file format of screenshots

[jaguarMac]

when I use shift/command/4 to take a photo of part of the screen it always saves in png. How can I get it to save as gif?
I have a Macbook Pro with Yosemite.

 

[Slydude]

Give this page a quick read. It should answer your questions. In addition to the necessary commands it gives you the pros and cons of each graphic format that's supported for screenshots.

 

[jaguarMac]

I don't see the intended link

 

[Slydude]

Sorry about that. Thought I had saved the link. Here's the info you need.

 

[jaguarMac]

thanks man. very helpful

 

[RadDave]

thanks man. very helpful

Hi JaguarMac - just curious why you want to use the GIF image format (old one introduced by CompuServe in the late 80s, as I recall) - the excellent link provided by Sly.... uses the Terminal (if you are comfortable there) and makes that file format the default for all screen captures - desired? Also, the GIF format is rather poor quality (see quote below - source at end) - probably the main reason to still use it is 'animation' - please let us know what your needs may be - thanks. Dave

The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each image, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to 256 different colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of up to 256 colors for each frame. These palette limitations make the GIF format less suitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color (Source)

 

[IWT]

@jaguarMac

There is an, arguably, easier way which avoids Terminal (I'm biased; I find Terminal really scary).

Capture your screen shot as stated.
Open it in Preview.
From the Menu Bar, Click on File
From the drop down menu, choose Export
Export gives you options of saving in numerous formats - but, Caveat, GIF is not one of them. But, as Dave asked, why GIF? Such poor resolution. And do you really want it to be the default format?

Just saying.

Ian

 

[jaguarMac]

OK guys, you've convinced me. I'll keep the original png format. If I want gif then I can convert it.

 

[chas_m]

GIF is fine for many things, just not especially designed for the millions-of-colours palette that modern computers use.

Actually, the ideal format for screenshots is JPG, since it produces smaller files. PNG is just a more-advanced GIF, and its chief advantage (as with GIF) is a built-in transparency channel -- but this isn't used for screenshots.

 

[RadDave]

OK guys, you've convinced me. I'll keep the original png format. If I want gif then I can convert it.

GIF is fine for many things, just not especially designed for the millions-of-colours palette that modern computers use.

Actually, the ideal format for screenshots is JPG, since it produces smaller files. PNG is just a more-advanced GIF, and its chief advantage (as with GIF) is a built-in transparency channel -- but this isn't used for screenshots.

The issue of GIF vs. PNG was initially a legal one over the copyright ownership of the data compression technique used (brief summary below from the same source I quoted in my last post) - but PNG improves on virtually all aspects of GIF, including the use of 24-bit color (vs. only 8-bit w/ GIF) - the only feature lost in PNG is animation, so a consideration if needed.

Now as to JaguarMac's desire to convert to GIF, the right software will be needed, e.g. Preview can opened a GIF image but not as an animated one - a static image is shown along w/ all of the other sequential images, and as Ian stated, there is no GIF conversion option using either 'Save As' or 'Export' in Preview. Dave

GIF images are compressed using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality. This compression technique was patented in 1985. Controversy over the licensing agreement between the software patent holder, Unisys, and CompuServe in 1994 spurred the development of the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) standard. By 2004 all the relevant patents had expired.

 

[Slydude]

Sorry about that. Thought I had saved the link. Here's the info you need.

For those with a fear of Terminal, myself included, I neglected to mention that there several utilities that can change the format of screenshots without relying on Terminal commands. In Onyx this feature is found in Parameters>General. IIRC Tinker Tool and several other utilities can make this change.

Make sure that you are using a version of the utility that works with the version of OS X you are using.