Windows 11 has a built-in Snipping Tool for capturing and recording screens. Unfortunately, it does not have a feature to take scrolling screenshots and capture the portion below the visible area of the screen content. However, you can use in-built browser functions, third-party browser extensions and apps to take scrolling screenshots and capture full-length page in a single image. Also, learn more on different ways to take normal screenshots in Windows 11 and 10.
Scrolling Screenshot Uses
With scrolling screenshots, you can capture an entire webpage, a whole document, or a long conversation. In many situations, it is a great way to organize your data in a single screenshot instead of splitting into multiple images.
- Take full-page screenshot of a webpage for later reference.
- Add notes or annotation in a single image which can help you to understand easily.
- Share the captured image with others to explain something easily.
- Capture horizontal spreadsheets with data in lot of columns.
1. Take Full Page Screenshots from Developer Tools (Chrome and Edge)
Developer Tools are built-in features found in major web browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. It helps web developers to view HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code of a webpage. But this feature will also help you to take a screenshot of the entire webpage in a go. Since Chrome and Edge use the same Chromium backend, you can follow the below instructions in both browsers.
- Open the webpage you want to take screenshot in Chrome or Edge browser.
- Right-click on the page and select “Inspect” option.
- Click on the “Toggle device toolbar” icon to open responsiveness selection toolbar. Click the “Responsive” dropdown and select the device in which you want to take the full-page screenshot. Otherwise, you can drag the screen’s edge to increase the reduce the view port. This is important as the screenshot will be with the same size of the view ports selected.
- You will see a three vertical dots icon on right corner of the responsive toolbar, click on it and select “Capture full-size screenshot” option.
- This will instantly download the full-length screenshot of the webpage in your “Downloads” folder. The image will be with the name as “website_url” and in PNG format.
- Open and check the downloaded scrolling screenshot of the webpage, you may need to zoom in to have a clear view of the image.
Here is an example of home page our website’s full-page screenshot taken with Chrome Developer Tools. Remember, the original downloaded image is >6 MB in size and we have reduced the size to make it around 600 KB.
It is a good idea to use ad blocker to remove the ads or use reader view to reduce the clutter before taking the screenshot. It is also possible to hide unnecessary elements in the webpage using Developer Tools. Learn more about using Chrome Developer Tools to make use of all the available features.
2. Capture Full-Page Screenshots in Microsoft Edge with Web Capture
As mentioned, you can also use the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge for taking scrolling screenshot. However, there is an additional webpage capture tool available in Edge which is more convenient to use with annotation options.
- Right-click on your webpage in Microsoft Edge and select “Web capture” option. Or press “Control + Shift + S” shortcut keys.
- You will see two options and select “Capture full page” option.
- If you want to annotate, click the down arrow next to “Draw” option and choose the pencil thickness and color. Now, you can draw or make on your image.
- Next, click on the “Save” icon to get the full-page screenshot in your “Downloads” folder.
3. Extension to Capture Scrolling Screenshots in Chrome and Edge
FireShot extension lets you take full webpage screenshots, edit and save them in PDF, JPEG, GIF or PNG formats. FireShot instantly saves scrolling screenshots locally and can work offline. Here we will explain with Chrome, though you can install the same Chrome extension in Edge or use FireShot add-on for Edge.
- Open Chrome Web Store to search and find “Take Webpage Screenshots Entirely – FireShot” extension.
- Click on “Add to Chrome” button and install the extension on your browser.
- Open the webpage you want to capture scrolling screenshot.
- Click FireShot extension icon and then select “Capture entire page” option.
- There is a stop button to stop the auto scroll anywhere you want.
- After capturing, select either “Save as Image” or “Save to PDF” to save your screenshot. You can also send the image in email, copy to clipboard or print if required.
Since Windows 11 comes with preinstalled Edge browser, you can make use of the above options with or without installing extensions.
4. PicPick Screen Capture App
Above three options are useful in Edge and Chrome browsers to capture the webpage images. However, you need an app for capturing long spreadsheets or chat conversation which are not available in browsers. PicPick is a free third-party screen capture app that captures scrolling screenshots from an active window. This app works in multiple monitor environment, capture the cursor, autosave, and also support the floating widget Capture Bar.
- Go to PicPick website and download the free version.
- Follow the instructions to install the app.
- First, open your document or webpage that you want to capture.
