> NAME

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

Description
Examples
Options
Environment
Authors
Copyright
> 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 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.

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> 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

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> Options

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.

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 <width>x<height>

surround the image with a border of color

See X(1) for details about the geometry specification.

> -bordercolor color

the border color

> -cache threshold

megabytes of memory available to the pixel cache

Image pixels are stored in memory until 80 megabytes of memory have been consumed. Subsequent pixel operations are cached on disk. Operations to memory are significantly faster but if your computer does not have a sufficient amount of free memory you may want to adjust this threshold value.

> -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 have any duplicate or unused colors removed. Refer to quantize for more details.

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

> -colorspace value

the type of colorspace

Choices are: GRAY, OHTA, RGB, Transparent, XYZ, YCbCr, YIQ, YPbPr, YUV, or CMYK.

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 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

Use this option to assign a specific comment to the image. You can include the image filename, type, width, height, or other image attribute by embedding special format characters:
     %b   file size
     %c   comment
     %d   directory
     %e   filename extention
     %f   filename
     %h   height
     %i   input filename
     %k   number of unique colors
     %l   label
     %m   magick
     %n   number of scenes
     %o   output filename
     %p   page number
     %q   quantum depth
     %s   scene number
     %t   top of filename
     %u   unique temporary filename
     %w   width
     %x   x resolution
     %y   y resolution
     \n   newline
     \r   carriage return

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.

> -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.

The width and height give the size of the image that remains after cropping, and the offsets give the location of the top left corner of the cropped image with respect to the original image. To specify the amount to be removed, use -shave instead.

To specify a percentage width or height to be removed instead, append %. For example to crop the image by ten percent (five percent on each side of the image), use -crop 10%.

Use cropping to apply image processing options to, or display, a particular area of an image.

Omit the x and y offset to generate one or more subimages of a uniform size.

Use cropping to crop a particular area of an image. Use -crop 0x0 to trim edges that are the background color. Add an x and y offset to leave a portion of the trimmed edges with the image.

> -debug

enable debug printout

> -delay <1/100ths of a second>

display the next image after pausing

This option is useful for regulating the animation of GIF images within Netscape. Delay/100 seconds must expire before the display of the next image. The default is no delay between each showing of the image sequence. The maximum delay is 65535.

You can specify a delay range (e.g. -delay 10-500) which sets the minimum and maximum delay.

> -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 dots per inch in the horizontal and vertical direction. This option is used in concert with -page.

> -depth value

depth of the image

This is the number of bits in a pixel. The only acceptable values are 8 or 16. Use this option to specify the depth of raw images whose depth is unknown such as GRAY, RGB, or CMYK, or to change the depth of any image after it has been read.

> -descend

obtain image by descending window hierarchy

> -despeckle

reduce the speckles within an image

> -display host:display[.screen]

specifies the X server to contact

> -dispose method

GIF disposal method

Here are the valid methods:
     0     No disposal specified.
     1     Do not dispose between frames.      
     2     Overwrite frame with background color from header.
     3     Overwrite with previous frame.

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

Use +dither to render Postscript without text or graphic aliasing.

> -frame <width>x<height>+<outer bevel width>+<inner bevel width>

surround the image with an ornamental border

See X(1) for details about the geometry specification.

The color of the border is specified with the -mattecolor command line option.

> -geometry <width>x<height>{+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset>{%}{@}{!}{<}{>}

preferred size and location of the Image window.

See X(1) for details about the geometry specification. By default, the window size is the image size and the location is chosen by you when it is mapped.

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 specify the maximum area in pixels of an image.

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.

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.

There are 72 pixels per inch in PostScript coordinates.

> -help

print usage instructions

> -interlace type

the type of interlacing scheme

Choices are: None, Line, Plane, or Partition. The default is None.

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 PNG or 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 other image attribute by embedding special format character. See -comment for details.

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. Specify the label font with -font.

