How do I make screenshots?

F12

When playing a game in GAME or editing it in CUSTOM you can take a screenshot at any time by pressing F12. Screens will be located in the same folder as your RPG file. If using the default graphics backend on Windows, gfx_directx, screenshots will be saved in PNG format at the same scale as the window (which defaults to 2x, so 640x400 pixels). Otherwise they will be saved in BMP format, unscaled (320x200 pixels).

You can change the file format that gfx_directx saves by right-clicking on the frame of the window and selecting the Options menu. Selecting "OHR (.bmp)" as the file format causes unscaled screenshots to be saved.

If you want to post screenshots to the internet, you should always convert them into JPG or PNG format. Do not post BMP files.

Windows Clipboard

Alternatively, on Windows press Alt + Print Screen key. This will save a snapshot of the current window in the clipboard. Then paste it under MS paint, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, The Gimp, or any other graphics program.

This does not work for full screen Game or Custom under Windows XP: you must take a screenshot of the program running windowed and cut out the screen.

The Gimp

The Gimp has a screenshot feature in the File->Create menu.

Formats

Here is a quick overview of formats

• BMP - Windows Bitmap format. Large files with no compression. This is the only format that you can import into CUSTOM.
• PNG - Portable Network Graphics. Uses lossless compression. This is the preferred format for posting screenshots on the internet. (but be aware that some very old web browsers cannot display it)
• GIF - Graphics Interchange Format. Uses lossless compression. Use this format only if you are worried about making sure that people with very old web browsers can see your screenshot, if you want to combine multiple screenshots into an animation, or if file size is a pressing concern.
• JPG - Also JPEG. Uses lossy compression. All web browsers can view this, and it will often produce the smallest filesizes, but because of the lossy compression, some detail will be lost.