Hello,
I am looking for the most efficient way to take repetitive desktop screenshots in C#.
I am currently using copyfromscreen but it is a little bit too taxing on the CPU.
I would like to know if there is other alternatives.
Thank you
views:
65answers:
2i will try that thanks
GX
2010-06-25 16:55:05
A:
This is some test code that I was using a while back. Have not ran it in a while but feel free to take a look. Hope this puts you in the right direction. Note that this is just a proof of concept. There are some stuff you would want to change before putting into productions (such as the Thread.Sleep).
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Xml;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Collections;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Reflection;
namespace ScreenShotTest
{
class Program
{
[STAThreadAttribute()]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Utilities.IO.FTPFactory ftp = new Utilities.IO.FTPFactory();
ftp.Debug = true;
ftp.RemoteHost = "[host]";
ftp.login();
DateTime s = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Friggin Test Start!");
DA_ScreenShot.ScreenCamera camera = new DA_ScreenShot.ScreenCamera(15);
while(true)
{
camera.CaptureToJpg(@"c:\tmp.jpg");
Console.WriteLine(String.Format(@"Snapping @ {0}",DateTime.Now.ToString()));
System.IO.FileInfo fi = new System.IO.FileInfo(@"c:\tmp.jpg");
while(!fi.Exists)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
try
{
ftp.upload(@"c:\tmp.jpg");
ftp.deleteRemoteFile("FileShot.jpg");
ftp.renameRemoteFile(@"tmp.jpg",@"FileShot.jpg");
fi.Delete();
}catch(Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
}
ftp.close();
TimeSpan ts = DateTime.Now - s;
Console.WriteLine("Finished in " + ts.TotalMilliseconds.ToString() + " ms");
camera.releaseMem();
Console.WriteLine("Friggin Test Stop!");
}
}
}
namespace DA_ScreenShot
{
/// <summary>
/// Captures a screenshot to a local file using the System.Drawing GDI+ hooks.
/// </summary>
public class ScreenCamera
{
private System.Drawing.Size display;
private System.Drawing.Bitmap bitmap;
private System.Drawing.Graphics graphics;
private ImageCodecInfo encInfo;
private EncoderParameters encParams;
private EncoderParameter encParam;
private Rectangle rect;
public ScreenCamera(long quality)
{
SetupGDIObjects();
UpdateSize();
encInfo = GetEncoderInfo("image/jpeg");
System.Drawing.Imaging.Encoder encoder = System.Drawing.Imaging.Encoder.Quality;
encParams = new EncoderParameters(1);
encParam = new EncoderParameter(encoder,quality);
encParams.Param[0] = encParam;
rect = new Rectangle(0,0,display.Width,display.Height);
}
/// <summary>
/// Sets up the objects that ScreenCamera needs to work.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>Successfully setup?</returns>
private bool SetupGDIObjects()
{
try
{
display = new Size(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height);
bitmap = new Bitmap(display.Width, display.Height);
graphics = System.Drawing.Graphics.FromImage(bitmap);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
return false;
}
return true;
}
/// <summary>
/// Checks to see if the display size has changed and calls SetupGDIObjects
/// if it has.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>Update Successful?</returns>
private bool UpdateSize()
{
if (this.display.Height == Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height &&
this.display.Width == Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return SetupGDIObjects();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Method to capture a screenshot to a local file using the System.Drawing GDI+ hooks.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="strFileName">The destination file to save the image to.</param>
/// <returns>Successful?</returns>
