Screen capture and data plotting

[William B. Lurie]

Several days ago, I asked some advice on how to do screen
capture under XP and was referred to Screen Hunter and
to Quick Screen Capture. I've tried both, and they work
but not in my application.

I'm running XP/SP2Also and I have an old DOS program which
plots data and makes graphs. I run it from Windows Explorer,
finding its .EXE program in its folder and executing it from
there. The graph appears full screen, but I have tried what
I think are all settings and combinations in Configuring
Quick Screen Capture and also in Screen Hunter. They both
work but I can't seem to grab the plot, which I believe may be
a "Full Screen" plot. I never seem to capture it to that I can
then copy it to a file, or Paste it into IrfanView..

Some more advice specific to those capture programs would be
welcome, and also some other programs to try.....

Also, if anybody knows of a good program for making graphs,
plots of a simple table of X-Y data, without all the advanced
frills of curve fitting and regression and other advanced
capabilities, please refer me to them.

 

[steven]

Several days ago, I asked some advice on how to do screen
capture under XP and was referred to Screen Hunter and
to Quick Screen Capture. I've tried both, and they work
but not in my application.

You can capture the screen using the little used Print Screen key on
your ketboard.
Then use the poorly documented clipbrd.exe program that is
built into Windows XP. It isn't even mentioned in Help.
It will allow you to view the Clipboard graphic stored in
memory.

It is located in the Windows/system32 folder.

You can convert the clipboard graphic to a JPG using
Irfanview or another graphics program.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Thanks, Steven. That's a new twist worth looking at.

If some kind MVP is listening, could you lead me to more
documentation on clipbrd.exe?

You see, using the PrtScrn key on the screen when the
graph is there, does nothing visible. If it send
anything anywhere, I have no idea what or where.
Your implication is that clipbrd.exe with grab it
from wherever it is, and make it into something which
will appear if I just go to IrfanView and Paste it.
Well, I'll try it, and thank you, Steven.

 

[Don Phillipson]

using the PrtScrn key on the screen when the
graph is there, does nothing visible.

1. We save a screen image to clipboard by
the two-key command
Alt + Print Screen (simultaneously.)

2. This image is in graphic format: so to display
or edit it we must put it into a graphic editor.
This is easiest done by MSPAINT
-- Start MSPAINT
- Paste the image from memory (hotkey Ctrl V)

We could use any other graphic editor but some
e.g. PhotoShop would require the extra step of
creating a new blank file. MSPAINT starts with a
new blank file preloaded so we can Paste the
screen image into it without delay -- and then edit
or process it as we please.

 

[ctowers]

Several days ago, I asked some advice on how to do screen
capture under XP and was referred to Screen Hunter and
to Quick Screen Capture. I've tried both, and they work
but not in my application.

I'm running XP/SP2Also and I have an old DOS program which
plots data and makes graphs. I run it from Windows Explorer,
finding its .EXE program in its folder and executing it from
there. The graph appears full screen, but I have tried what
I think are all settings and combinations in Configuring
Quick Screen Capture and also in Screen Hunter. They both
work but I can't seem to grab the plot, which I believe may be
a "Full Screen" plot. I never seem to capture it to that I can
then copy it to a file, or Paste it into IrfanView..

Some more advice specific to those capture programs would be
welcome, and also some other programs to try.....

Also, if anybody knows of a good program for making graphs,
plots of a simple table of X-Y data, without all the advanced
frills of curve fitting and regression and other advanced
capabilities, please refer me to them.

Use IrfanView for everything you need: capture, paste, save, and print.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Use IrfanView for everything you need: capture, paste, save, and print.

Sorry, CT, but my IrfanView doesn't do any capturing.
If I could get an image to Paste, Irfanview would be
happy to paste and save and print. My problem is how
to *capture* it.
WL

 

[William B. Lurie]

All well and good, JD, except that what PrtScrn does for
all other graphs, it does *not* do for this old DOS-
generated graphic screen. If I could get a .bmp or .jpg
off the screen, I'd be home!

You're right, after hitting PrtScrn, nothing seems to be happening,
but I'll agree that nothing *seems* to be happening. But I am
unable to minimize because nothing is on my screen other than the
graphic. So I can't minimize it. And when I hit Esc to proceed, I
have found no way to find the supposedly saved .bmp or .jpg.

Your advice is thoroughly sound.....now if I could get that
..bmp I'd be happy as a clam.....
Bill

 

[Bob Harris]

I normally just use a shift-print-screen to capture the whole screen or
alt-print-screen to capture the active window, then a simple paste into the
program of my choice. Note that on most keyboards just hitting print-screen
will not work. If you look carefully at the key you will see that the
print-screen funciton is above some other function, sort of like upper-case
vs lower-case.

