Screenshot

A screen dump, screen capture (or screen-cap), screenshot (or screen shot), screengrab (or screen grab), or print screen is an image taken by the computer user to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device. Usually this is a digital image using the (host) operating system or software running on the computer, but it can also be a capture made by a camera or a device intercepting the video output of the display (such as a DVR). That latent image converted and saved to an image file such as to .JPG, .BMP, or .GIF format is also called a screenshot.

Screenshots can be used to demonstrate a program, a particular problem a user might be having, or generally when display output needs to be shown to others or archived. For example, after being emailed a screenshot, a Web page author might be surprised to see how his page looks on a different Web browser and can take corrective action. Likewise with differing email software programs, (particularly such as in a cell phone, tablet, etc.,) a sender might have no idea how his email looks to others until he sees a screenshot from another computer and can (hopefully) tweak his settings appropriately.