Taking a screenshot and converting to a pdf file

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Level 1

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Taking a screenshot and converting to a pdf file

When I take a screenshot it saves the file as .png. I want to convert that to a .pdf. If I open the .png file and do a file save as a .pdf it saves it. But when I got to mail the .pdf it turns into a jpeg file. Does anyone know what is going on. What I want to accomplish is taking a screenshot and making it a .pdf file so I can send it to someone without it turning into a jpeg. Please help me cause this is frustrating.

MacBook (Black), Mac OS X (10.4.11), 30 GB Video iPod, Mighty Mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Airport Extreme

Posted on Jul 30, 2008 11:49 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Carolyn Samit

Level 10

165,725 points

Jul 30, 2008 12:22 PM in response to JVHOC14

Hi JV,

Open the .png screenshot image. It will probably open from Preview by default. That's ok... now, this sounds weird but try it. Go to the Preview Menu and click File/Print. A dialog box will open. Look at the bottom left hand corner where it says; PDF Then from the drop down Menu, select: Save As PDF
There are other options for saving in the .PDF format also.

If you need more help, just post back...
Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 30, 2008 9:39 PM in response to JVHOC14

Actually, the Grab Utility can save in...

* BMP (Windows bitmap)
* GIF
* JPEG 2000
* JPEG
* PDF
* PICT
* PNG
* PSD
* SGI
* TGA
* TIFF

If you wish to try PDF Grab, in Terminal type...

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type PDF

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Answer 3

JVHOC14 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 31, 2008 1:19 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua, this is exactly what I did. I closed Grab, then open terminal and I typed "defaults write com.apple.screencapture type PDF" and hit enter. I restarted me computer and then open grab up and it still saved as a .TIFF file. ***?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 31, 2008 2:11 PM in response to JVHOC14

No idea, sorry, but good to hear you got something to work! 🙂

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Answer 5

JVHOC14 Author

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Jul 30, 2008 8:36 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Sorry for the late reply, but someone else told that to me and it still didn't seem to work.

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Answer 6

JVHOC14 Author

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Jul 31, 2008 1:01 PM in response to BDAqua

That is way over my head is there another way or can you explain that more. I opened Grab Utility but I didn't understand it.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 31, 2008 1:08 PM in response to JVHOC14

Quit Grab, open Terminal in Applications>Utilities, paste that line into the Terminal window, press enter, give your Password if it asks, reboot, NOW Grap should save every capture as a PDF.

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

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Jul 31, 2008 1:24 PM in response to JVHOC14

Just checking... without the quotes right?

Did Terminal say anything when you did that?

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Answer 9

JVHOC14 Author

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Jul 31, 2008 1:27 PM in response to BDAqua

no quotes, it just showed what it said when I opened it which was "Macintosh:~ jason$". That is also what it said when I hit enter.

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Answer 10

JVHOC14 Author

Level 1

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Jul 31, 2008 1:28 PM in response to JVHOC14

IS there a 3rd party app that is free that can do this?

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Answer 11

JVHOC14 Author

Level 1

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Jul 31, 2008 1:38 PM in response to JVHOC14

Im not sure if what you told me was what I thought, but I got it to work. Thanks. It doesn't work in Grab, but when I do Apple, control, 4, is takes the screenshot in PDF.

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Answer 12

JVHOC14 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 31, 2008 1:47 PM in response to JVHOC14

For some reason it changed them to jpeg when I sent them through Mail app. Do you know why?

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