gtk vector screenshot module
============================

© 2011 Joachim Breitner <mail@joachim-breitner.de>

This gtk module allows you to take a screenshot of a running gtk-3 application
as a vector image, with fully scalable graphics and selectable text. It
supports rendering the application to PDF, SVG and PostScript.

Installation
============

To install the module, use the usual sequence:

./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

And then ensure that the environment variable GTK_MODULES includes
gtk-vector-screenshot, e.g. in ~/.xsessionrc or by putting the file
52load-gtk-vector-screenshot-gtk-module into /etc/X11/Xsession.d.

If you do not install into /usr, you will have set GTK_PATH or pass the full
path of gtk-vector-screencast.so via GTK_MODULES when invoking the application.

Usage
=====

You need to ensure that the gtk-vector-screenshot module is loaded by the
application, see section Installation. Distribution packages should take care
of this, but you might need to login again after you install the package.

Then run take-vector-screenshot, press the button, click on the window and then
you can select the filename to save the image under.

You can watch a screencast of the program in action at
http://www.joachim-breitner.de/blog/archives/494-Better-PDF-screenshots-with-gtk-3.html

Protocol
========

The module is loaded by every application, and only activated using the
take-vector-screenshot program. The protocol is simple and based on X window
properties and X client messages: The gtk module sets the GTK_VECTOR_SCREENSHOT
property for each top-level X window to some arbitrary value (currently
"supported"). The control application sends an XClientMessage event to that
window of type GTK_VECTOR_SCREENSHOT and with event.window set to the receiving
window.

Development
===========

The latest release can be found on 
http://www.joachim-breitner.de/archive/gtk-vector-screenshot/

For the list of changes, see ChangeLog.

The code is hosted on gitorious.org:
https://gitorious.org/gtk-vector-screenshot/gtk-vector-screenshot

You can pull from the repository via
git clone git://gitorious.org/gtk-vector-screenshot/gtk-vector-screenshot.git
or if you are registered with gitorious, via
git@gitorious.org:gtk-vector-screenshot/gtk-vector-screenshot.git

Feel free to submit patches, but also feel free to contact me first with your
ideas, in case I have different plans.

BUGS and TODOs
==============
 * It only works with gtk3 applications.
 * The screenshot is taken the moment you press Save in the file chooser
   dialogue, not when you press the “Take vector screenshot” button.
 * Make the preview widget behave more sensible with regard to resizes.
 * Less hakish setting of the GTK_VECTOR_SCREENSHOT property.
 * Fallback code without IPC for windows, as for version 0.2.
 * Use GtkInvisible for the grab in take-vector-screenshot.c, as that is what
   its meant for, it seems.