, Fax, Group4,
JPEG, LZW, RunlengthEncoded, or Zip.
Specify \+compress to store the binary image in an uncompressed format.
The default is the compression type of the specified image file.
-crop \fI<width>x<height>{\+-}<x offset>{\+-}<y offset>{%}\fP
preferred size and location of the cropped image. See X(1) for details
about the geometry specification.
To specify a percentage width or height instead, append %. For example
to crop the image by ten percent on all sides of the image, use -crop 10%.
Omit the x and y offset to generate one or more subimages of a uniform size.
Use cropping to crop a particular area of an image. Use -crop
0x0 to trim edges that are the background color. Add an x and y offset
to leave a portion of the trimmed edges with the image.
-delay \fI<1/100ths of a second>x<seconds>\fP
display the next image after pausing.
This option is useful for regulating the display of the sequence of
images. 1/100ths of a second must expire before the display of
the next image. The default is 6/100 of a second between each frame
of the image sequence. The second value is optional. It specifies the
number of seconds to pause before repeating your animation
sequence.
-density \fI<width>x<height>\fP
vertical and horizontal resolution in pixels of the image.
This option specifies an image density when decoding a Postscript or Portable
Document page. The default is 72 pixels per inch in the horizontal and
vertical direction. This option is used in concert with -page.
-descend
obtain image by descending window hierarchy.
-display \fIhost:display[.screen]\fP
specifies the X server to contact; see X(1).
-dispose \fImethod\fP
Here are the valid methods:
0 No disposal specified.
1 Do not dispose between frames.
2 Overwrite frame with background color from header.
3 Overwrite with previous frame.
-dither
apply Floyd/Steinberg error diffusion to the image.
The basic strategy of dithering is to trade intensity resolution for
spatial resolution by averaging the intensities of several neighboring
pixels. Images which suffer from severe contouring when reducing colors
can be improved with this option.
The -colors or -monochrome option is required for this option
to take effect.
Use +dither to render Postscript without text or graphic aliasing.
-frame
include window manager frame.
-geometry \fI<width>x<height>{\+-}<x offset>{\+-}<y offset>{%}{!}{<}{>}\fP
the width and height of the image.
By default, the width and height are maximum values. That is, the
image is expanded or contracted to fit the width and height value while
maintaining the aspect ratio of the image. Append an exclamation point
to the geometry to force the image size to exactly the size you
specify. For example, if you specify 640x480! the image width is
set to 640 pixels and height to 480. If only one factor is
specified, both the width and height assume the value.
To specify a percentage width or height instead, append %. The
image size is multiplied by the width and height percentages to obtain
the final image dimensions. To increase the size of an image, use a
value greater than 100 (e.g. 125%). To decrease an image's size, use a
percentage less than 100.
Use > to change the dimensions of the image only
if its size exceeds the geometry specification. < resizes
the image only if its dimensions is less than the geometry
specification. For example, if you specify 640x480> and the
image size is 512x512, the image size does not change. However, if
the image is 1024x1024, it is resized to 640x480.
-interlace \fItype\fP
the type of interlacing scheme: None, Line, Plane, or
Partition. The default is None.
This option is used to specify the type of interlacing scheme for raw
image formats such as RGB or YUV. No means do not
interlace (RGBRGBRGBRGBRGBRGB...), Line uses scanline
interlacing (RRR...GGG...BBB...RRR...GGG...BBB...), and Plane uses
plane interlacing (RRRRRR...GGGGGG...BBBBBB...). Partition is like
plane except the different planes are saved to individual files (e.g.
image.R, image.G, and image.B).
Use Line, or Plane to create an interlaced GIF or progressive
JPEG image.
-label \fIname\fP
assign a label to an image.
Use this option to assign a specific label to the image.
Optionally you can
include the image filename, type, width, height, or other image
attributes by embedding special format characters. See -comment
for details.
For example,
-label "%m:%f %wx%h"
produces an image label of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image
titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.
If the first character of string is @, the image label is read
from a file titled by the remaining characters in the string.
When converting to Postscript, use this option to specify a header string
to print above the image. Specify the label font with -font.
-monochrome
transform image to black and white.
-negate
replace every pixel with its complementary color (white becomes black, yellow
becomes blue, etc.).
The red, green, and blue intensities of an image are negated. Use
+negate to only negate the grayscale pixels of the image.
-page \fI<width>x<height>{\+-}<x offset>{\+-}<y offset>{%}{!}{<}{>}\fP
preferred size and location of an image canvas.
