import(1x)

NAME

import - capture some or all of an X server screen and save the image to a file.

SYNOPSIS

import [ options ... ] [ file ]

DESCRIPTION

import reads an image from any visible window on an X server and outputs it as an image file. You can capture a single window, the entire screen, or any rectangular portion of the screen. Use display (see display(1)) for redisplay, printing, editing, formatting, archiving, image processing, etc. of the captured image.

The target window can be specified by id, name, or may be selected by clicking the mouse in the desired window. If you press a button and then drag, a rectangle will form which expands and contracts as the mouse moves. To save the portion of the screen defined by the rectangle, just release the button. The keyboard bell is rung once at the beginning of the screen capture and twice when it completes.

EXAMPLES

To select an X window with the mouse and save it in the MIFF image format to a file titled window.miff, use:

import window.miff

To select an X window and save it in the Encapsulated Postscript format to include in another document, use:

import figure.eps

To capture the entire X server screen in the JPEG image format in a file titled root.jpeg, use:

import -window root root.jpeg

OPTIONS

import options can appear on the command line or in your X resources file (see X(1)). Options on the command line supersede values specified in your X resources file.

-border

include image borders in the output image. -colors value preferred number of colors in the image.

The actual number of colors in the image may be less than your request, but never more. Note, this is a color reduction option. Images with less unique colors than specified with this option will remain unchanged. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.

Note, options -dither, -colorspace, and -treedepth affect the color reduction algorithm.

-colorspace value

the type of colorspace: GRAY, OHTA, RGB, Transparent, XYZ, YCbCr, YIQ, YPbPr, or YUV.

Color reduction, by default, takes place in the RGB color space. Empirical evidence suggests that distances in color spaces such as YUV or YIQ correspond to perceptual color differences more closely than do distances in RGB space. These color spaces may give better results when color reducing an image. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.

The Transparent color space behaves uniquely in that it preserves the matte channel of the image if it exists.

The -colors or -monochrome option is required for this option to take effect.

-comment string

annotate an image with a comment.

By default, each image is commented with its file name. Use this option to assign a specific comment to the image. Optionally you can include the image filename, type, width, height, or scene number by embedding special format characters. Embed %f for filename, %m for magick, %w for width, %h for height, %s for scene number, %b for file size in kilobytes, or \n for newline. For example,

     -comment "%m:%f %wx%h"

produces an image comment of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.

If the first character of string is @, the image comment is read from a file titled by the remaining characters in the string.

-compress type

the type of image compression: Zlib or RunlengthEncoded. See miff(5) for details.

Specify +compress to store the binary image in an uncompressed format. The default is the compression type of the specified image file.

-crop <width>{%}x<height>{%}{+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset>

preferred size and location of the cropped image. See X(1) for details about the geometry specification.

To specify a percentage width or height instead, append %. For example to crop the image by ten percent on all sides of the image, use -crop 10%.

Use cropping to crop a particular area of an image. Use -crop 0x0 to remove edges that are the background color.

-delay seconds

pause before selecting target window.

This option is useful when you need time to ready the target window before it is captured to a file.

-density <width>x<height>

vertical and horizontal resolution in pixels of the image.

This option specifies an image density when decoding a Postscript or Portable Document page. The default is 72 pixels per inch in the horizontal and vertical direction.

-descend

obtain image by descending window hierarchy.

This option reads each subwindow and its colormap of the chosen window. The final image is guaranteed to have the correct colors but obtaining the image is significantly slower.

-display host:display[.screen]

specifies the X server to contact; see X(1).

-dispose method

GIF disposal method.

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) Specification 89a of July 31, 1990 for details.

-dither

apply Floyd/Steinberg error diffusion to the image.

The basic strategy of dithering is to trade intensity resolution for spatial resolution by averaging the intensities of several neighboring pixels. Images which suffer from severe contouring when reducing colors can be improved with this option.

The -colors option is required for dithering to take effect.

-frame

include window manager frame.

-geometry <width>{%}x<height>{%}{!}{<}{>}

the width and height of the image.

By default, the width and height are maximum values. That is, the image is expanded or contracted to fit the width and height value while maintaining the aspect ratio of the image. Append an exclamation point to the geometry to force the image size to exactly the size you specify. For example, if you specify 640x480! the image width is set to 640 pixels and height to 480. If only one factor is specified, both the width and height assume the value.

To specify a percentage width or height instead, append %. The image size is multiplied by the width and height percentages to obtain the final image dimensions. To increase the size of an image, use a value greater than 100 (e.g. 125%). To decrease an image's size, use a percentage less than 100.

Use > to change the dimensions of the image only if its size exceeds the geometry specification. < resizes the image only if its dimensions is less than the geometry specification. For example, if you specify 640x480> and the image size is 512x512, the image size does not change. However, if the image is 1024x1024, it is resized to 640x480.

-interlace type

the type of interlacing scheme: None, Line, Plane, or Partition. The default is Plane.

