Looking Forward to Window Clippings 2.0: Image Effects
Update: Window Clippings 2.0 is now available! Download it now from http://www.windowclippings.com/.
Continuing my look at some of the highlights in the upcoming Window Clippings 2.0 release, today I want to introduce some new image effects that I’ve introduced. Window Clippings 1.5 supported just two effects namely “Clear window background” and “Include window shadow”. Version 2.0 introduces four brand new effects that you can take advantage of to create more impactful screenshots. Here’s what the new Image tab looks like:
Include mouse pointer
A number of users emailed and left comments indicating that this would be a very valuable feature for them. Window Clippings 2.0 can capture both traditional icon-style cursors as well as the new Vista alpha channel based cursors:
Allow object selection
I’ve already shared some of the selection features. This option enables you to select individual controls in a window. By default, clicking anywhere within a window will select the window frame. With this option you can select one or more controls. In this example I selected the group box:
Freeze window during capture
Window Clippings 1.5 introduced the ability to capture the transparency provided by desktop composition on Windows Vista. One of the limitations in version 1.5 was that any animation in the window removed the ability to capture this alpha channel. Well no longer. This option very briefly freezes drawing to the window to allow Window Clippings to perfectly capture the alpha channel for animated windows. Here’s an example of a marquee progress bar which is highly animated. Keep in mind that this only works for traditional GDI applications (still the majority of applications) and should not be used with applications that rely directly or indirectly on DirectX. Examples include WPF apps and Windows Media Center. I was hesitant to add a feature that would only work with a subset of applications but user feedback convinced me that it would still be useful to many people.
Delay before capture
Finally, this option allows you to interact with the selected windows prior to capturing the image. This allows you to produce various effects such as button hover highlighting, display popup balloons, open menus, etc. I’ve already highlighted some of the effects that are possible but here’s another quick look:
Stay tuned for more highlights from the upcoming Window Clippings 2.0!
© 2007 Kenny Kerr