Changes HyperSnap (formerly SnapShot/32)Log

As you can see, HyperSnap-DX receives continual attention as we listen to users' comments and suggestions to make it the best screen capture utility for Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT possible. Your input is always welcome.

1999.10.06 HyperSnap-DX 3.50.00
 Added "Pan Last Region" to capture menu (to move on the screen a rectangle with the exact size of last capture, to capture another region of the same size).
Added more sub-formats to TIFF save (PackBits compression for RGB, YCbCr and CMYK)
Fixed small memory leak in capture routine (about 400 bytes)
Added blocking to game capture code, so that if "special capture" key is pressed again too soon, it won't spoil the previous, unfinished capture.
Fixed problem with scan (acquire) - cancel, would crash or quit HyperSnap-DX with some scanner drivers.
Fixed margins for multi-page printing (on pages other than page 1 they could be incorrect).
Fixed resolution reading from files (e.g. GIF) that do not store image resolution. Previously it would default to 200 dpi, now we are using the default resolution values set under "Options" menu. For file formats that do store resolution, we still use resolution as read from file (e.g. BMP files).
Fix for not reading bitmaps in "basic" version
Fix for not adding file extension (e.g. .jpg) with -save option 

ver. 3.42.00, released 1999.07.12
Using different 3Dfx picture filters depending on user's selection on "Special Capture" window. 
Restored "Print Screen" key handling for DirectX and Glide captures (necessary if some picture disappears when any other key is pressed).
The Special Capture hot key selection was not saved, and always restored to default Scroll Lock key on HyperSnap-DX exit - fixed.
Trying to get the current screen resolution for Glide3X games now from DirectX - this should make games like NFS:High Stakes snap correctly now.
Fixed: font size and header/footer alignment for printing were not used or saved correctly on some Win95/98 machines.
Fixed: NFS:High Stakes game would not capture correctly 
Fixed: Saving WPG, PNG or PSD files would result in files with wrong extension to the name.
Worked around a bug in some ATI graphics card drivers that caused a crash in Region capture or Crop function.

1999.06.15 HyperSnap-DX 3.41.00
 Bug fixes: saving GIF and maybe some other format files, captured in 16 bpp (65536 colors) screen mode would make corrupt files.
Printing with reverse black and white of images captured in 16 bpp color mode did not work correctly
"Special Capture" option would be turned off after exiting and restarting HyperSnap-DX

ver. 3.40.00, released 1999.06.
New in this version:
- support for multi-monitor systems (Windows 98, Windows 2000)
- text headers and footers when printing images
- corrected color filter for screen captures from 3Dfx Voodoo3 cards
- added option to start HS-DX with Windows (Startup menu)
- added the ability to configure "Toggle Help and Zoom" key, previously fixed to F1.
- modified the mouse operation in Crop and Capture Region operations to easier pick up e.g. (0,0) point.
- upgraded Leadtools DLL distributed with HyperSnap-DX to ver. 10
- miscellaneous small enhancements and bug fixes

1998.12.31 HyperSnap-DX 3.30.00
Added the ability to capture images from hardware overlays, which are largely used in video software (e.g. DVD players). The limitation is again, that the overlay must have been created and managed with DirectX in the target program, otherwise we'll still capture only the color rectangle (the overlay key color).

Good news is a new way to snap DirectX screens, including games, videos, DVD etc. It is no longer necessary to start HyperSnap-DX and enable DirectX capture first, before the target program. HyperSnap-DX can be started or stopped at any time, and it will capture these screens correctly. DirectX and Glide capture is now a lot more stable, should not cause game/computer crashes or lock-ups.

Other changes:

Added new "Quick Crop and Scale" function to Capture menu. Added "Toggle Cursor Capture" button to the toolbar.

Added a setting to change picture resolution, in dots per inch (dpi). This setting affects how images are printed or pasted into other documents. Also added a "zoom" window for Region capture and crop operations, which lets you to see the area around the cursor under 3x or 4x magnification.

Fixed a problem with color captures from 256 color applications using entire system palette.

Fixed the problem under Windows 98, where selecting Region capture from the menu or when HS window was in front, did not permit you to use keyboard to control region selection.

ver. 3.21.00, released 1998.09.15
Added support to capture games using DirectX 6 technology. Corrected some small errors regarding saving files in EPS and other formats.

ver. 3.20.00, released 1998.08.05
Added ability to capture pictures from Glide 3.x applications.
Selecting "DirectX and Glide Capture" now displays a dialog to actually choose DirectX/Direct3D and/or Glide capture technology, and set image post processing and gamma correction factor. Some more small fixes for Glide and DirectX captures.
Added Gamma Correction, Rotate and Mirror options to the Image menu.
Window close button will now only minimize HyperSnap-DX, and not completely exit it, if "Display Tray Icon" option is turned on.

