Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper Pick of the Week
Backdrop icon The macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]
Do you take screenshots? Lots of screenshots, for publication on the web or in print? Do you get tired of playing the "setup everything" dance every time you need a screenshot? You know the game; change your desktop image to something bland and acceptable, move your desktop icons out of the way, make sure just the right windows for the chosen application are visible, etc. It's a very time-consuming and annoying process.

Enter Backdrop. With Backdrop running, you get a desktop-covering borderless window as a backdrop for all your screenshots. You can control the color of the backdrop, or even specify an image to use as the backdrop (and whether to center, stretch, or tile that image). You can also specify where the backdrop itself "floats." If you specify "In between," then your backdrop is just another application window. If you choose "Behind icons," then your backdrop becomes your desktop image.

The only annoyance I have with Backdrop is that it has a dock icon when running. If you're taking Dock screenshots that require a backdrop, this is a pain -- you'll have to Photoshop the final result if you don't want the Backdrop icon visible. You can avoid this by modifying the info.plist file within the application package (as described in this really old hint (ignore the Panther Broken bit; it now seems to work again as expected; I just tested it myself). However, if you make this modification, then you cannot access Backdrop's preferences, and you have to quit it via Activity Monitor or the Terminal. It'd be great if it was a true faceless background app with some method of accessing its prefs (System Preferences panel, contextual menu, etc.).

Other than the dock icon issue, I love Backdrop -- it saves me quite a bit of time whenever I need screenshots for the site, book, or some publication.
    •    
  • Currently 1.25 / 5
  You rated: 1 / 5 (8 votes cast)
 
[15,097 views]  

Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper | 13 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper
Authored by: leenoble_uk on Mar 01, '05 09:03:04AM

Something I noticed yesterday would be useful for this purpose. Mail's activity window, which I happen to keep open all the time in the bottom left of my screen, will fill the screen with white (apart from the dock area) when you click the green button.

---
So, I said ... well, I can't actually remember exactly what I said. But it was one of the most enormously cruel and frighteningly witty put downs ever.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Screenshot Helper is available also
Authored by: pete on Mar 01, '05 09:28:14AM
I have used Screenshot Helper (free/donation) a couple of times. It is available at

<http://homepage.mac.com/katsura/shareware.html>

If you can get past the profusion of ads on his site, it is buried at the bottom of that page. It is easy to change to any colour, or use a picture as the background. But it too has a dock icon!



pete

[ Reply to This | # ]
Shameless self-promotion...
Authored by: lpangelrob on Mar 01, '05 09:56:03AM
For those of you who still use Konfabulator, I wrote a widget called QuickGrab to help people who need to take tons of screenshots when Grab just won't do it for you. :-)

---
-Robert Guico

[ Reply to This | # ]

Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper
Authored by: mal0rd on Mar 01, '05 10:11:37AM

You can still use it's preferences. Just activate the app, probably by clicking on it, then press Command-,



[ Reply to This | # ]
Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper
Authored by: osxpounder on Mar 01, '05 12:20:53PM

Constrictor's options take care of this, and it's a fine screen shot util, too.

---
--
osxpounder



[ Reply to This | # ]
A few steps to make a Backdrop Dock
Authored by: marklander on Mar 01, '05 12:25:08PM

A few steps to make a Backdrop Dock:

First, do that desktop dance one last time: quit unnecessary applications, close all your windows, and set the desktop to a solid color. Take a screen shot to use as your Backdrop image. Activate Dock Hiding to banish your Dock, leaving the fake Dock displayed by Backdrop. No Photoshop necessary.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper
Authored by: adrianm on Mar 01, '05 12:56:25PM

I just use another user with dock icons, backdrop, colours, font smoothing/size etc all neutral.

Fast user switch to that user, get screenshot, then back to my usual user to deal with the pdfs.

My other user's desktop is readable by my main user.

If I'm in a real rush, I'll use a folder action to move the pdfs from the desktop to the Shared area so I don't have any clutter to clean up.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Try Dockless?
Authored by: kadis on Mar 01, '05 05:54:12PM
You could try using Dockless. Dockless simply makes it so no icon appears for any apps you want. It's easy to use, does its job nicely and is free. Granted this will make it so the chosen app never has an icon, but you can easily change it back using Dockless. I believe it just edits the .plist file in the app so there is (I believe) no danger to using it.

[ Reply to This | # ]
White Desktop Background is Available
Authored by: rhowell on Mar 01, '05 07:35:50PM

In case anyone's interested, Panther provides a white Desktop background. Select System Preferences->Desktop & Screen Saver->Desktop->Solid Colors, and choose the eleventh solid block. Its there, I promise.



[ Reply to This | # ]
White Desktop Background is Available
Authored by: adrianm on Mar 02, '05 03:06:09AM

:-)

and unless you choose an area to grab, the background isn't included in the picture anyway.

This hint does seem more and more like an endorsed solution looking for a problem.



[ Reply to This | # ]
A free kludge solution
Authored by: klawton on Mar 02, '05 12:11:37PM

Just copy the icon from some other ubiquitous app (that you rarely use) over the Backdrop icon. For example, I don't have the calculator in my dock, but no one would be surprised to see it there. So just change the Backdrop icon for the Calculator one.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper
Authored by: starwxrwx on Mar 03, '05 09:56:33PM

if you just want a screenshot of a window(s), why bother with changing the background?

cmd+shift+4 will let you select an area to take a screenshot of.

am i missing something? if you are taking lots of full-screen screen caps for walk through help shots or something, surely its easier to change the desktop background and make a desktop cleanup folder for a little while...



[ Reply to This | # ]
Backdrop - A screenshot taker's helper
Authored by: kcoates55 on Mar 29, '06 09:57:33AM

It's not lost on me. I use that command all the time. It's very useful for sending a clip of a huge art file by email as a preview for a customer. I had been creating smaller files in Photoshop for example and today, just today!, I thought "Now why wouldn't a screen shot do just as well?" It'll save me lots of time.



[ Reply to This | # ]