- After that, open PicPick and select “Scrolling Window” option. Alternatively, you can use “Ctrl + Alt + Prt Screen” keyboard shortcuts to start the capture.
- This opens a PicPick capture scrolling window and select the portion of the scrolling window.
- Click on the selected portion to start taking the scrolling screenshot.
- Press Esc key to stop this automatic scrolling where you need.
- The scrolling screenshot taken will automatically open in the editor for further editing.
You can process the image and save it your computer. As you can see, this is much better than using browser features.
5. ShareX Ad-Free Scrolling Image Capture
ShareX is a completely ad-free, open source, and user-friendly screen capture, file sharing, and productivity tool available for Windows operating system. Along with capturing screenshots, it also offers excellent editing features free of cost.
- You will see different versions of the app when you click “Download button on ShareX website. To make it simple, go to Microsoft Store and install the app on your system.
- Open the app window you want to take the scrolling screenshot and then open ShareX app.
- Click “Capture” from the menu and select “Scrolling capture” option. Like PicPick, you can select the portion for scrolling the app window.
- Select Before capture, While capturing, and After capture preferences if any. Or simply click on “Start scrolling capture” button.
- If required, edit the screenshot with “Trim edges” and “Combine adjustments” options.
- When your image is ready, click on “Upload/save depending on after capture settings” button.
- By default, you can find the saved image in “Documents/ShareX/Screenshots” folder.
6. TweakShot Screen Capture
TweakShot screen capture is the all-in-one tool used to capture screenshots of the active window, capture videos, and edit images. This free app is perfect for both personal and business purposes and comes with more editing options than ShareX.
- Go to the TweakShot website to download and install the app on your computer.
- Open the TweakShot app and go to the document or webpage to take a screenshot.
- Select the “Capture Scrolling Window” icon from the floating widget, adjust the size of the screenshot, and click on the selected portion.
- The taken screenshot will automatically open in the Image Editor where you can zoom in, zoom out, resize, crop, or upload your screenshot. After editing it, click on the “Save” button.
7. Use Snagit for Panoramic Horizontal and Vertical Scrolling Screen Capture
Snagit is a premium screen capture and editing tool available for both Windows and Mac. You can try their 15-day free trial version to test drive the features and purchase if you like it. The app offers automatic scrolling or manual panoramic options to capture hidden screen content in both horizontal and vertical directions. After capturing, you can use the powerful Snagit Editor to add overlaying text, convert the images to different formats and share on social platforms.
- Go to official Snagit website and download the free trial version of the app for Windows.
- You can either choose the preset or every time choose the option while capturing the image.
- For choosing a preset, open the app and go to “Image” section. Select “Scrolling Window” option from “Selection” dropdown for automatic scrolling. If you want to select the portion and scroll the screen manually then select “Panoramic” option.
- You can also apply “Effects” to edit your screenshot with several options available like trim, add watermark, add border, color adjustment, etc.
- Now, open your webpage or document and then go to Snagit and press the “Capture” button.
- Move the cursor to the scrollable area and Snagit will show the orange color arrows as shown below.
- Click on the arrowhead in the direction you want to capture the scrolling screen. When the scrolling starts, click on the webpage/document to stop the auto scroll or leave the auto scrolling to reach the end.
- If you have selected “Panoramic” option, you can manually scroll using the arrow key or mouse. As mentioned, without choosing any preset (default will be Region capture) you can choose the panoramic option after clicking the capture button.
- Click “Start” button and scroll the page manually. When you are done, click “Stop” button to finish the capture.
- The scrolling screenshot gets opened in the Snagit Editor for further editing and you can save or share from there.
The advantage of using Snagit is that it is a professional tool with editor. You can trim the image, resize, add annotations, and save the file in “JPG” format with desired compression level.
Final Thoughts
Using scrolling screenshot is a good idea if you don’t want to end up with pile of images of the same webpage, document, or a long conversation. You can easily take screenshots using any of the above methods either from browser or using apps. However, there are two related points you need to consider when capturing scrolling screens – one is image and other is document length.
- Long images can be easily of >1MB in size. Keeping hundreds of such images will quickly occupy your system’s storage space. Therefore, you need to trim unnecessary portions in webpages like footer, sidebar, newsletter or ads and save the compressed images in JPG format to reduce the size.
- When using auto scrolling, make sure the length of the document you are trying to capture is limited to few pages. Otherwise, the app will crash if you are trying to capture a 50 pages of word document with auto scrolling.
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