ver. 3.13.00, released 1998.06.19
Earlier versions of HyperSnap-DX would sometimes hang when snapping pictures from high action games running in Glide mode on 3Dfx Voodoo2 and compatible hardware. This has now been fixed. Other small changes: now saving the last captured area between sessions, more command line options and other small fixes.

ver. 3.12.00, released 1998.05.19
Page Setup preview did not display correct scale for pictures loaded from files, if constant scaling factor was selected.
Fixed full screen capture for some rare programs that use palettes in 8 bit color mode, that don't contain Windows static colors.
Added "Optimized or Std. Windows" palette choices to Save As.. options
Added "Black and White" palette choice to "Color Resolution" on Image menu.

ver. 3.11.00, released 1998.04.22
New features:
Quick Save function extended for auto-number and prompt for name options to work together.
New "Black and White" palette setting under Image/Color Resolution
Page Setup dialog extended in Scaling section, to set fixed scaling or auto-fit, if the picture is too large for given scale.
Bug fixes: occasional crash in Crop functions. Problem with printing some GIF files in constant scale factor. Occasional crash if Quick Save had an invalid file name.

ver. 3.10.03, released 1998.03.26
More small changes and bug fixes: print sometimes would not work. Added Esc button handling to Window capture, to let you interrupt it that way. Also space bar in Window capture now works the same as left mouse button - using it, e.g. when you click on a menu, will prevent the execution of this menu function. Made Quick Print and the Print button on the toolbar to start printing at once, instead of bringing up Print Dialog first.

ver. 3.10.02, released 1998.03.24
Minor fixes: Windows Metafile default extension was .wfm instead of .wmf. Printing margins did not work correctly (on Page Setup). Added saving of toolbar and status bar visibility and positions. Made Esc key abort Window Capture operation. Added toolbar icon for Page Setup. Some more small fixes like that.

ver. 3.10.01, released 1998.03.18
Minor corrections, e.g. the default extension for Windows Metafile format was set to ".wfm" instead ".wmf".

ver. 3.10.00, released 1998.03.13
New features in HyperSnap-DX 3.10 Basic version:

New features in HyperSnap-DX 3.10 Pro version - all of the Basic version plus:

ver. 3.08.00 for Alpha processors, released 1998.01.16
HyperSnap-DX for Alpha/NT ver. 3.08.00 was released today.

ver. 3.08.00, released 1997.12.09
Added saving on exit of the last disk folder (directory) used in File/Save As or File/Open and restoring it on next run.
Added two command line options: -nosetdir and -nosavedir to preserve the old behaviour if necessary.
Fixed: bottom margin in printing was not set correctly (right margin value was used instead).

ver. 3.07.00, released 1997.11.13
Added ability to capture screens from Win32 games using GLIDE (3Dfx) technology. Improved DirectX captures - no more color shifts and less crashes.

ver. 3.06.00, released 1997.10.14
Fixed auto-scroll for MS Office 97 and Internet Explorer 4.
Pasting HyperSnap-DX pictures into some programs, e.g. Lotus Notes, would produce black picture. Fixed.

ver. 3.05.01, released 1997.08.07
Bug fix - in Quick Save mode, if the time between the captures was long, there were problems starting the Explorer and some other applications on Windows 95. Also fixed: pressing a hot key in Quick Save timed mode will abort the mode promptly, without waiting for the next auto-snap to happend.

ver. 3.05.00, released 1997.07.18
Added "Send by Email" item to the file menu. With MAPI enabled mailer this will let you send the current picture to any email recipient as GIF, BMP or JPEG file attachment.
Prepared HyperSnap-DX for localization (translation into other languages)
Fixed a problem in saving BMP files: if the file was loaded from disk or saved with some options, changing BMP options (color depth) had no effect.
Added information about Hyperionics Web Store to "About" and "Register" boxes.

ver. 3.03, released 1997.06.11
Added "Continue on error" check box to Quick Save dialog, so that Quick Save is not aborted on a file error like "file busy" if you want to save to the same file and e.g. continue pushing it to a WEB server.
Added "Center Image on Page" to "Page Setup" dialog.

ver. 3.02, released 1997.04.02
Worked around a bug in Word 97 - it would not paste correctly some of our 256 color DIB pictures (displayed big red X instead).
On capture menu, if Quick Save item is checked on, and you click on it while holding the Shift key on the keyboard, this will pop up Quick Save setup dialog again, instead of checking the item off.
Fixed: Page Up/Down keys would not work correctly if you started HyperSnap-DX with file name argument (to view the file) in a current directory.
Fixed: Page Up/Down keys would not display files in alphabetical order on Windows 95 (or FAT partitions under NT).