This option is used to specify the type of interlacing scheme for raw image formats such as RGB or YUV. None means do not interlace (RGBRGBRGBRGBRGBRGB...), Line uses scanline interlacing (RRR...GGG...BBB...RRR...GGG...BBB...), and Plane uses plane interlacing (RRRRRR...GGGGGG...BBBBBB...). Partition is like plane except the different planes are saved to individual files (e.g. image.R, image.G, and image.B).

Use Line, or Plane to create an interlaced GIF or progressive JPEG image. -label name assign a label to an image.

Use this option to assign a specific label to the image. Optionally you can include the image filename, type, width, height, or scene number in the label by embedding special format characters. Embed %f for filename, %m for magick, %w for width, %h for height, or %s for scene number, %b for file size in kilobytes, or \n for newline. For example,

     -label "%m:%f %wx%h"

produces an image label of MIFF:bird.miff 512x480 for an image titled bird.miff and whose width is 512 and height is 480.

If the first character of string is @, the image label is read from a file titled by the remaining characters in the string.

When converting to Postscript, use this option to specify a header string to print above the image.

-monochrome

transform image to black and white.

-negate

apply color inversion to image.

The red, green, and blue intensities of an image are negated. Use +negate to only negate the grayscale pixels of the image.

-page <width>x<height>{+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset>

preferred size and location of the Postscript page.

Use this option to specify the dimensions of the Postscript page in pixels per inch or a TEXT page in pixels. The default for a Postscript page is to center the image on a letter page 612 by 792 pixels. The margins are 1/2" (i.e. 612x792+42+42). Other common sizes are:

Letter 612x 792
Tabloid 792x1224
Ledger 1224x 792
Legal 612x1008
Statement 396x 612
Executive 540x 720
A3 842x1190
A4 595x 842
A5 420x 595
B4 729x1032
B5 516x 729
Folio 612x 936
Quarto 610x 780
10x14 720x1008

For convenience you can specify the page size by media (e.g. A4, Ledger, etc.).

To place a Postscript image with a given size on a given location on a page, use -page +HOFFSET+VOFFSET -geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT (fill in numbers). Note: this is only for generating Postscript, not Encapsulated Postscript.

To position a GIF image, use -page +LEFT+TOP (e.g. -page +100+200).

The default page dimensions for a TEXT image is 612x792.

-quality value

JPEG quality setting.

Quality is 0 (worst) to 100 (best). The default is 75.

-rotate degrees{<}{>}

apply Paeth image rotation to the image.

Use > to rotate the image only if its width exceeds the height. < rotates the image only if its width is less than the height. For example, if you specify -90> and the image size is 480x640, the image is not rotated by the specified angle. However, if the image is 640x480, it is rotated by -90 degrees.

Empty triangles left over from rotating the image are filled with the color defined as bordercolor (class borderColor).

-scene value

image scene number.

-screen

This option indicates that the GetImage request used to obtain the image should be done on the root window, rather than directly on the specified window. In this way, you can obtain pieces of other windows that overlap the specified window, and more importantly, you can capture menus or other popups that are independent windows but appear over the specified window.

-transparency color

make this color transparent within the image.

-treedepth value

Normally, this integer value is zero or one. A zero or one tells convert to choose a optimal tree depth for the color reduction algorithm.

An optimal depth generally allows the best representation of the source image with the fastest computational speed and the least amount of memory. However, the default depth is inappropriate for some images. To assure the best representation, try values between 2 and 8 for this parameter. Refer to quantize(9) for more details.

The -colors option is required for this option to take effect.

-verbose

print detailed information about the image.

This information is printed: image scene number; image name; image size; the image class (DirectClass or PseudoClass); the total number of unique colors; and the number of seconds to read and write the image.

-window id

select window with this id or name.

With this option you can specify the target window by id or name rather than using the mouse. Specify 'root' to select X's root window as the target window.

Options are processed in command line order. Any option you specify on the command line remains in effect until it is explicitly changed by specifying the option again with a different effect.

Change - to + in any option above to reverse its effect. For example +frame means do include window manager frame.

file specifies the image filename. If file is omitted, it defaults to magick.ps. The default image format is Postscript. To specify a particular image format, precede the filename with an image format name and a colon (i.e. gif:image) or specify the image type as the filename suffix (i.e. image.jpg). See convert(1) for a list of valid image formats.

Specify file as - for standard output. If file has the extension .Z or .gz, the file size is compressed using with compress or gzip respectively. Precede the image file name | to pipe to a system command. If file already exists, you will be prompted as to whether it should be overwritten.

ENVIRONMENT

display

To get the default host, display number, and screen.

SEE ALSO

display(1), animate(1), montage(1), mogrify(1), convert(1), combine(1), xtp(1)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1997 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company disclaims all warranties with regard to this software, including all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness, in no event shall E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this software.

AUTHORS

John Cristy, E.I. du Pont De Nemours and Company Incorporated