HyperSnap Command Line Usage

These options, useful for advanced programmatic applications such as scripts, can greatly enhance the Power User approach to capturing. For example, you can set up an shortcut icon to perform a pre-set capture using the values you define in the parameters line on the shortcut's properties page.

If you're a power user, or a user of something like Morrie Wilson's superb WinBatch™, or are familiar with the Windows 2000 or Windows 98 R2 scripting host languages, you can go even further by creating a combination of a programmatic and pre-set application use. For example, you can create a WinBatch script to ask you for the parameters you wish to pass to HyperSnap, and it will then use the script to execute the program and pass the desired parameters to it.

As always with every program, you can open a Command prompt and enter a command line:

start/wait hprsnap7.exe [parameters]

or

hprsnap7.exe [parameters]

Where [parameters] are the desired operational values. The prompt will load HyperSnap and pass it the provided command line. You can even use a tool as simple as Windows 2000 or XP CMD files or–in the case of Windows 9x–plain old batch files to utilize special capture settings "on the fly."

If you open a prompt and type the command without using start/wait, you can close the prompt if you wish, or use it for other functions while HyperSnap is processing an image.

Should you elect to use the start/wait parameter, the prompt will stay open cannot be closed or used until HyperSnap is finished. This may be useful in batch files, if your next command must wait for HyperSnap to finish its operation before it can continue.

If you expect to make heavy "production" use of HyperSnap, we think you'll want to take a moment to get familiar with the command line functions. The mouse is nice, but for heavy output or batch jobs, you simply can't beat command line control.

In the examples below, the actual command line and options you will need to type are in bold. Comments about the commands or other "tips" are in plain text. The paths to be used are simply examples, use the paths available on your own system. Note that you must type HyperSnap's executable name, too, which comes before the parameter, as in the example above. You can't simply open a command prompt box and type, -hidden -quicksave,5000, nothing will happen except that familiar cryptic error message with which we used to be familiar: Bad Command or File Name. If you use Windows 2000 or XP, you might see, "-quicksave is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, operable program or batch file."

In any case, change to the folder where you've installed HyperSnap and type its name hprsnap6.exe, or (even better) add that folder to your system's PATH environment. In the latter case you can type the executable name from inside any folder and Windows will locate it for you and run it with the commands you specify.

 

-quicksave

Turns on QuickSave option, even if it was turned off in previous sessions or by default.

Additional -QuickSave options can start with timed auto-save. For example, here are some uses with other parameters:

-hidden -QuickSave,5000,1,5 -snap:w:320:h240 -save:bmp f:\tmp\test

 -iconic -QuickSave,5000,1,5 -snap:w:320:h240 -save:bmp f:\tmp\test

-QuickSave,5000,1,5 -snap:w:320:h240 -save:bmp f:\tmp\test

These examples will start the program with a hidden, iconic or opened window, respectively, and will repeat the snap every 5000 ms (5 sec), increment the file name starting counter at 1 and will stop when the counter reaches 5.

To disable adding numbers to the file name, set the second number in -QuickSave to 0, for example -QuickSave,5000,0,5 will save a capture 5 times to the same file. To disable the max count function (the last number to capture before stopping), set it to 0.

The capture will be repeated indefinitely, or until you press the stop capture hot key (default for which is F11).

 

-hidden

Runs the program with its window hidden, so you can operate it only by using the hot keys. You must have enabled Quick Print, or Copy each capture to clipboard in the Capture Settings tabscapture_settings, earlier, or you could use this mode with the Quick save tab's Automatically save each capture... option enabled, too.

Otherwise you won't be able to choose files or direct output to any useful location.

-dumpopts

Read the program's registry entries, and dump them to an INI file in the program's home directory. This is helpful for debugging problems. You can send the INI file in an e-mail to use during a user support session should we request it.

-readopts

Read the program's registry entries from the file HprSnap5.INI and then save them to the Windows system registry. A great way to immediately set the program back to all defaults. For example, if you install the program, then run it once, the registry entries will be set to the defaults.

