Getimage allows you to capture an area of a workstation screen (running X Windows, version 11, release 4, 5, or 6), and save it as an image. A variety of output file formats are supported; the default is the Khoros 2.0 VIFF file format.
Getimage provides a convenient way in which to create new images from windows displayed on the screen. Images captured using getimage may be displayed with putimage or manipulated using editimage.
The source of image capture with getimage may be a specific window, or the screen as a whole. You may capture the entire source, or you may interactively specify a portion of the source to capture using a rubberbanding method.
Getimage supports capture of both 24-bit and 8-bit images. The number planes captured depends on the display from which the image is captured. For example, on a 24-bit display, capture of both 8-bit and 24-bit images is possible; the captured image will be 8-bit if the source of the captured image was 8-bit, or 24-bit if the source of the captured image was 24-bit. On an 8-bit display, an 8-bit image will be captured.
Getimage cannot handle capture of areas containing multiple or split visual displays, or areas containing multiple colormaps.
There are a number of different methods which may be used to capture images using getimage:
1) Entire Screen
2) Screen Area
3) Entire Window, Interactive Specification
4) Entire Window, Specification by Name/ID
5) Window Area, Interactive Specification
6) Window Area, Specification by Name/ID
IMPORTANT NOTE: when a window is used as the image source, if the window indicated for image capture is obscured by any other windows, the image captured will also include the obscuring window(s).
Entire Screen
This method provides a convenient way to capture the entire screen.
Execute:
This will cause getimage to capture the entire screen automatically.
Note that the entire screen can also be captured interactively using the
"Area of Interest on Screen" method.
% getimage -o {filename} -screen -all
Screen Area
This method allows you to capture a specified portion of the screen,
regardless of the number of windows which it may include.
You will be prompted to rubber-band around the area of the screen to
be captured. To rubberband the area of interest, first click on the upper
left hand corner of the desired portion of the screen; the cursor will change
to look like the upper left hand corner of a box. Keeping the mouse
button down, move the mouse to the lower right hand corner of the desired
portion of the screen; the active portion will be indicated by rubber banding.
The rubber-banded portion of the screen will be extracted into filename
as soon as you release the mouse button.
% getimage -o {filename} -screen
Entire Window, Interactive Specification
This method lets you capture a single window in its entirety from the screen,
interactively specifying the window that you want.
You will be prompted to click on the window which is to be captured.
After you click on the desired window, the window will be captured as
filename, a Khoros 2.0 VIFF file.
% getimage -o {filename} -win -all
Entire Window, Specification by Name/ID
This method lets you capture a single window in its entirety from the screen,
specifying the window that you want by its name or ID. Being non-interactive,
this method is better suited for automated image capture; it would be
appropriate for execution from a script. Execute
or
% getimage -o {filename} -wname {window_name} -all
% getimage -o {filename} -wname {window_id} -all
If the name or ID of a window is unknown, you may use the X11 utility program "xwininfo" to obtain it. If a window with the specified name or ID can't be found, getimage will exit with an error message.
Window Area, Interactive Specification
This method lets you capture part of a single window, interactively specifying
the window that you want, and then interactively specifying the area of
interest within that window.
First, you will be prompted to click on the window which is to be captured.
After you click on the desired window, you will then be prompted to rubber-band
the area of interest within that window. When rubber-banding, the cursor will
be constrained to locations within the specified window, making it impossible
to capture any area outside the window.
% getimage -o {filename} -win
Window Area, Specification by Name/ID
This method lets you capture part of a single window, specifying the
the window that you want by its name or window ID, and then interactively
specifying the area of interest within that window. Execute:
or
% getimage -o {filename} -wname {window_name}
As mentioned previously, if the name or ID of a window is unknown, you may
use the X11 utility program "xwininfo" to obtain it.
% getimage -o {filename} -wname {window_id}
You will be prompted to rubber-band the area of interest within the named window. When rubber-banding, the cursor will be constrained to locations within the specified window, making it impossible to capture any area outside the window.
Bitmap Format Getimage supports output of images in bitmap format. When the [-b] argument is used, getimage simply takes a pixmap and dithers it down to a bit (binary) image before outputting the image to the filename specified.
Inclusion of Window Manager Decoration
By default, when a window is captured, the window manager decoration is not
captured with the image. The [-decor] argument specifies that the window
manager decoration is to be included as part of the output image. Thus, if
the command "% getimage -o {filename} -decor" is executed, the window title
bar, borders, etc, will be included along with the contents of the window.
Output File Format
Using getimage, you may output the captured image in any file format
supported by Khoros 2. You may specify any of:
[-ascii] ASCII format
[-viff] VIFF (Khoros 2.0 Format)
[-avs] Application Visualization System (AVS) format
[-xbm] X11 Bitmap (XBM) format
[-pnm] Portable Any Map (PNM) format
[-xvimage] Xvimage (Khoros 1.0 Format)
[-eps] Encapsulated PostScript Format
[-xwd] X11 Window Dump (XWD) format
[-raw] Raw (headerless) format
[-xpm] X Windows Pixmap (XPM) format
[-rast] Output in Sun Raster format
By default, the output file format is Khoros 2.0 VIFF.
Mutually Exclusive Group; you must specify ONE of:
OR
OR
Mutually Exclusive Group; if desired, specify ONE of:
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
% getimage -o filename
% getimage -o filename -e
% getimage -o filename -name 0x1c0000d
% getimage -o filename -name "editimage"
% getimage -o filename -decor
Example 1: On a display that supports multiple visuals within the same application (eg, 24-bit SGI Irix 5.2), suppose you have displayed a 24-bit image using editimage. You then attempt to capture the entire editimage application using "getimage -o outfile". The captured image not "look right", since the graphical user interface of editimage will be using 8 bits, while the image itself will be using 24 bits, and getimage cannot support capture of multiple visuals. In the captured image, the graphical user interface of editimage will look correct, while the image that was being displayed by editimage will have a corrupted colormap.
Example 2: On a 24-bit display (eg, a SparcStation 20 SX), suppose you have displayed an image. Using "getimage -o outfile -e", you attempt to capture a portion of the screen containing both the displayed image and the text from an xterm that is partially obscured by the image. The displayed image uses one colormap, while the xterm in the background uses another colormap. In a similar effect as that described in example 1, the portion of the captured image that contains the displayed image will have a corrupted colormap, while the portion of the captured image containing the text of the xterm will appear correctly.
Example 3: On an 8-bit display (eg, a DecStation 5000 with an HX display), suppose you have displayed two images side by side using two separate executions of putimage. You then use "getimage -o outfile -e", and rubberband an area that includes the left half of one image and the right half of the other image. In the captured image, neither of the images captured will have the correct colormap (the images will look black or "scrambled"), since getimage cannot handle areas containing multiple colormaps.