ver. 3.00 (HyperSnap-DX), released 1997.04.16
New features include ability to capture DirectX applications (games and others), additional viewing capabilities, more capture shortcuts (Active Window with or without the title and frame) and more.

ver. 2.79, released 1997.01.22
Fixed for Windows 95 user defined cursors not being captured correctly.
Some of the print setup parameters (e.g. paper size) were not respected when using Quick Print option (auto-print after each capture). Fixed.
Added -open: option to open a file, print or save it in another format and immediately exit.
Added the description of all HyperSnap command line options to the help.

ver. 2.78, released 1996.12.03
HyperSnap would sometimes in "Quick Save" mode display an error and refuse to save pictures. Fixed.

ver. 2.77, released 1996.11.20
Added command line options that let HyperSnap work in batch mode, without showing it's window at all, e.g. snap a portion of the screen, save it to a file or print, and then exit instantly. Please contact Hyperionics for more details. Auto-scroll did not work for MSIE 3.01 in some cases (in 8 bit color mode if the page needed to change color palette), fixed.

ver. 2.76, released 1996.10.28
Fixed bug in Auto-Scroll: if Quick Save option was enabled together with Auto-Scroll, and you did Window Capture, HyperSnap would terminate with "Performed Illegal Operation" or a similar nasty message. Even if it did not crash, the auto-saved bitmap would not be the whole picture that was captured with scrolling, but only what was visible on the screen at the start of the capture. Now it auto-saves correctly even with auto-scroll on. Added checks for available disk space when saving files.

ver. 2.75, released 1996.10.16
Fix for capture in window mode: if you have a menu opened, and click on this menu, it would be executed in previous versions, now it won't be.
Include Cursor option is now saved between HyperSnap sessions. The cursor for Window capture mode is now regular arrow, not cross. This should make "capture with cursor" more convinient, if you want to capture arrow cursor and are using Window mode.
Additional option under Options menu: "Display Tray Icon Only". If checked, HyperSnap will display only a tiny icon in the system tray when iconized.
Added Association of Shareware Professionals(tm) logo, as I'm now a member of ASP.

ver. 2.74, released 1996.09.24
Introduced a bug in ver. 2.73 that caused HyperSnap to read and save setting to SNAP32.INI file instead of to the registry, at least in some cases. Fixed.

ver. 2.73, released 1996.09.21
Added snap32.ini file with default settings for hot keys, printing and capture options. On installation, all options are read from this file and saved to the Registry. On other runs, HyperSnap just reads options from the registry and ignores snap32.ini (unless it runs on Windows 3.1, then it will save and restore options from the .ini file). If you want to read the ini file again, run it this way:

snap32 -readopts

This will read the options from snap32.ini and save them to the registry again, overwriting what is currently there. To dump your current registry setting to snap32.ini, run HyperSnap this way:

snap32 -dumpopts

Digitally "signed" the HySnap.exe file that is distributed on the Internet, using MS Authenticode(tm) Security Technology and VeriSign Individual Software Publishers CA. Look for Authenticode(tm) certificate when downloading HySnap.exe with MS Internet Explorer or other browsers that support this new security technology.

ver. 2.72 (not released publically)
Fixed auto-save with timed capture - it would use too much of CPU time, now HyperSnap is put to "sleep" while waiting for another time to capture.

ver. 2.71, 1996.09.12 (not releleased publically)
Fixed a rare bug where HyperSnap would display error "Could not start DDE service" and refuse to run.

ver. 2.70, released 1996.07.19
Added Auto-Scroll option that allows scrolling and simultaneous capture of entire window area not shown on screen. Updated printing to span long bitmaps on several pages. Modified keyboard cursor control in region capture and crop mode: Ctrl-Arrow now moves the cursor to the appropriate edge of the screen or cropped image.
Changed default hot keys binding to Ctrl+Shift+F for Full Screen, Ctrl+Shift+W for Window and Ctrl+Shift+R for Region capture.

ver. 2.66, released 1996.05.26
Fixed: installed and uninstaller did not work quite right when HyperSnap path contained spaces.
Fixed: When viewing images with lots of colors (e.g. JPEG files) on 256 color display would result in loss of color if crop/undo crop were used.
Modified cut-off value for black and white only printing which produces better results in that particular mode.

ver. 2.65, released 1996.05.09
Now distributing HyperSnap in a self-extracting ZIP file (HySnap.exe), together with setup and uninstall utilites.
Unregistered version does not expire now, but rather puts a small sign "Unregistered HyperSnap" into lower right corner of each picture that is saved, printed or copied to the clipboard.
Fixed the Quick Save code, so that more than 1 frame per second may be saved on fast machines.