If you then use the -dumpopts option, above, to create HprSnap5.INI, then keep that file in a safe place, should you wish to set the program back to the start-up status, this option will do that in one step. Mainly a technical support tool, as it can repair a corrupted registry entry, too.

-initfrom:filename

You'd use this option when you start HyperSnap, for example:

hprsnap6.exe -initfrom:c:\hypersnap\hsdx.ini. A quick method of supporting multiple hot key configurations or other options, such as on systems where multiple users prefer the program to operate differently. If you create a shortcut that loads the program using this switch and a valid INI file you've created with the -dumpopts setting, it's painless to have the program set up differently for many users on the same machine.

Changes you make to its settings in this case do not go back to the registry (as is normally the case) but they are written back to the INI file name you used to load it. This thus keeps a discrete setting set apart from the default.

-snap

Capture a screen (or a portion) one time only, to immediately print or save it, and then exit. The HyperSnap window isn't displayed. This option takes several sub-options you must separate with a colon. Here are some examples.

HprSnap5 -snap:x60:y150:w200:h100 -save:bmp test.bmp

:x is X pixel coordinate from which to start the capture, counted from the left. If omitted, 0 the program will assume 0, the absolute left-hand of the screen.

:y is Y pixel coordinate from which to start the capture, counted from the top. If omitted, the program assumes you want a value of 0.

:w is width of the area to capture, in pixels. If omitted, the program assumes the area from :x to the right edge of the screen should be captured.

:h is height of the area to capture, in pixels. If omitted, the program will capture the area from :y to the bottom of the screen.

:window allows the user to select with the mouse the window to capture.

:region allows the user to select with the mouse a rectangular region to capture.

:awin will capture the currently active window, including frame and title

:acli will capture the currently active window without the title and frame (called the "client area").

-open:[filename]

or

-open [filename]

This option will run HyperSnap and open the specified file (if it exists, and is in a supported graphics file format). It will then perform the action set by any following command line options, such as -print or -save—perhaps in a different format as a quick way to convert one format to another, for example.

You can use this to print several graphics files in batch mode or to translate quickly between varying formats. The program exits when all prescribed operations are complete. Here are a few examples:

To translate test.bmp to test.gif:

hprsnap6.exe -open:test.bmp -save:gif test.gif

To print test.jpg file to the default system printer:

hprsnap6.exe -open test.jpg -print

-colsubst

Performs a color substitution on and opened image according to the table defined previously in an interactive session of HyperSnap under "Color/Substitute Colors" menu. Example:

hprsnap6.exe test.bmp -colsubst
 

-scale:[percent]

Scale (resize) the image captured with -snap command line option or opened from a file, by the percent factor specified. For example:

hprsnap6.exe test.jpg -scale:50

This will open test.jpg file scaled to 50% of its original size, and:

hprsnap6.exe -open test.jpg -scale:50 -save:jpg test.jpg

This will open test.jpg file, scale it to 50% of the original size, save to the same file name and exit immediately. This latest form could be used to scale an entire directory of images with the for command of the Windows batch language. Here's an example:

for %f in (*.jpg) do start/wait "x" "C:\Program Files\HyperSnap 6\HprSnap6.exe" -open "%f" -scale:4 -save:jpg:q95 "Thmb %f"

This will resize all JPEG images in the current folder to 4% of their current size and save them under the same names with added prefix "Thumb" with 95% JPEG quality setting, overwriting the originals. To have the files saved in another folder under the same name, and preserve the originals, you could specify the folder after -save such as -save:jpg:q95 "c:\temp\%f"

This command could also translate the format. For example opening JPEG files, but saving to PNG instead. In this case the last part could be:

-save:png "c:\temp\%f"

-print

This function was designed to be used after -snap to force the printing of the captured picture. It takes several sub-options, all of which must be separated with a colon.

