Screenshot Guidelines

Screenshot Guidelines

1. All screenshots of application windows on the same web page should ideally be of the same size.
2. Any visible background in the screenshot should be white.
3. When taking screenshots of rectangular windows with rounded corners, special care should be taken at the edges of the window so as not to cut any part of the window off.
4. All screenshots should be lossless PNG images.
5. All application settings should be set to their defaults, unless the screenshot is explicitly demonstrating a feature or technique.

Tools and Methodology

• Generally, write the content first, if any, and take the screenshots later in one session. This will make it easier to ensure consistency among all the screenshots.
• Because of #5, before beginning a screenshot taking session, setup a clean version of the application with default settings to use for the session.
• Because of #2, you can simply open up a maximized notepad window in the background to avoid anything else from getting captured in the screenshot.
• To satisfy #2 and #3, do not use ALT + PRINT SCREEN. That does not provide a clean screenshot and tends to cut off portions of the window border. Use a tool like http://getgreenshot.org.
• If you're taking the screenshot of a window that is an application (not a dialog), resize the window to a fixed size.
  • Do not maximize the window. Size the window to a fixed size before taking the screenshot.
  • Use a resolution of 1280x1024 for complex UIs and 1024x768 for simpler UIs.
  • A free tool to resize windows to a fixed size can be downloaded here: http://www.brianapps.net/sizer/
• Make sure to trim the image of all white pixels before saving it to the final PNG. Visible white pixels in rounded corners can be left white.