I prefer PaintShopPro (version 9) as my graphics program, although Irfanview
(free) is also good. Other programs comptible with XP include Paint.Net
(free), Xnview (free), and Adobe PhotShop ($$$). Other option, many free,
can be found at:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads37.html

As far as a program to paste into, I use often use Microsoft WORD. If I
want to edit the image, I use PaintShopPro. A free alternative to WORD is
WRITE, which is part of Open Office. Open Office includes other functions
also found in Microsoft Office:

http://www.openoffice.org/

Another thought: You mention that this is "an old DOS program". If so,
then you could run it from an XP command prompt. Assuming that it can
accept input from a file, as opposed to being purely interactive, then you
could re-direct its output to a file. For example:

PLOT.EXE < INPUT.TXT >OUTPUT.TXT

Finally, for graphing I normally use EXCEL, part of Microsoft Office,
provided my employeer, otherwise $$$. A free alternative to EXCEL is CALC,
part of Open Office. In either case simple graphs are fairly easy to do, if
you have a column of X's and a column of Y's. Both have large built-in help
files, and there are several books about both available. Further, a search
of the web will probably find some user-based assistance or forums.

 

[William B. Lurie]

1. We save a screen image to clipboard by
the two-key command
Alt + Print Screen (simultaneously.)

2. This image is in graphic format: so to display
or edit it we must put it into a graphic editor.
This is easiest done by MSPAINT
-- Start MSPAINT
- Paste the image from memory (hotkey Ctrl V)

We could use any other graphic editor but some
e.g. PhotoShop would require the extra step of
creating a new blank file. MSPAINT starts with a
new blank file preloaded so we can Paste the
screen image into it without delay -- and then edit
or process it as we please.

Thank you very much, Don. This is new advice and something I had
not tried. Now if I can find MSPAINT, maybe it will find
the image from memory that nothing else has been able to, so far.

 

[ctowers]

Sorry, CT, but my IrfanView doesn't do any capturing.
If I could get an image to Paste, Irfanview would be
happy to paste and save and print. My problem is how
to *capture* it.
WL

To get you started - open IrfanView, then click "Options" at the top of the
screen, then click "Capture/Screenshot" in the drop down menu.
To get you along further, IrfanView has a Help Menu and also an Online Forum
and FAQ.

 

[William B. Lurie]

1. We save a screen image to clipboard by
the two-key command
Alt + Print Screen (simultaneously.)

2. This image is in graphic format: so to display
or edit it we must put it into a graphic editor.
This is easiest done by MSPAINT
-- Start MSPAINT
- Paste the image from memory (hotkey Ctrl V)

We could use any other graphic editor but some
e.g. PhotoShop would require the extra step of
creating a new blank file. MSPAINT starts with a
new blank file preloaded so we can Paste the
screen image into it without delay -- and then edit
or process it as we please.

Don, I followed your advice.......and all it pastes, into MSPAINT or
IRFAN is a blank page. I'm still working with all the good advice
I've been receiving......but still no image gets pasted.

 

[JD]

The PrtScr button should save a bitmap image (.bmp) of your screen to
the clipboard. clipbrd.exe is the ClipBook viewer.

You should be able to paste the .bmp image into any photo program like
IrfanView or Photoshop or whatever program you normally use to view
photographs.

So, in theory, when you've got your full screen dos graphic, just hit
the PrtScr button. It will seem as though nothing has happened. Minimize
your dos graphic, use clipbrd.exe to veiw your saved graphic or open
your photo program and select Edit, Paste if you're using IrfanView.

 

[William B. Lurie]

To get you started - open IrfanView, then click "Options" at the top of the
screen, then click "Capture/Screenshot" in the drop down menu.
To get you along further, IrfanView has a Help Menu and also an Online Forum
and FAQ.

CT, I hadn't seen Irfan's drop=down Capture/Screenshot option, and
I tried it, using the HotKey they suggested. I got a very interesting
result that is new. When I try pasting into IrfanView, it pastes a
white blank image. My graph is a curve with labeled axes on a light
blue background, nothing else onscreen (no headers or toolbars).
I think it's capturing the background and not the results of the
DOS program. I'm going to follow your suggestion about onboard
Help and Online Forum....and thanks again.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks, Steven. That's a new twist worth looking at.

If some kind MVP is listening, could you lead me to more
documentation on clipbrd.exe?

My personal view is different from Steven's, and it's that clipbrd.exe
is an almost useless program. See below.

You see, using the PrtScrn key on the screen when the
graph is there, does nothing visible.

That's correct. It puts the image into the clipboard, and the
clipboard exists only in memory.

