HOWTO: Stitching screenshots together

[TheAmigo]

I've occasionally found myself taking several screenshots that show part of a page or image and then manually lining them up using PDN. Now I've found a better way:

1) Use ScreenPrint32 to easily save a file each time you press Alt-PrtScrn

2) Drag all screenshots into PDN and select the "Add into layers" option.

3) Crop so no window borders are visible. This is just an easy way to make an identical crop to each image.

4) Save the set of layers as a .pdn file.

5) Use Layer Saver to split the .pdn into a separate file per layer.

6) Use a stitching program such as AutoStitch to automatically line them all up.

There may be a better choice than AutoStitch which has two problems:

- It only reads (and writes) JPEG files, so you'll lose some image quality (twice).

- It doesn't (yet) support a flat projection, so the edges of the image may be a bit distorted. I've not done this with anything larger than about 3 x 3 and that looked fine.

All in all, this setup is much faster than my previous manual method (like EER described here) of aligning all the layers by hand in PDN. Perhaps someone can write a plugin that would automatically line up layers that have overlapping content... that would make steps 4, 5 & 6 a single click.

Suggested uses:

- Making a wall-mural from online maps

- Assembling a single high-res image from annoying viewers like this

- Saving high-res close-ups of pictures embedded in a PDF (recent versions of Inkscape and OpenOffice also make this easy).

- Assembling screenshots of windows with scrollbars that don't fit onscreen all at once.

[jiZer]

Use ScreenShots

[TheAmigo]

Use ScreenShots

It's these kind of ignorant comments that make me regret taking the time to share what I've learned.

[Myrddin]

Even though jiZer's comment might well have read as 'ignorant', cold or sharp, that is not the case. jiZer was simple offering some of his own advice to compliment your own insight.

If you remain feeling strong about jiZer's attitude, just remember that it's the comment of only one person from who-knows how many users and readers of this forum, so it might be best not to let yourself be swayed from sharing your own experiences and knowledge again.

It is a decent write-up you have there.

[Simon Brown]

One thing: In my opinion this is more suitable for the tutorials section.

[Myrddin]

I'm not going to move a tutorial that would immediately become locked due to no supplementary images. That would be setting TheAmigo for a fatal fall.

Although, now you know of the Tutorial Guidelines, TheAmigo, perhaps you could complete it to standards? If you so wished, of course. It would mean this won't become buried in the General Discussion section.