Unexpected behavior of Snapshot tool

[Timur Born]

Hello,

I just noticed an unexpected behavior of the Snapshot tool. It seems to do snapshots at different dpi settings than what the onscreen display is using. Here is a comparison of Editor's Snapshot tool vs. Windows Snipping tool doing screenshots at the very same Editor zoom setting. Editor's Snapshot tool results in an image that differs from what I see on-screen, as if I zoomed further in.

Editor's snapshot tool:

editor_snapshot.png (12.55 KiB) Viewed 2124 times

Windows' Snipping tool:

recomp_vs_reprint.png (8.75 KiB) Viewed 2124 times

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello Timur,

With my settings at the defaults, I am not able to reproduce this issue
Upper, snipping tool, lower pasted Editor snapshot into paint:

DMKB18October536.png (24.52 KiB) Viewed 2117 times

Can I ask about your current windows scaling settings and what DPI the Editor is currently set to render at?

[Timur Born]

Windows scaling set to 120% (115 dpi according to Editor) and Editor set to 96 dpi (due to some earlier testing I forgot to reset this).

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hi Timur,

It seems that this is caused by using any resolution other than "Automatic" I am not sure about the cause of this however, and will bring it to the dev team for investigation. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

In the meantime, to avoid confusion, you can use automatic resolution.

Enjoy your weekend!

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

The Editor has some options for the Snapshot tool. Please check Preferences (Ctrl + K) -> Snapshot Tool.
When an option "Use specified resolution for snapshot images" is set, a selected portion is rendered using specified DPI value (and 100% zoom).
When it is not set, the portion is rendered using current zoom level and system's dpi settings, but the copied image will get DPI information to reflect zoom level. For example, if zoom level is 75% and system dpi is 120, the copied image will have 120 * 0.75 = 90 dpi. This is done to keep 'metric dimension' of the image the same regardless of zoom level.

[Timur Born]

Thanks for the explanation. The behavior at fixed Snapshot dpi settings makes sense, but I cannot quite follow the automatic behavior. What exactly "keep 'metric dimension' of the image" mean?

Currently all I see is that I get a snapshot at a different zoom/dpi level than what I see on screen, which makes the result rather unpredictable.

PS: I am often using 101 dpi, because that makes 100% zoom fit exactly the physical size of paper (aka A4 on screen is the same size as an A4 paper held in front of it).

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

When you select, say, 2 inches per 3 inches portion of the page, the snapshot tool will place into clipboard an image with the following dimensions in pixels:

Code: Select all

width = 2 * dpi
height = 3 * dpi

where dpi - is the values specified in settings when "Use specified resolution for snapshot images" is set, or is equal to system_dpi * zoom_level in other case.

Now, if an application will take that image from the clipboard, and will calculate it's metric dimensions, it will have 2 x 3 inches in all cases, no matter dimensions in pixels.

Hope that is more clear.

[Timur Born]

Thanks for the explanation. So for proper screenshots (as in pixels on screen) I better use external tools and for proper dimensions (as in measurements) I use Editor's tool.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello Timur,

Yes - if you want to capture the current screen state and zoom level - better to e.g. take a screenshot of your whole monitor and then cut our the needed section, and with the snapshot tool you can be sure that it will always generate an image of the selected area with the DPI specified in settings.

Regards,
Stefan

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Actually, you can use snapshot tool in both cases. When the option "Use specified resolution for snapshot images" is not set, an image generated by the snapshot tool will have the same dimensions in pixels as your selected area. Just make a snapshot and paste it into an image editor, like MS Paint and compare sizes.
But to have these sizes match, you have to use system DPI for rendering (it is by default).