public bool CaptureToJpg(string strFileName)
{
try
{
graphics.CopyFromScreen(0,0,0,0, display);
bitmap.Save(strFileName, encInfo, encParams);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.ToString(), "Error!");
return false;
}
return true;
}
public void releaseMem()
{
//display = null;
graphics.Dispose();
graphics = null;
bitmap.Dispose();
bitmap = null;
}
private static ImageCodecInfo GetEncoderInfo(String mimeType)
{
int j;
ImageCodecInfo[] encoders;
encoders = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageEncoders();
for(j = 0; j < encoders.Length; ++j)
{
if(encoders[j].MimeType == mimeType)
return encoders[j];
}
return null;
}
}
public static class ScreenShot
{
public static void CaptureAndSave(string fileName)
{
uint intReturn = 0;
NativeWIN32.INPUT structInput;
structInput = new NativeWIN32.INPUT();
structInput.type = (uint)1;
structInput.ki.wScan = 0;
structInput.ki.time = 0;
structInput.ki.dwFlags = 0;
structInput.ki.dwExtraInfo = 0;
//Press Alt Key
structInput.ki.wVk = (ushort)NativeWIN32.VK.MENU;
intReturn = NativeWIN32.SendInput((uint)1, ref structInput, Marshal.SizeOf(structInput));
// Key down the actual key-code
structInput.ki.wVk = (ushort)NativeWIN32.VK.SNAPSHOT;//vk;
intReturn = NativeWIN32.SendInput((uint)1, ref structInput, Marshal.SizeOf(structInput));
// Key up the actual key-code
structInput.ki.dwFlags = NativeWIN32.KEYEVENTF_KEYUP;
structInput.ki.wVk = (ushort)NativeWIN32.VK.SNAPSHOT;//vk;
intReturn = NativeWIN32.SendInput((uint)1, ref structInput, Marshal.SizeOf(structInput));
//Keyup Alt
structInput.ki.dwFlags = NativeWIN32.KEYEVENTF_KEYUP;
structInput.ki.wVk = (ushort)NativeWIN32.VK.MENU;
intReturn = NativeWIN32.SendInput((uint)1, ref structInput, Marshal.SizeOf(structInput));
try
{
if(Clipboard.ContainsImage())
{
Object data = Clipboard.GetData(DataFormats.Bitmap);;
Clipboard.Clear();
if (data != null)
{
Image image = (Image)data;
image.Save(fileName,System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}
}
}catch(Exception ex){Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);}
}
}
internal class NativeWIN32
{
public const ushort KEYEVENTF_KEYUP = 0x0002;
public enum VK : ushort
{
SHIFT = 0x10,
CONTROL = 0x11,
MENU = 0x12,
ESCAPE = 0x1B,
BACK = 0x08,
TAB = 0x09,
RETURN = 0x0D,
PRIOR = 0x21,
NEXT = 0x22,
END = 0x23,
HOME = 0x24,
LEFT = 0x25,
UP = 0x26,
RIGHT = 0x27,
DOWN = 0x28,
SELECT = 0x29,
PRINT = 0x2A,
EXECUTE = 0x2B,
SNAPSHOT = 0x2C,
INSERT = 0x2D,
DELETE = 0x2E,
HELP = 0x2F,
NUMPAD0 = 0x60,
NUMPAD1 = 0x61,
NUMPAD2 = 0x62,
NUMPAD3 = 0x63,
NUMPAD4 = 0x64,
NUMPAD5 = 0x65,
NUMPAD6 = 0x66,
NUMPAD7 = 0x67,
NUMPAD8 = 0x68,
NUMPAD9 = 0x69,
MULTIPLY = 0x6A,
ADD = 0x6B,
SEPARATOR = 0x6C,
SUBTRACT = 0x6D,
DECIMAL = 0x6E,
DIVIDE = 0x6F,
F1 = 0x70,
F2 = 0x71,
F3 = 0x72,
F4 = 0x73,
F5 = 0x74,
F6 = 0x75,
F7 = 0x76,
F8 = 0x77,
F9 = 0x78,
F10 = 0x79,
F11 = 0x7A,
F12 = 0x7B,
OEM_1 = 0xBA, // ',:' for US
OEM_PLUS = 0xBB, // '+' any country
OEM_COMMA = 0xBC, // ',' any country
OEM_MINUS = 0xBD, // '-' any country
OEM_PERIOD = 0xBE, // '.' any country
OEM_2 = 0xBF, // '/?' for US
OEM_3 = 0xC0, // '`~' for US
MEDIA_NEXT_TRACK = 0xB0,
MEDIA_PREV_TRACK = 0xB1,
MEDIA_STOP = 0xB2,
MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE = 0xB3,
LWIN = 0x5B,
RWIN = 0x5C
}
public struct KEYBDINPUT
{
public ushort wVk;
public ushort wScan;
public uint dwFlags;
public long time;
public uint dwExtraInfo;
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit,Size=28)]
public struct INPUT
{
[FieldOffset(0)] public uint type;
[FieldOffset(4)] public KEYBDINPUT ki;
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern uint SendInput(uint nInputs, ref INPUT pInputs, int cbSize);
}
}
J.Hendrix
2010-06-25 15:41:45
That code is using `CopyFromScreen`, which he says he is already using.
adrianbanks
2010-06-25 15:52:09