AppleScript to take screenshot of a specific area and save to desktop

And here is the PyObjC reproduction of Hiroto's Ruby/Cocoa screen capture solution. The code here can be made executable and run from the Terminal, or integrated into an AppleScript in place of the existing do shell script ruby HERE document.

#!/usr/bin/python

# coding: utf-8

"""

scap.py

Specify screen capture coordinates on command-line, and generate

image to Desktop as Screen Shot YYYY-mm-dd at hh.mm.ss [AM|PM].png

The {x, y} below would be the screen coordinates for the starting point,

and the {w, h} would be the ending coordinates of the chosen screen area.

Usage: scap.py x y w h

"""

from Quartz.CoreGraphics import (CGDisplayCreateImageForRect, CGMainDisplayID,

CGRectMake)

from AppKit import NSBitmapImageRep, NSPNGFileType

import time

import os

import sys

desktop = os.path.expanduser('~/Desktop')

outfile = time.strftime("Screen Shot %F at %H.%M.%S %p.png")

outpath = os.path.join(desktop, outfile)

if not len(sys.argv) == 5:

raise Exception("Usage: {} x y w h ".format(__file__))

sys.exit(1)

x, y, w, h = map(float, sys.argv[1:])

# grab an area of the screen bounded by x, y, w, h coordinates.

img = CGDisplayCreateImageForRect(CGMainDisplayID(), CGRectMake(x, y, w, h))

brep = NSBitmapImageRep.alloc().initWithCGImage_(img)

pngData = brep.representationUsingType_properties_(NSPNGFileType, None)

pngData.writeToFile_atomically_(outpath, False)

sys.exit(0)

Here is a PNG screen grab taken by this code of itself.

Dear VikingOSX,

Thank you for your answers. I tried your AppleScript solution. It starts normal, ask for the coordinates but when I type the four numbers with comas, I have an error message like this:

error "screencapture: cannot write file to intended destination, 25,25,125,125" number 1

Did I something wrong?

I use a MacBook Air with a second display. Is it a problem?

Thank you,

fabee

Hello to all, very attractive work.

( The option -R don't exists in screencapture)

Another very simple choice with the options -s -c it's to capture with the mouse and to copy out in the clipboard

do shell script " /usr/sbin/screencapture -s -c "

If the -R option does not exist in screencapture, how is it that my tested, and working scripts (El Capitan, macOS Sierra) take full advantage of that feature?

Life is more than reading, and the screencapture man page omits the -R option — yet providing screencapture with a false (-h) option causes it to dump out the real supported options list.

The code that I posted is designed around the original post requirements.

I just copied, and pasted the posted AppleScript into my Script Editor (El Capitan 10.11.6), compiled, and ran it. It worked correctly, and without error. The same is true on macOS Sierra 10.12.1.

What specific version of OS X are you using? I don't have two displays, but as written, the script should default to the primary desktop.

Hello

RubyCocoa is no longer part of standard installation of OS X 10.10 or later. Although you can build and install RubyCocoa 1.2.0 that supports Ruby 2.0 from source code, it would be overkill just to take a screencapture of specified region.

So here's an AppleScript script that is a wrapper of pyobjc script to do the same thing as the original rubycocoa script. PyObjC is part of standard installation of OS X 10.5 through 10.12.

