Faststone puzzle

[LineLaline]

Well...
New laptop with high resolution which I toned down to 200%. I would love to go to 100% but my eyes no longer tolerate such ideas.

Background
I use, say, Adobe Illustrator for a tutorial and need a screenshot of the design.
Illustrator is set to 100%.
Screenshot with FastStone, then paste the shot in Photoshop in a 300 PPI file.
File is used to create multiple PNG's at 300% PPI for print and more.
Works fast, is perfect, no hassle and the colours are fine.

Current misery
I freshly installed a dated FastStone version because it's free and I only use it for screenshot anyway.
But the screen shots are gigantic and blown up. It uses every screen pixel in the screenshot which is not my intention. It can only screenshoot (yeah, yeah...) a portion of the screen and then blows that up.
I checked the settings.
The DPI (which I find an outrageous statement because it should say PPI) is now set to 72. If I use custom it gets worse. I tried 300, 100, 50, 96, nothing helps.

I am now stumped.
I am again tired so I may be missing some setting, but which one???

[HansV]

The last free version of FastStone Capture is version 5.3 from early 2007, almost 16 years ago, in the time of Windows Vista
Perhaps it's time to get the current version - it's not that expensive and you get a lifetime license.
Or you might try another screen capture utility.

[LineLaline]

Thanks Hans.
Sigh...
Yeah... I only found the 2007 one is free indeed.
I think I will try the new version because I like testing things. I may end up using the native Snip app. I will run a few more tests.
Thanks!

[BobH]

If you use Firefox, you can take screenshots by clicking Shift-S and enter then choosing the portion you want to save. I don't know that it has any means to control pixel density but other apps should handle that function.

[LineLaline]

Thank you! I only see this now, I will check it out when I go back to the laptop tomorrow

[LineLaline]

If you use Firefox, you can take screenshots by clicking Shift-S and enter then choosing the portion you want to save. I don't know that it has any means to control pixel density but other apps should handle that function.

Sadly, using 'Shift-s' doesn't work here

[Leif]

If you use Firefox, you can take screenshots by clicking Shift-S and enter then choosing the portion you want to save. I don't know that it has any means to control pixel density but other apps should handle that function.

Sadly, using 'Shift-s' doesn't work here

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ta ... %2B%20S%20.

[LineLaline]

Thanks Leif!
For some reason I don't have that option. I don't understand. I went through all the settings and nothing is about screenshots. I searched the settings to make sure I didn't miss anything and the screenshot option is not there.
But still; I think it only works if Firefox is running so that won't help me with screenshots of my work in other apps. It's still a mystery to me.

[stuck]

What happens if you use the olde worlde method of taking a screen shot by pressing 'PrtScn' / 'Alt PrtScn'? The former captures the entire desktop, i.e. it will grab all your screens in a multi-monitor setup. The latter captures just the active window. The capture goes to the clipboard so if you then open a graphics app (even good old Paint will do) you can then paste the capture in there and crop /edit it to your taste.

I realise that's not exactly a slick process but it will do the job.

Ken

[LineLaline]

I have been running some tests. I must say I am stumped.

Workflow as it has been for years
Display set to native, recommended resolution 3840 x 2150 and 200%.
Take a screenshot with FSC of an Illustrator file which is 955 x 630 pixels in size.
Paste it in Photoshop in a file which is 955 x 630 in size (resolution doesn't matter since it's all about pixel count).
Output as .PNG and use in Office Word.

This worked on all screens on desktop and laptop.
Not anymore though.

Situation now
Taking a screenshot with FSC results in a blown up version that doesn't fit in the Photoshop file even though of course both the Illustrator and Photoshop files are at 100%.
I tried if it would help to use 100% for the display settings but this is impossible since all text and menus become, well, tiny.
I just adjusted the screen resolution and went back to using (crying loudly here) 1920 x 1080.
Now, things work again. But this is of course not how it should be

Extra weirdness
When I next took the screenshot of the Illustrator file this ended up perfectly in FSC BUT... The FSC interface was blown up to 200%.
It didn't pick up the new resolution settings.
So, I shut it down, restarted FSC and things were okay: the screenshot was at 100% and the interface as well.

Next steps
I then set the monitor back to the higher resolution.
I noticed that Illustrator showing 955 x 630 pixels looks bigger at 100% than Photoshop at 955 x 630 pixels.
I think this is a problem. I cannot resize the Illustrator screenshots because I would lose a lot of detail.
If I go back to the low monitor resolution both Illustrator and Photoshop show 933 x 630 at the same size, and FSC doesn't have a problem with it.

I think there is a problem with Illustrator. With a high resolution the file should display smaller, which happens in Photoshop.
This also explains why the pasted screenshot is twice as big in Photoshop.
Sigh...
Next step I suppose will be going to Adobe. I never had this strange problem and am seriously bummed about not being able to make good use of this high resolution monitor. It's a shame!

[LineLaline]

With the new settings though the file is at the correct resolution but the pointer is a quarter of its original size. This is no longer doable with FastStone, sadly. I tried the native Snip & Sketch but this does not include a pointer, even though 'Captures' is set to include the pointer. This is all messed up.

[StuartR]

If you select Edit > Resize from the Faststone Capture menu then it will show you the image size in Pixels. Is this the value that you expect?

[LineLaline]

Thank you Stuart.
I wanted to respond earlier this afternoon but could not get access and the entire website was not available to me. My host uses strict settings and if a device doesn't properly connect this is quickly logged as 'suspicious' and my IP address is blocked. They use a blacklist so maybe this caused the problem for this forum as well. But here I am.

The file previewed fine in both Illustrator and Photoshop after lowering the screen resolution. Both displayed the same size. Finally, a win, but it should not have to be this way. The cursor was super small in Illustrator though, and the file was the expected size but with a tiny cursor in it. I think FSC has problems switching resolutions and settings.

Since I could not get anything to work properly I decided to shut the whole thing down. And now the screenshot is the correct size in both Illustrator and Photoshop and the cursor is at its normal size as well. This is a relief. But I would really like to benefit from this nice high res display. Still, I think this won't be doable.

The problem I think is twofold.
With the high screen resolution, 955 x 630 pixels at 100% zoom is not the same in Illlustrator as it is in Photoshop.
If I use the high screen resolution Photoshop shows 955 x 630 pixels at about 1/4 of the size in Illustrator. I can't find any setting to remedy this.

I am used to sighing a lot when I install a new machine, even muttering a few 'f's here and there. This one though really has me stumped.
For FSC though I think it needs to not only be shut down but it also wants the computer to restart to accept any changes in display resolution which is silly for modern software. I also still have to manually launch it every day but this may be because it wants to show me this is the trial version before buying it. The problem is though that I can't buy it before really liking it. And so far it is a bit of a trouble maker.

[stuck]

...could not get access and the entire website was not available to me...

It wasn't just you, I couldn't reach The Lounge earlier today either. I believe, the Admins will correct me if I'm wrong, this is a 'benefit' of The Lounge being hosted on a shared server. When it does happen, it doesn't last long and sure enough here we are again.

Ken

[HansV]

We were indeed offline for about two hours. And there are some weird things going on...

[LineLaline]

Weird things?!
Pray tell !

[HansV]

We lost our admin Leif, but fortunately he's back.