Use this option to specify the dimensions of the Postscript page in
dots per inch or a TEXT page in pixels. The choices for a Postscript page are:
11x17 792 1224
Ledger 1224 792
Legal 612 1008
Letter 612 792
LetterSmall 612 792
ArchE 2592 3456
ArchD 1728 2592
ArchC 1296 1728
ArchB 864 1296
ArchA 648 864
A0 2380 3368
A1 1684 2380
A2 1190 1684
A3 842 1190
A4 595 842
A4Small 595 842
A5 421 595
A6 297 421
A7 210 297
A8 148 210
A9 105 148
A10 74 105
B0 2836 4008
B1 2004 2836
B2 1418 2004
B3 1002 1418
B4 709 1002
B5 501 709
C0 2600 3677
C1 1837 2600
C2 1298 1837
C3 918 1298
C4 649 918
C5 459 649
C6 323 459
Flsa 612 936
Flse 612 936
HalfLetter 396 612
For convenience you can specify the page size by media (e.g.
A4, Ledger, etc.). Otherwise, -page behaves much like -geometry
(e.g. -page letter+43+43>).
To position a GIF image, use -page {\+-}<x offset>{\+-}<y offset>
(e.g. -page +100+200).
For a Postscript page, the image is sized as in -geometry and
positioned relative to the lower left hand corner of the page by
{\+-}<x offset>{\+-}<y offset>. Use -page 612x792>, for example,
to center the image within the page. If the image size exceeds the
Postscript page, it is reduced to fit the page.
The default page dimensions for a TEXT image is 612x792.
This option is used in concert with -density.
-pointsize \fIvalue\fP
pointsize of the Postscript font.
-quality \fIvalue\fP
JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level.
For the JPEG image format, quality is 0 (worst) to 100 (best). The default
quality is 75.
Quality for the MIFF and PNG image format sets the amount of image compression
(quality / 10) and filter-type (quality % 10). Compression quality
values range from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). If filter-type is 4
or less, the specified filter-type is used for all scanlines:
0: none
1: sub
2: up
3: average
4: Paeth
If filter-type is 5, adaptive filtering is used when quality
is greater than 50 and the image does not have a color map,
otherwise no filtering is used.
If filter-type is 6 or more, adaptive filtering with
minimum-sum-of-absolute-values is used.
The default is quality is 75. Which means nearly the best compression
with adaptive filtering.
For further information, see the PNG specification (RFC 2083),
<http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR>.
-rotate \fIdegrees{<}{>}\fP
apply Paeth image rotation to the image.
Use > to rotate the image only if its width exceeds the
height. < rotates the image only if its width is less than
the height. For example, if you specify -90> and the image size
is 480x640, the image is not rotated by the specified angle. However,
if the image is 640x480, it is rotated by -90 degrees.
Empty triangles left over from rotating the image are filled with
the color defined as bordercolor (class borderColor).
-scene \fIvalue\fP
number of screen snapshots.
Use this option to grab more than one image from the X server screen to create
an animation sequence.
-screen
This option indicates that the GetImage request used to obtain the image
should be done on the root window, rather than directly on the specified
window. In this way, you can obtain pieces of other windows that overlap
the specified window, and more importantly, you can capture menus or other
popups that are independent windows but appear over the specified window.
-silent
operate silently, i.e. don't ring any bells.
-transparency \fIcolor\fP
make this color transparent within the image.
-treedepth \fIvalue\fP
Normally, this integer value is zero or one. A zero or one tells
convert to choose a optimal tree depth for the color reduction
algorithm.
An optimal depth generally allows the best representation of the source
image with the fastest computational speed and the least amount of
memory. However, the default depth is inappropriate for some images.
To assure the best representation, try values between 2 and 8 for this
parameter. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.
The -colors option is required for this option to take effect.
-verbose
print detailed information about the image.
This information is printed: image scene number; image name; image size;
the image class (DirectClass or PseudoClass); the total
number of unique colors; and the number of seconds to read and write the
image.
-window \fIid\fP
select window with this id or name.
With this option you can specify the target window by id or name rather
than using the mouse. Specify 'root' to select X's root window as the
target window.
Options are processed in command line order.
Any option you specify on the command line remains in effect until it is
explicitly changed by specifying the option again with a different effect.
file specifies the image filename. If file is omitted, it defaults
to magick.miff. The default image format is MIFF. To specify a
particular image format, precede the filename with an image format name and a
colon (i.e. gif:image) or specify the image type as the filename suffix (i.e.
image.jpg). See convert(1) for a list of valid image formats.
Specify file as - for standard output. If file has
the extension .Z or .gz, the file size is compressed using
with compress or gzip respectively. Precede the image file
name | to pipe to a system command. If file already exists,
you will be prompted as to whether it should be overwritten.
ENVIRONMENT
display
To get the default host, display number, and screen.
SEE ALSO
COPYRIGHT
1998 1998 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files ("ImageMagick"),
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The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or
implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability,
fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company be liable for any claim, damages or
other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise,
arising from, out of or in connection with ImageMagick or the use or other
dealings in ImageMagick.
Except as contained in this notice, the name of the E. I. du Pont de
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AUTHORS
John Cristy, E.I. du Pont De Nemours and Company Incorporated
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