Desktopmagic overview

Desktopmagic can take screenshots (Windows-only for now) without leaking memory in any type of error case (locked workstation, no monitor attached, etc).

You may want this instead of PIL's ImageGrab because:

• This takes a screenshot of all monitors.

• PIL leaks memory if you try to take a screenshot when the workstation is locked (as of 2011-01).

Requirements

• pywin32: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/

• If you want to use getScreenAsImage (and you probably do), you need PIL: http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/

Installation

python setup.py install

This installs the module desktopmagic and the script screengrab_torture_test.

Sample use

desktopmagic.screengrab_win32.getScreenAsImage() returns a PIL Image object (mode RGB) of the current screen (all monitors).

You can save it to disk:

from desktopmagic.screengrab_win32 import getScreenAsImage

im = getScreenAsImage()
im.save('screencapture.png', format='png')

desktopmagic.screengrab_win32.saveScreenToBmp(bmpFilename) saves a screenshot (all monitors) to a .bmp file. This does not require PIL. The .bmp file will have the same bit-depth as the screen; it is not guaranteed to be 32-bit. You'll get an probably-unreadable BMP if your screen depth is 256 colors.

See the source for more advanced/raw usage.

Wishlist

• Support taking screenshots of just one monitor.

• Support OS X

• Support Linux

• Write some tests

Contributing

Patches and pull requests are welcome.

This coding standard applies: http://ludios.org/coding-standard/