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What Do You Look For In Screenshots?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the visual-technology-previews dept.

_iris asks: "Most software creators offer screenshots of their software in action. Screenshots are also included in most 3rd party software reviews and previews. The screenshots are usually focused on the unique features of the program. When I am evaluating software, I am usually interested in how the software differs in the more mundane ways. I'm more interested in differences in the file open/save dialogs, what program presents to me when I first open it, how the help system is integrated into the system, etc. My reasoning is that if there is only one or two programs that accomplish my needs, it doesn't matter much how it works or what it looks like because I am stuck either using it or writing my own. Do you care about the unique features or do you care about the slight differences in the common features or do you focus on something else entirely?"

3 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What I look for in a screenshot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    4chan. Be warned though, the place has a troll community that puts Slashdot's to shame.

  2. How about "no screen"? by jgrahn · · Score: 2, Informative
    If my task can be accomplished without a full-screen interface, then I look for plain command-line software first.

    If that doesn't help, I look at the full-screen terminal applications (which can and should have screenshots), and as a last resort, the GUI applications.

    For non-visual software, the man page is a good indication of quality. A sensible set of command-line options, correct grammar, formatting et cetera probably means the program doesn't suck.

  3. Correct resolution by Bazman · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've seen screenshots that are a smaller resolution than the screen capture they represent! Some eejit has scaled the screenshot before uploading it. If a screenshot isnt 1:1 pixels on your screen as on the author's screen then you are going to lose something somewhere.

    I once put up a screenshot of an app I wrote and told my colleague where to find it. He said the text wasn't readable. Huh? I re-uploaded it again. Still not readable. Eventually I taught him how to do a screen capture in Windows and mail me that so I could see what was going on. That was when I discovered Internet Explorer shrunk images to fit the browser window. At the time Mozilla didn't do that (you got scroll bars). Now I try to remember to wrap screenshots in a little HTML so that they show at the right size.