How would I create an application that records the users interactions with the desktop in C# and then convert it to a video format such as avi?
To capture screenshots you can use CopyFromScreen.
Simple C# example:
Rectangle bounds = Screen.GetBounds(Point.Empty);
using(Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(bounds.Width, bounds.Height))
{
using(Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
{
g.CopyFromScreen(Point.Empty, Point.Empty, bounds.Size);
}
// TODO: Save or use in any other way.
}
However, if you want to capture videos, it would be better to use something like this Stack Overflow question.
Related
This question already has answers here:
C#: how to take a screenshot of a portion of screen
(4 answers)
Closed 1 year ago.
I want to take a screenshot of a specific part of a website using C# or .net Code, I can't create a Windows form application as it must be embedded into something else.
Here is what I got so far:
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Drawing;
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
try
{
//Creating a new Bitmap object
Bitmap captureBitmap = new Bitmap(1024, 768, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
//Bitmap captureBitmap = new Bitmap(int width, int height, PixelFormat);
//Creating a Rectangle object which will
//capture our Current Screen
Rectangle captureRectangle = Screen.AllScreens[0].Bounds;
//Creating a New Graphics Object
Graphics captureGraphics = Graphics.FromImage(captureBitmap);
//Copying Image from The Screen
captureGraphics.CopyFromScreen(captureRectangle.Left,captureRectangle.Top,0,0,captureRectangle.Size);
//Saving the Image File (I am here Saving it in My E drive).
captureBitmap.Save(#"E:\Capture.jpg",ImageFormat.Jpeg);
//Displaying the Successfull Result
MessageBox.Show("Screen Captured");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
This code works fine as long as I am creating a windows form application, but as soon as I change it to console it doesn't work even after adding the "using System.Windows.Forms;" and it produces this error:
//Screen does not exist in the current context
So Is there any solution for this or any other way I could take a screenshot of a specific part of a website Programmatically without connecting to it at all.
Thanks in advance.
I actually found an answer one minute after posting from the suggested links "which btw didn't show in search I did for 2 days for some reason" but anyway
its This question
and its as simple as
Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(0, 0, 100, 100);
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(rect.Width, rect.Height, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp);
g.CopyFromScreen(rect.Left, rect.Top, 0, 0, bmp.Size,
CopyPixelOperation.SourceCopy);
bmp.Save(fileName, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
Can someone help me with code to capture a screenshot of the teststack.white window? I tried the following code
Rectangle bounds = this.Bounds;
using (Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(bounds.Width, bounds.Height))
{
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
{
g.CopyFromScreen(new System.Drawing.Point(bounds.Left, bounds.Top), System.Drawing.Point.Empty, bounds.Size);
}
bitmap.Save(#"C:\Users\Desktop\test.jpg", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}
This captures a screenshot of the form. If in place of this.bounds , I key in the teststack.white window bounds, it says cannot convert system.windows.rect to system.drawing.rectangle? Can someone provide me with the code to get this sorted? Thanks in advance.
Sure, it's easy:
Desktop.TakeScreenshot("C:\\white-framework.png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
If you need to manipulate the image after capturing it, you can do this:
Bitmap bitmap = Desktop.CaptureScreenshot();
I had made an app in C# that will perform screen capture continuously and display it in a PictureBox using timer. After running for a few seconds, there was an ArgumentException.
Below is the code and the line that has the ArgumentException
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Rectangle bounds = Screen.GetBounds(Point.Empty);
Graphics graphics;
Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(bounds.Width, bounds.Height);
using (graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
{
graphics.CopyFromScreen(0, 0, 0, 0, new Size(bounds.Width , bounds.Height )); // ArgumentException
pictureBox1.Image = bitmap;
pictureBox1.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.StretchImage;
}
}
Besides that, I had notices that an alert saying low memory from Windows after running the app for a few seconds.
Any tips on resolving this problem?
You keep setting a new bitmap to the picturebox, and the previous bitmap is never disposed. After a while, the system runs short of GDI handles and/or memory (running your code, I consumed one gig of memory in under 15 seconds).
You can simply reuse your existing bitmap:
Rectangle bounds = Screen.GetBounds(Point.Empty);
Image bitmap = pictureBox1.Image ?? new Bitmap(bounds.Width, bounds.Height);
using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
{
graphics.CopyFromScreen(0, 0, 0, 0, new Size(bounds.Width, bounds.Height));
if (pictureBox1.Image == null)
{
pictureBox1.Image = bitmap;
}
else
{
pictureBox1.Refresh();
}
}
You also don't have to reset pictureBox1.SizeMode on each iteration.
