Capturing and Copying Screenshots
To quickly capture a screenshot image of a plot, press Ctrl+C when the Graphics window or another plot window has focus. The screenshot image is then available on the clipboard so that you can paste it into, for example, a document. Also use the Image Snapshot button () on the Graphics toolbar to capture an image snapshot of a plot. To do so, follow these steps:
1
In the Graphics window or any other plot window, click the Image Snapshot button () to open the Image Snapshot dialog box.
2
Under Image, from the Size list, select Current (the default) to use the current size of the Graphics window, select Manual (web) to define the image size manually using the settings below set up for a snapshot suitable for the web (using pixels as the default unit and 96 DPI as the default resolution), or select Manual (print) to define the image size manually using the settings below set up for a printout of the snapshot (using millimeters as the default unit and 300 DPI as the default resolution). With the Size list set to Current, the Antialiasing check box is the only available setting.
3
Select a Unit to define the image size: Millimeters (mm), Inches (in), or Pixels (px) (the default).
4
Select the Lock aspect ratio check box to maintain the calculation of the width and height.
5
Enter the Width and Height in the units selected for the image.
6
Enter the Resolution for the image in DPI (dots per inch) as a value between 10 and 1200 DPI.
The software computes and displays values for Image size and Size on screen based on the inputs above so that you can check that the image size is suitable. If you select Current from the Size list, only the Size on screen appears.
7
The Zoom extents check box is cleared by default. Select it to add a zoom to extents before printing.
8
The Antialiasing check box is selected by default. Click to clear if required. Antialiasing minimizes distortion such as jagged edges in the image.
9
Under Layout, the Title, Legend (1D graphs) or Color legend (2D plots), Axes, Grid (1D graphs), and Logotype check boxes (1D and 2D images) or the Title, Color legend, Grid, Axis orientation, and Logotype check boxes (3D images) are selected by default to display the information on the screenshot if you select the Include check box. You can then also edit the selections for including or excluding these parts of the plot. The Include check box is selected by default for 1D images.
10
Enter a Font size in points (pt) as a value between 1 and 1000 pt. The default value is 9 pt. This font size overrides the system font size used in the COMSOL Desktop.
11
Select a Background: Current, Color, or Transparent. Current is the background color in the plot window on the COMSOL Desktop. For Color, click the Color button to select a custom color from the color palette that opens. The Transparent option is only available for the PNG file format.
Transparent image support includes two parts: Raw data of the PNG image and an external renderer (image viewer). The COMSOL Multiphysics software can provide a correct PNG image itself but cannot control the external renderer.
When importing an image with a transparent background to another Windows application, first save the image as a file rather than saving it to the clipboard. In some cases, the transparent background is not preserved if you copy an image via the clipboard.
12
Under Output, select the target: Clipboard (the default) copies the image to the clipboard. File saves the image to a file.
13
If File is selected:
a
Select a file Format: BMP, EPS (1D plots only), JPEG, or PNG (the default).
b
Enter a file path in the Filename field, or click Browse to specify the name and location of the file.
14
Click OK to generate the image snapshot.
Printing from the COMSOL Desktop