Screenshot

These code examples create the screenshot in the TBitmap object. You can then save this bitmap to a file.

Example 1

This page has the cross-platform example: Developing with Graphics#Taking a screenshot of the screen.

This takes the whole desktop area (all monitors) and puts it into a TBitmap.

Example 2

Code from forum user Manlio. It works on Windows. It gives blank-area bitmap on Linux GTK2, if you replace "GetDesktopWindow" to 0.

With Monitor=-1 it takes the whole desktop area, otherwise it takes only specified monitor.

pascal

uses
  Graphics, LCLType, LCLIntf;

procedure ScreenshotToFile(const Filename: string; Monitor: integer);
var
  BMP: Graphics.TBitmap;
  ScreenDC: HDC;
  M: TMonitor;
  W, H, X0, Y0: integer;
begin
  // Initialize coordinates of full composite area
  X0 := Screen.DesktopLeft;
  Y0 := Screen.DesktopTop;
  W  := Screen.DesktopWidth;
  H  := Screen.DesktopHeight;
  // Monitor=-1 takes entire screen, otherwise takes specified monitor
  if (Monitor >= 0) and (Monitor < Screen.MonitorCount) then begin
    M  := Screen.Monitors[Monitor];
    X0 := M.Left;
    Y0 := M.Top;
    W  := M.Width;
    H  := M.Height;
  end;
  // prepare the bitmap
  BMP := Graphics.TBitmap.Create;
  BMP.Width  := W;
  BMP.Height := H;
  BMP.Canvas.Brush.Color := clWhite;
  BMP.Canvas.FillRect(0, 0, W, H);
  ScreenDC := GetDC(GetDesktopWindow);
  // copy the required area:
  BitBlt(BMP.Canvas.Handle, 0, 0, W, H, ScreenDC, X0, Y0, SRCCOPY);
  ReleaseDC(0, ScreenDC);
  // save to file (possibly to TStream, etc.)
  BMP.SaveToFile(Filename);
  BMP.Free;
end;

From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Screenshot", as it stood on 2022-11-15 after a change by Kai Burghardt, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's Licensing page. If you have concerns about this material, message the admin.

Revision 1, last changed by WikiArchive 2026-11-04.

Talk about this page

Nobody has opened a bench for this page yet. Sign in to open one.