Does quality of screenshot image depend on screen res?

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Level 1

8 points

Does quality of screenshot image depend on screen res?

I have to include screenshots of data analysis screens (Excel and SPSS) for some writing I am doing. I have been capturing screenshots and saving them as .png files. My question is: does the quality of the screenshot image depend on the resolution of the monitor, or is it independent of the display? That is, if I take a screenshot from a low-res monitor versus a high-res one (e.g., retina display) of a particular Excel spreadsheet, will it make any difference in the resolution of the image that is saved? Wondering whether the screenshot takes an image from the actual displayed image or from the source code (in which case it may be unaffected by the quality of the monitor). I need screenshots as high quality images, as these will be printed by the publisher.

I am using Grab on a Mac and also using GreenShot on Windows to take the screenshots.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Subbu

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Jun 7, 2013 6:14 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 7, 2013 6:24 PM in response to Subbu44

My understanding of the screen shot is that it is capturing the digital image, that is the pixels, within the defined image area. So a higher resolution screen like the Retina will have more pixels and a more detailed screen shot. A simple test would be to take a screen shot of an image on two different displays and see if there is a difference in file sizes.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,248 points

Jun 7, 2013 6:32 PM in response to Subbu44

Subbu44 wrote:

My question is: does the quality of the screenshot image depend on the resolution of the monitor, or is it independent of the display?

It depends on the resolution of the display.

I need screenshots as high quality images, as these will be printed by the publisher.

There is your justification for that 15" Retina MacBook Pro.

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Answer 3

Subbu44 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2013 5:33 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Hello Ralph! Thanks for your response. I tried the test you recommended, and yes, the file size was bigger when I screen captured from a higher resolution screen. The strange thing is that when I check the Properties of the .png image, it shows 96 dpi, regardless of which screen I capture the image from. So, that leaves me wondering whether the file size was bigger because of non-resolution reasons.

Thanks again.

Subbu

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Answer 4

Subbu44 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2013 5:37 PM in response to etresoft

Etresoft, thanks for the reply. Please see my response to Ralph. I am stil a little confused. Anyway, I think the safer bet is to capture from a higher res rather than a lower res one. Problem is that my Mac is higher res and I am having to reboot everytime I have to use Excel for Windows and then switch back to Mac OS to paste into the document I am editing. I can save all the image files and paste them later, but there are too many and I forget what goes where if I don't paste right away.

I don't have Word on the Windows partition (want to keep Microsoft to a minimum on my Mac!) and Excel for Mac doesn't have the Data Analysis Toolpak that the Windows version has. A Windows laptop I have borrowed for this is low res.

Subbu

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Answer 5

Jun 9, 2013 8:29 PM in response to Subbu44

After thinking about your post and you are sending this project to a publisher/printer. You best bet is to give the publisher/printer a call and ask them. If you send something that they can't use... they will have to redo what you have done and charge you for it. A computer screen shot when it comes to printing is low-resolution. Especially images that contains mostly text, for example; Excel spreadsheets. You will be sending them a grayscale image. (You should be sending a bitmap image. Bitmap images need to be three times the resolution compared to a grayscale image.)

(I was in the publishing/printing business for over 28 years and had to deal with this on a daily basis with customers supplied images. Either the images were too blurry or pixilated when printed... looks good on the screen, looks bad on the printed paper. Nine times out of ten we had to redo the customers supplied images.)

_

Message was edited by: David M Brewer

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Answer 6

etresoft

Level 9

56,248 points

Jun 9, 2013 6:35 PM in response to Subbu44

Run Windows in Parallels. Don't worry about the dpi value for the screenshots. The data is pulled from the video buffer. It is a pixel-for-pixel representation of what is on your screen.

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Answer 7

Subbu44 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 13, 2013 9:32 PM in response to David M Brewer

Hello David! You are right. I have contacted the publisher and they are looking into whether the images I sent are good enough. Thanks for the suggestion.

Subbu

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