> -monochrome

transform the image to black and white

> -negate

replace every pixel with its complementary color

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

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

size and location of an image canvas

Use this option to specify the dimensions of the PostScript page in dots per inch or a TEXT page in pixels. The choices for a Postscript page are:
     11x17         792  1224 
     Ledger       1224   792    
     Legal         612  1008
     Letter        612   792
     LetterSmall   612   792
     ArchE        2592  3456
     ArchD        1728  2592
     ArchC        1296  1728
     ArchB         864  1296
     ArchA         648   864
     A0           2380  3368
     A1           1684  2380
     A2           1190  1684
     A3            842  1190
     A4            595   842
     A4Small       595   842
     A5            421   595
     A6            297   421
     A7            210   297
     A8            148   210
     A9            105   148
     A10            74   105
     B0           2836  4008
     B1           2004  2836
     B2           1418  2004
     B3           1002  1418
     B4            709  1002
     B5            501   709
     C0           2600  3677
     C1           1837  2600
     C2           1298  1837
     C3            918  1298
     C4            649   918
     C5            459   649
     C6            323   459
     Flsa          612   936 
     Flse          612   936
     HalfLetter    396   612

For convenience you can specify the page size by media (e.g. A4, Ledger, etc.). Otherwise, -page behaves much like -geometry (e.g. -page letter+43+43>).

To position a GIF image, use -page{+-}<x offset>{+-}<y offset> (e.g. -page +100+200).

For a Postscript page, the image is sized as in -geometry and positioned relative to the lower left hand corner of the page by {+-}<xoffset>{+-}<y offset>. Use -page 612x792>, for example, to center the image within the page. If the image size exceeds the Postscript page, it is reduced to fit the page.

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

This option is used in concert with -density.

> -ping

efficiently determine image characteristics

> -pointsize value

pointsize of the Postscript, OPTION1, or TrueType font

> -quality value

JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level

For the JPEG image format, quality is 0 (worst) to 100 (best). The default quality is 75.

Quality for the MIFF and PNG image format sets the amount of image compression (quality / 10) and filter-type (quality % 10). Compression quality values range from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). If filter-type is 4 or less, the specified filter-type is used for all scanlines:
     0: none
     1: sub
     2: up
     3: average
     4: Paeth

If filter-type is 5, adaptive filtering is used when quality is greater than 50 and the image does not have a color map, otherwise no filtering is used.

If filter-type is 6 or more, adaptive filtering with minimum-sum-of-absolute-values is used.

The default is quality is 75. Which means nearly the best compression with adaptive filtering.

For further information, see the PNG specification.

> -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 background (class backgroundColor). See X(1) for details.

> -scene value

number of screen snapshots

Use this option to grab more than one image from the X server screen to create an animation sequence.

> -screen

specify the screen to capture

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.

> -select

select something in import

> -silent

operate silently

> -size <width>x<height>{+offset}

width and height of the image

Use this option to specify the width and height of raw images whose dimensions are unknown such as GRAY, RGB, or CMYK. In addition to width and height, use -size with an offset to skip any header information in the image or tell the number of colors in a MAP image file, (e.g. -size 640x512+256).

For Photo CD images, choose from these sizes:
     192x128
     384x256
     768x512
     1536x1024
     3072x2048

Finally, use this option to choose a particular resolution layer of a JBIG or JPEG image (e.g. -size 1024x768).

> -transparent color

make this color transparent within the image

> -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 transform the image. Refer to miff for a description of the image class.

If -colors is also specified, the total unique colors in the image and color reduction error values are printed. Refer to quantize for a description of these values.
> Environment


> DISPLAY

 
>Authors
John Cristy, magick-users@imagemagick.org, ImageMagick Studio LLC.
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>Copyright
Copyright (C) 2002 ImageMagick Studio

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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of ImageMagick.

The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement.In no event shall ImageMagick Studio be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with ImageMagick or the use or other dealings in ImageMagick.

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