Capturing and Copying Screenshots

To quickly capture a screenshot image of a plot, click the button (

) in the window toolbar, or press Ctrl+L. From the button you can choose any of the available preset image snapshot settings. The screenshot image is then available for the output specified for the chosen preset (the clipboard, a file, or PowerPoint) so that you can paste it or add it to, for example, a document or a presentation. You can also use the button (

) in the window toolbar to capture an image snapshot of a plot and to access image settings for more control of the snapshot. To do so, follow the steps below. For the image generation, you can enable hardware-accelerated image export as an alternative to software rendering; see Image for more information.

From the list, you can choose from predefined and user-defined sets of image snapshot settings: , , (the default), or , which are tailored settings for image snapshots suitable for a web page, for printing, or for a PowerPoint presentation or Word document, respectively. and both use a white background. uses a transparent background. The option uses the current size on the screen (which is displayed), so only the and check boxes are available under . If you have modified the image snapshot, you can save those settings as another preset option. To do so, click the button (

) and provide a name for the user-defined preset option in the field of the dialog box that opens. If you do not want to keep an added user-defined preset option, click the button (

). If you have made changes to a preset option and want to return to its default values, click the Reset button at the bottom of the dialog box.

Under , you can choose from a number of predefined image size settings from the list, where is the default. Select 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 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).

Under , select a to define the image size: , , or .

Select the check box to maintain the calculation of the width and height.

Enter the and in the units selected for the image.

Enter the for the image in DPI (dots per inch) as a value between 10 and 1200 DPI.

The software computes and displays values for and based on the inputs above so that you can check that the image size is suitable. If you select from the list, only the appears.

The check box is cleared by default. Select it to add a zoom to extents before printing.

The check box is selected by default. Click to clear if required. Antialiasing minimizes distortion such as jagged edges in the image.

Under , the , (1D graphs) or (2D plots), , (1D graphs), and check boxes (1D and 2D images) or the , , , , and check boxes (3D images) are selected by default to display the information on the screenshot if you select the check box. You can then also edit the selections for including or excluding these parts of the plot. The check box is selected by default for 1D images.

Enter a 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.

If desired, specify the to use for the printed image. The default is to use the , but you can also use the , , , , , , , , and .

Select a : , , , or . The setting is the background color in the plot window on the COMSOL Desktop. The uses the background color from the current color theme. For , click the button to select a custom color from the color palette that opens. For image snapshots saved to file, the option (which is the default background) is only applicable 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.

Under , select the target: (the default) to copy the image to the clipboard, to save the image to a file, or to use the image in Microsoft® PowerPoint and Microsoft® Word. The target is only applicable to, for example, a geometry, mesh, or plot because the output is an image of the selected feature rather than the image in the window.

Choose the target to use the image in a Microsoft® PowerPoint presentation or a Microsoft® Word document. The image will be copied to the clipboard in a way that it will remain linked to the model for future updates after pasting it into the presentation. See Creating PowerPoint Presentations and Word Documents with Linked Tables and Images for more information on how to insert and update images in a presentation.

If is selected:

Select a file : , (1D plots only), , , , (the default), or (results plots in 3D only. For the JPEG format, you can also enter a quality parameter by selecting the check box and entering a quality level between 1 and 100 (default: 92). Usually, a high quality level in the range of 90–95 is recommended.

If is selected:

Select the check box if you want to lock the view in PowerPoint. Saved camera settings are then used when you update the image from PowerPoint. If this check box is cleared, the current camera settings are used when updating the image.