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 gra

Answer 1

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();
    }
}

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

Toolkit returns pixels based on PPI, as a result, a screenshot is not created for the entire screen when using PPI> 100% in Windows. I propose to do this:

DisplayMode displayMode = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getScreenDevices()[0].getDisplayMode();
Rectangle screenRectangle = new Rectangle(displayMode.getWidth(), displayMode.getHeight());
BufferedImage screenShot = new Robot().createScreenCapture(screenRectangle);

Answer 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));
}

Answer 5

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File; 
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.*;  

public class HelloWorldFrame extends JFrame implements ActionListener {

JButton b;
public HelloWorldFrame() {
    this.setVisible(true);
    this.setLayout(null);
    b = new JButton("Click Here");
    b.setBounds(380, 290, 120, 60);
    b.setBackground(Color.red);
    b.setVisible(true);
    b.addActionListener(this);
    add(b);
    setSize(1000, 700);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
    if (e.getSource() == b) 
    {
        this.dispose();
        try {
            Thread.sleep(1000);
            Toolkit tk = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(); 
            Dimension d = tk.getScreenSize();
            Rectangle rec = new Rectangle(0, 0, d.width, d.height);  
            Robot ro = new Robot();
            BufferedImage img = ro.createScreenCapture(rec);
            File f = new File("myimage.jpg");//set appropriate path
            ImageIO.write(img, "jpg", f);
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    HelloWorldFrame obj = new HelloWorldFrame();
}
}

Answer 6

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.