:l print in Landscape mode. Default is portrait

:inv invert black and white

:bw print black and white colors only

:fr draw a frame around printed picture

:sNN scale, where NN is % of the image size, the default being 100%

:af auto-fit the picture to fill the whole page (but preserving the aspect ratio)

pd display Print Dialog, to select the printer etc.

Prints to the default printer if :pd omitted. Here's an example:

hprsnap6.exe -snap -print:l:fr:s75

This example will snap the whole screen and print the resulting capture in landscape mode, with a frame, and scaled downward to 75% of the original size.

-save

This was designed to be used after the -snap option to save the file to a supported file format. The very next argument must be the filename to use for the saved data, including the extension. For example, snap.bmp, snap.gif, and so forth.

Here's a list of possible formats as well as some examples using them:

:gif save as a GIF file

:gif:i save as Interlaced GIF file

:jpg save as JPEG file with the default output quality of 75%

:jpg:qNN save as JPEG file with quality NN% (replace NN with a number such as 90, representing image quality factor).

:jpg:p save as progressive JPEG file (you can add :qNN)

:bmp save as BMP file (this is the default, and may be omitted). Bitmap pixel depth is the same as your screen's.

:bmp:c1 save as 1 bpp bitmap

:bmp:c4 save as 4 bpp bitmap

:bmp:c8 save as 8 bpp bitmap

:bmp:c24 save as 24 bpp bitmap

The program accepts other file types as -save formats. Here's a complete list of all file types accepted during this command. These values should appear after the : in the command line:

bmp, gif, jpg, tif, cmp, cal, fax, eps, img, raw, ica, pict, mac, msp, pcx, ras, tga, wfx, vfm, wpg, png

With all of these file types, the following options are accepted, if valid for a given file type. If an option is not valid for that type, it will be ignored by the program:

:a append the picture to the specified file, if the file format permits this. For example, GIF and TIFF files support appending frames to an existing file.

:c1, :c4, :c8, :c24, :c32 represents the color resolution to use, in bits per pixel.

:i, :p tells HyperSnap to save the file using either interlaced (GIF) or progressive (JPEG) format.

:qNN quality in %, valid for jpg and cmp files. The larger this number, the higher quality the final file will be, but the file size in bytes will be larger, too.

Here's more examples. Snap the whole screen and save in BMP file in the directory c:\tmp\:

hprsnap6.exe -snap -save c:\tmp\test.bmp

Snap portion of screen, save as 8 bit per pixel bitmap in the current DOS directory (be sure you know where this is, or you'll "lose" your file!):

hprsnap6.exe -snap:x50:y80:w200:h100 -save:bmp:c8 btm.bmp

Snap the whole screen, save to GIF file called test.gif:

hprsnap6.exe -snap -save:gif test.gif

Snap the whole screen and save it to a JPEG file with 85% quality:

hprsnap6.exe -snap -save:jpg:q85 test.jpg

-newwin

Allows you to run a second instance of HyperSnap. Normally, if you try to start another instance without this command line option while HyperSnap is already running, the old window will be activated. The second instance (a second, separate HyperSnap window) will not start.

-defprn:prn_name

This command makes HyperSnap use a printer other than the "system default" as its default printer. The "prn_name" part must be the exact same name as listed in your system Printers folder. The entire command must be enclosed in double quotes if the name contains any spaces. If the name is one solid block without spaces, you can skip the quotes.

For a local printer name that includes a space:

"-defprn:HP 2000C"

For a network share printer name without space:

-defprn:\\gandalf\hp855c

-ra

Sets the program to restore advanced options to the same state as they were when HyperSnap was last closed. These advanced options currently include Capture Settings, Crop & Scale enable mode, and View & Edit selection, and all “auto-apply” options on Image and Color menus. Normally restoring these options in other than their default state can confuse novice users of HyperSnap. Advanced users can add this option to the command line and have all these options restored as they set them.

-exit

Causes HyperSnap to exit after it's finished with the requested operation. For example, -snap without the -save or -print commands. Normally HyperSnap would stay running (with its window opened or hidden) in that situation. By using -exit you force it to quit when its tasks are done.

 

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