--APPLESCRIPT set {l, t, r, b} to {911, 173, 1738, 794} set {x, y, w, h} to {l, t, r - l, b - t} screencapture(x, y, w, h) on screencapture(x, y, w, h) (* number x, y, w, h: rectangle parameters (x, y) = x, y-coordinates of origin point (w, h) = width and height of rectangle return string: file name of saved screen shot * screen shot is saved as ~/Desktop/yyyy-mm-dd hh.mm.ss.png *) set args to "" repeat with a in {x, y, w, h} set args to args & space & ("" & a)'s quoted form end repeat do shell script "/usr/bin/python <<'EOF' - " & args & " # coding: utf-8 # # file: # screencapture.py # # function: # create screen capture of specified rectangle and save it as time-stamped png image on desktop # # usage e.g.: # ./screencapture.py x y w h # x, y, w, h: rect(point(x, y), size(w, h)) # # version: # 0.10 # - draft # import sys, os, objc, time import Quartz.CoreGraphics as CG import AppKit as OSX # # manual loading of bridgesupport metadata for CGDisplayCreateImageForRect() is required under OS X 10.6.8 # CG_BRIDGESUPPORT = '''<?xml version=\"1.0\" standalone=\"yes\"?> <!DOCTYPE signatures SYSTEM \"file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/BridgeSupport.dtd\"> <signatures version=\"0.9\"> <function name='CGDisplayCreateImageForRect'> <arg type='I'/> <arg type64='{CGRect={CGPoint=dd}{CGSize=dd}}' type='{CGRect={CGPoint=ff}{CGSize=ff}}'/> <retval already_retained='true' type='^{CGImage=}'/> </function> </signatures>''' objc.parseBridgeSupport( CG_BRIDGESUPPORT, globals(), objc.pathForFramework('/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework') ) def usage(): sys.stderr.write('Usage: %s x y w h\\n' % os.path.basename(sys.argv[0])) sys.exit(1) def main(): if not len(sys.argv) == 5: usage() x, y, w, h = [ float(a) for a in sys.argv[1:5] ] outfile = os.path.join( os.path.expanduser('~/Desktop'), time.strftime('%F %H.%M.%S.png', time.localtime()) ) # outfile = ~/Desktop/yyyy-mm-dd hh.mm.ss.png img = CGDisplayCreateImageForRect(CG.CGMainDisplayID(), CG.CGRectMake(x, y, w, h)) brep = OSX.NSBitmapImageRep.alloc().initWithCGImage_(img) data = brep.representationUsingType_properties_(OSX.NSPNGFileType, {}) data.writeToFile_atomically_(outfile, False) sys.stdout.write('%s\\n' % os.path.basename(outfile)) main() EOF" end screencapture --END OF APPLESCRIPT

And in case, here's the underlying pyobjc script if you prefer to use it in shell.

#!/usr/bin/python # coding: utf-8 # # file: # screencapture.py # # function: # create screen capture of specified rectangle and save it as png image on desktop # # usage e.g.: # ./screencapture.py x y w h # x, y, w, h: rect(point(x, y), size(w, h)) # # version: # 0.10 # - draft # import sys, os, objc, time import Quartz.CoreGraphics as CG import AppKit as OSX # # manual loading of bridgesupport metadata for CGDisplayCreateImageForRect() is required under OS X 10.6.8 # CG_BRIDGESUPPORT = '''<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?> <!DOCTYPE signatures SYSTEM "file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/BridgeSupport.dtd"> <signatures version="0.9"> <function name='CGDisplayCreateImageForRect'> <arg type='I'/> <arg type64='{CGRect={CGPoint=dd}{CGSize=dd}}' type='{CGRect={CGPoint=ff}{CGSize=ff}}'/> <retval already_retained='true' type='^{CGImage=}'/> </function> </signatures>''' objc.parseBridgeSupport( CG_BRIDGESUPPORT, globals(), objc.pathForFramework('/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework') ) def usage(): sys.stderr.write('Usage: %s x y w h\n' % os.path.basename(sys.argv[0])) sys.exit(1) def main(): if not len(sys.argv) == 5: usage() x, y, w, h = [ float(a) for a in sys.argv[1:5] ] outfile = os.path.join( os.path.expanduser('~/Desktop'), time.strftime('%F %H.%M.%S.png', time.localtime()) ) # outfile = ~/Desktop/yyyy-mm-dd hh.mm.ss.png img = CGDisplayCreateImageForRect(CG.CGMainDisplayID(), CG.CGRectMake(x, y, w, h)) brep = OSX.NSBitmapImageRep.alloc().initWithCGImage_(img) data = brep.representationUsingType_properties_(OSX.NSPNGFileType, {}) data.writeToFile_atomically_(outfile, False) sys.stdout.write('%s\n' % os.path.basename(outfile)) main()

Scripts are briefly tested with pobjc 2.2b3 and python 2.6.1 under OS X 10.6.8.

Good luck,

H

Dear VikingOSX,

I'm using 10.10.5. I still have the same error. But don't worry about it, Hiroto's new script works fine.

Thank you for your help!

All the best,

fabee

Dear Hiroto,

Wow! It works great now! 🙂

Thank you for your help! Much appreciate it!

All the best,

fabee