Is there a way to take a screenshot using Java and save it to some sort of image?

Question

Simple as the title states: Can you use only Java commands to take a screenshot and save it? Or, do I need to use an OS specific program to take the screenshot and then grab it off the clipboard?

Solution 1

Believe it or not, you can actually use java.awt.Robot to "create an image containing pixels read from the screen." You can then write that image to a file on disk.

I just tried it, and the whole thing ends up like:

Rectangle screenRect = new Rectangle(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize());
BufferedImage capture = new Robot().createScreenCapture(screenRect);
ImageIO.write(capture, "bmp", new File(args[0]));

NOTE: This will only capture the primary monitor. See GraphicsConfiguration for multi-monitor support.

Solution 2

I never liked using Robot, so I made my own simple method for making screenshots of JFrame objects:

public static final void makeScreenshot(JFrame argFrame) {
    Rectangle rec = argFrame.getBounds();
    BufferedImage bufferedImage = new BufferedImage(rec.width, rec.height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
    argFrame.paint(bufferedImage.getGraphics());

    try {
        // Create temp file
        File temp = File.createTempFile("screenshot", ".png");

        // Use the ImageIO API to write the bufferedImage to a temporary file
        ImageIO.write(bufferedImage, "png", temp);

        // Delete temp file when program exits
        temp.deleteOnExit();
    } catch (IOException ioe) {
        ioe.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Solution 3

If you'd like to capture all monitors, you can use the following code:

GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
GraphicsDevice[] screens = ge.getScreenDevices();

Rectangle allScreenBounds = new Rectangle();
for (GraphicsDevice screen : screens) {
    Rectangle screenBounds = screen.getDefaultConfiguration().getBounds();

    allScreenBounds.width += screenBounds.width;
    allScreenBounds.height = Math.max(allScreenBounds.height, screenBounds.height);
}

Robot robot = new Robot();
BufferedImage screenShot = robot.createScreenCapture(allScreenBounds);

Solution 4

public void captureScreen(String fileName) throws Exception {
   Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
   Rectangle screenRectangle = new Rectangle(screenSize);
   Robot robot = new Robot();
   BufferedImage image = robot.createScreenCapture(screenRectangle);
   ImageIO.write(image, "png", new File(fileName));
}

Solution 5

GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();  
GraphicsDevice[] screens = ge.getScreenDevices();       
Rectangle allScreenBounds = new Rectangle();  
for (GraphicsDevice screen : screens) {  
       Rectangle screenBounds = screen.getDefaultConfiguration().getBounds();        
       allScreenBounds.width += screenBounds.width;  
       allScreenBounds.height = Math.max(allScreenBounds.height, screenBounds.height);
       allScreenBounds.x=Math.min(allScreenBounds.x, screenBounds.x);
       allScreenBounds.y=Math.min(allScreenBounds.y, screenBounds.y);
      } 
Robot robot = new Robot();
BufferedImage bufferedImage = robot.createScreenCapture(allScreenBounds);
File file = new File("C:\\Users\\Joe\\Desktop\\scr.png");
if(!file.exists())
    file.createNewFile();
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
ImageIO.write( bufferedImage, "png", fos );

bufferedImage will contain a full screenshot, this was tested with three monitors

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Comments

[Chris Wagner]

I wonder if this is what screen sharing applications like Elluminate (elluminate.com) use.

[Simon Forsberg]

Any reason for why you're not liking Robot?

[Dmitry Zagorulkin]

@java_enthu actually yes, it will be work without console if you will hardcode path to screenshot in your app.

[nullUser]

Robot does not include the mouse in the screen capture. Is there a similar function which does the exact same thing, but DOES include the mouse?

[Mehdi Karamosly]

is there a way to capture the mouse cursor as well ?!

[DejanLekic]

Think of it simply as a matter of taste.

[Brad Mace]

would be better to calculate it this way

[Brad Mace]

It looks like this should have the advantage of working even if the target window is obscured before the screenshot is taken.

[Brad Mace]

On the other hand, this gets only the contents of the window, whereas with Robot you can also get the window's frame and titlebar.

[DejanLekic]

@BradMace: that is a good point. I did not need the frame and titlebar, just the content...

[Liam Larsen]

I did a benchmark and this one is the slowest, also has the greatest loss and biggest file size. Sorry,

[nyholku]

For HiDPI (Mac retina) displays this creates screenshots at half resolution. To fix that bufferedImage.getGraphics().scale(2, 2) before the argFrame.paint(bufferedImage.getGraphics()) call and use new BufferedImage(rec.width*2, rec.height*2, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB) to create the BufferedImage