Hi Christine, Teresa, Ricardo, and Others, The PNG file extension for your screen shot indicates a format called "Portable Network Graphics". This was basically an image format that was developed to replace and improve upon gif files after a mid-1990s controversy when Compuserve and Unisys announced that the gif format for images that was widely used, especially with the proliferation of the world wide web, was not in the public domain, and that developers (but not end users) would have to pay a licensing fee to Unisys, who held the patents, if they continued to use gif images.
There are two relevant points about the png image format: 1) it is a compressed lossless format -- this means, analogous to your experience with music files, that its size is smaller than the original bit- mapped image (or recorded CD audio file in the music analogy), so it can be sent as a mail attachment with a smaller size than the original file, but because it is lossless, it preserves all the original information content -- for example, if you were to try to perform an OCR on the image, it would retain all the details, and 2) this image format became the default screen shot type used by screen captures in Tiger (OS X version 10.4), replacing the previous default PDF format used in earlier versions of Mac OS X. You can change the default file type of the screen shot image either by using a free app like TinkerTool, or by issuing a command from Terminal. Some people prefer the default screen shot format to be the older PDF format, since it is easily printable and viewed if sent to a user on another operating system. To change the default format, launch Terminal from your Finder utilities folder: 1. From Finder, Command-Shift-U to Utilities, press "t" to move to Terminal, then press Command-Down arrow to open the Terminal application 2. Type or paste in: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf and press "return" after the line. (You can substitute any other image type for "pdf" at the end of the command -- such as "tiff", "jpg", "bmp", etc.) 3. You'll either need to log out and back in again for the change to take effect, or else kill the Finder to make it relaunch with the new changes. You can do this from Terminal by typing: killall Finder and then pressing "return", but some people don't feel comfortable with this, so logging in a out again is also a way to have this take effect the next tim you log into your account. 4. When you're done, you can quit Terminal with Command-Q or just command-tab to another application if you still want to use Terminal. By default screen shots are taken with the Command-Shift-3 shortcut, and placed on your Desktop with a name like "Screen Shot" including the date and time. As Teresa mentioned, all the formats should be displayable with Quick Look. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Sep 18, 8:08 am, Teresa Cochran <[email protected]> wrote: > I've never tried this, but I think it is worth an attempt. It sounds > reasonable enough. > > Teresa > > On Sep 18, 2012, at 11:00 AM, Christine Grassman <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > > > > > So, if I do a quick look, a sighted person should be able to see whatever > > screen shot was taken? > > Christine > > On Sep 18, 2012, at 1:56 PM, Teresa Cochran <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > >> It's an image file. In this case, it's an image of a screen. > > >> Teresa > >> On Sep 18, 2012, at 10:53 AM, Christine Grassman <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > > >>> I was sent an attachment which says "screen shot," has a date and time > >>> stamp, and which ends with the extension png. Attempting to use the > >>> context menu to explore further is not bringing up the usual choices to > >>> open, save, etc., but a weird list of "copy" and "speech submenu". > >>> Passing strange. Any ideas? > >>> (I did receive it from a legitimate, trusted source.) > >>> Christine > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