Alternatively, you can dispose the previous bitmap manually:
Rectangle bounds = Screen.GetBounds(Point.Empty);
Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(bounds.Width, bounds.Height);
using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
{
graphics.CopyFromScreen(0, 0, 0, 0, new Size(bounds.Width, bounds.Height));
using (Image prev_bitmap = pictureBox1.Image)
{
pictureBox1.Image = bitmap;
}
}
pictureBox1.Image = bitmap;
Yes, your program won't last long when you frequently update the picture box. The Bitmap class is the singular .NET class where IDisposable can't easily be ignored. It is like an iceberg, bitmaps can use massive amounts of unmanaged memory but very little managed memory. You must dispose bitmaps when you no longer use them to prevent them from consuming all available unmanaged memory for their pixel data. The garbage collector tends to hide that problem but it can't do so when it doesn't run frequently enough. And the managed portion of Bitmap is too small to trigger a collection often enough. Fix:
if (pictureBox1.Image != null) pictureBox1.Image.Dispose();
pictureBox1.Image = bitmap;
The following KB can help understanding this issue:
Bitmap and Image constructor dependencies
GDI+, and therefore the System.Drawing namespace, may defer the
decoding of raw image bits until the bits are required by the image.
Additionally, even after the image has been decoded, GDI+ may
determine that it is more efficient to discard the memory for a large
Bitmap and to re-decode later. Therefore, GDI+ must have access to the
source bits for the image for the life of the Bitmap or the Image
object.
To retain access to the source bits, GDI+ locks any source file, and
forces the application to maintain the life of any source stream, for
the life of the Bitmap or the Image object.
One has to figure out when is the object ready for disposal.
using Gma.QrCodeNet.Encoding;
using Gma.QrCodeNet.Encoding.Windows.Controls;
private QrEncoder Encoder = new QrEncoder(ErrorCorrectionLevel.H);
private Renderer renderer = new Renderer(15);
BitMatrix qr = Encoder.Encode("12345").Matrix;
Size size = Renderer.Measure(qr.Width);
Bitmap result = new Bitmap(size.Width, size.Width);
try
{
using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(result))
renderer.Draw(graphics,qr);
return result;
}
catch
{
result.Dispose();
throw;
}
I can successfully generate QR codes with what I've got above. However, It always makes them with whitespace on all sides of the code. Is there an easy way to remove the whitespace, or, even better, generate the codes without it?
If library is not supporting it directly then you can always add one more step to crop the result bitmap.
using (Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(result))
renderer.Draw(graphics,qr);
Rectangle cropRectangle = Rectangle(
borderWidth,borderHeight,result.Width-borderWidth,
result.Height-borderHeight);
return result.Clone(cropRectangle, bmp.PixelFormat);
This one is slightly confusing...
I am using Adobe's PDF Viewer control to view PDFs but I want the user to be able to drag an image onto the PDF and then when they click save it adds the image to the PDF at that location.
Implementing the PDF viewer proved quite difficult but I decided in the end to use Adobe's control, take a picture and then allow the user to draw the image ontop of the picture of the PDF. When they click save I am going to use PDFSharp to put the image onto the PDF once I've worked out where it goes but the problem I have at the moment is that I can't get a picture of the PDF.
The following code is used to get the picture but the Panel that it is attached to just appears with a white background with a red 'X' and border...
using (Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(adobePDFViewer1.Width, adobePDFViewer1.Height))
{
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap))
{
g.CopyFromScreen(new Point(adobePDFViewer1.Left, adobePDFViewer1.Top), Point.Empty, adobePDFViewer1.Size);
}
panelOverPdfViewer.BackgroundImage = bitmap;
}
I don't think this is the best way of doing it but I couldn't work out any others. Any help would be appreciated!
EDIT:
Following a very helpful answer below this is working code:
Here is the code I used:
Bitmap printscreen = new Bitmap(adobePDFViewer1.Width, adobePDFViewer1.Height);
Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(printscreen as Image);
int left = this.Left + 396;
int top = this.Top + 30;
graphics.CopyFromScreen(left, top, 0, 0, printscreen.Size);
pictureBoxOverPDFView.Image = printscreen;
Look at this this Print-Screen
and try this for test work of CopyFromScreen
private void PrintScreen()
{
Bitmap printscreen = new Bitmap(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height);
Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(printscreen as Image);
graphics.CopyFromScreen(0, 0, 0, 0, printscreen.Size);
printscreen.Save(#"C:\Temp\printscreen.jpg", ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}