If it send
anything anywhere, I have no idea what or where.
Your implication is that clipbrd.exe with grab it
from wherever it is, and make it into something which
will appear if I just go to IrfanView and Paste it.

No, you don't need clipbrd.exe to do that. You can paste it directly
from the clipboard into Irfanview, MS Paint, or any other program you
like that supports graphics, and press Ctrl-V for paste. Clipbrd.exe
lets you look at it first, but to me there's no value in that, since
you can just as well look at it Irfanview (or whatever graphics
program you use). Clipbrd.exe is just an intermediate step that adds
nothing.

In other words, think of Irfanview as a program that does everything
clipbrd.exe does, and more. The same is true of any other graphic
program, and that's why I say that clipbrd.exe is useless.

 

[William B. Lurie]

My personal view is different from Steven's, and it's that clipbrd.exe
is an almost useless program. See below.




That's correct. It puts the image into the clipboard, and the
clipboard exists only in memory.





No, you don't need clipbrd.exe to do that. You can paste it directly
from the clipboard into Irfanview, MS Paint, or any other program you
like that supports graphics, and press Ctrl-V for paste. Clipbrd.exe
lets you look at it first, but to me there's no value in that, since
you can just as well look at it Irfanview (or whatever graphics
program you use). Clipbrd.exe is just an intermediate step that adds
nothing.

In other words, think of Irfanview as a program that does everything
clipbrd.exe does, and more. The same is true of any other graphic
program, and that's why I say that clipbrd.exe is useless.

Yes, Ken, I understand all that. The basic problem is that I can
go the PrtScrn and/or Ctrl-PrtScrn route and almost always
simply Paste in IrfanView, but nothing I have tried, including
all the well-meant advice here, has gotten that stored image out
to where it can be seen. That's why I jumped at the clipbrd.exe
suggestion.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
Yes, Ken, I understand all that. The basic problem is that I can
go the PrtScrn and/or Ctrl-PrtScrn route and almost always
simply Paste in IrfanView, but nothing I have tried, including
all the well-meant advice here, has gotten that stored image out
to where it can be seen. That's why I jumped at the clipbrd.exe
suggestion.

Sorry, Bill, I'm confused. If you can paste it into Irfanview, don't
you then see it in Irfanview? I certainly do here.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Sorry, Bill, I'm confused. If you can paste it into Irfanview, don't
you then see it in Irfanview? I certainly do here.

Ken, I'm sure you've seen the whole thread. The key point is that
normal methods of capture all work fine, except in this one vital
instance which I'll summarize here:

I have an old DOS curve-plotting program. I run it either from CMD
or from WindowsExplorer and in all cases it makes a white line plot
on smooth all light blue screen. Nothing else is on the screen, no
toolbar, no list of places to click across the top. I've tried simple
methods as I said above and I've tried half a dozen free or cheap
screen capture programs, and none give me the curve after I go
where they presumably have saved it. Some save something and restore
it back to me as a completely blank screen, black, without the curve.

Have I now expressed it clearly enough to remove your confusion?
Bill

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken, I'm sure you've seen the whole thread. The key point is that
normal methods of capture all work fine, except in this one vital
instance which I'll summarize here:

OK, thanks, I guess I had missed that key point.

I have an old DOS curve-plotting program. I run it either from CMD
or from WindowsExplorer and in all cases it makes a white line plot
on smooth all light blue screen. Nothing else is on the screen, no
toolbar, no list of places to click across the top. I've tried simple
methods as I said above and I've tried half a dozen free or cheap
screen capture programs, and none give me the curve after I go
where they presumably have saved it. Some save something and restore
it back to me as a completely blank screen, black, without the curve.

Have I now expressed it clearly enough to remove your confusion?

Yes. You're running this program in full-screen DOS mode. As far as I
know, when you do that, you can capture text, but not a graphics
image.

 

[William B. Lurie]

OK, thanks, I guess I had missed that key point.





Yes. You're running this program in full-screen DOS mode. As far as I
know, when you do that, you can capture text, but not a graphics
image.

It certainly seems to be working that way, Ken (or, more
accurately, *not* working that way). I've put the program and
its sample example up on my website if anybody wants to spend
a few minutes downloading, unzipping, and executing the file
sample.bat
and seeing if the screen it produces can be captured.

 

[Olórin]

It certainly seems to be working that way, Ken (or, more
accurately, *not* working that way). I've put the program and
its sample example up on my website if anybody wants to spend
a few minutes downloading, unzipping, and executing the file
sample.bat
and seeing if the screen it produces can be captured.

Bill -

Is there any way you can tweak the program so it runs in a window rather
than full-screen? That might be the way forward.

I tried to grab your files to have a play, but can't see any note of what
your website address is! Have I missed it?