ver. 2.64, released 1996.05.01
Some fixes in "copy to clipboard" function, if color reduction from 24 to 8 bits if necessary.
Modified the way "Region" capture works - previously the bottom and right edge, highlighted with rubberbanded region, were not captured. This makes the capture area one pixel bigger now, and you don't have to go outside of right and bottom edge of some object (by 1 pixel) to capture it whole. Also, previusly it was not possible to capture right and bottom 1 pixel edge of the screen in region mode, now it works.
Fixed bug in JPEG and GIF save, that produced a thin line on the right edge of saved images. Also selecting better colors when reducing from true color to 256 color palette, and the total number of colors used in the image is no more than 256.
Fixed: selecting multiple copies in print dialog would not work - only one copy was printed.

ver. 2.61, released 1996.04.13
Fixed a bug in reading black and white JPEG files on Hi Color or True Color displays (16 or 24 bit color mode) - they appeared compressed to 1/4 of original width.

NEW to HyperSnap ver. 2.60, released 1996.03.28 (formerly SnapShot/32)

1. The Snapshot menu was changed to "Capture". "Client" capture was eliminated and only "Window" item exists. As you move the cursor around the screen in this mode, you may observe different regions to be captured, as they are high-lighted by a blinking frame. Window's client area is captured by default, unless you go with the cursor to the window border or title.

2. Added "Quick Print" with the check-mark to the "Capture" menu. In addition I added there "Quick Save" and "Quick Copy" as well as "Include Cursor Image" and "Restore after Capture" options, also with check-marks. As you click on Capture menu, you have at a glance all the options, so you know what will happen.

3. Region capture was enhanced - it now draws a big cross-hair for the first point selection, which allows more precise selection of the region's start point. Also keyboard is now active in Region mode:

- Arrow keys - move the cross hair or the corner of the region by one pixel, for very precise selection. In addition, Ctrl-Arrow moves the cursor by 20 pixels, and Shift-Arrow by 5 pixels, if you need to move faster without going back to the mouse.

- Escape key will about the Region capture (same as right mouse button click) and Enter key will finish it (accept the point), same as left mouse button click.

- Insert or plus (+) key will toggle the mouse cursor on and off. Sometimes the cursor obscures the corner of your capture, where you may want to be very precise.

- If you are in the "Rectangle" mode (second step of the Region command, when a rectangle is drawn on the screen, not the cross-hair), you may press Tab or Insert keys to switch the rectangle corner that you're dragging, e.g. from bottom right to top left.

- A help window is displayed on the screen in this mode, explaining the keys. This window is moved around as you move the cursor, trying to leave the region of interes unobscured.

4. The "Quick Save" (or Auto Save) option was enhanced to save files in any supported format, not only in BMP. The way it works is also modified. You may turn off the file incrementing, so that each capture will overwrite the file with the same name (requested by several users). Also if you don't turn the timed auto captures on, the HyperSnap window will actually stay visible (will not disappear like in ver. 2.55). You may still use menu choices, in addition to hot keys, which previously was not possible. If you do not enter any file name in Quick Save dialog, you'll be prompted for a new file name each time you do a capture.

5. Edit menu has "Copy Format" selection - to change the kind of bitmap that is copied to the clipboard. E.g. your screen may work in 65000+ color mode, but you want to paste into some document 16 color bitmaps (often used by Windows Help authors). You may set the format to be 16 color. Previously they had to save the bitmap to a file to reduce colors. Requested by several users.

6. Crop item added to Edit menu (to cut down the size of your bitmap). Also requested by several users. Crop works in the same way as Capture/Region, except that it's limited to HyperSnap window. The same hot keys are active. The position of the cursor, and size of the cropped area are displayed in the title bar as you move your mouse or move the pointer with arrow keys.

7. Added Undo Crop to Edit menu.

8. HyperSnap title bar now displays the size of the pixmap in it's window. You may also press the left mouse button and move the mouse over the picture to read coordinates or your mouse pointer position. This feature may be useful when creating simple image maps for the WEB.

9. Modified Page Setup dialog, adding different picture scaling options.

ver. 2.55, released 1995.12.07
Margin settings for printing (and other printing parameters) were read from the registry only after calling File/Print, File/Print Setup... or File/Page Setup..., so if you used auto-print without going through the File menu, margins were always 0 and other page setup parameters had the default values. Fixed.

ver. 2.54, released 1995.11.24
Fixed a crash when pictures are dragged and dropped on us while picking up transparent background for GIF file. Fixed crash in some JPEG read and GIF save operations.

ver. 2.53, released 1995.11.11
Fixed a bug (program crash) if auto-print mode was set and a capture was canceled by right mouse button click.

ver. 2.52, released 1995.11.08
Removed restrictions from unregistered software - it will now read GIF and JPEG files, and allow to set transparent background in GIF. The only remaining restriction is "snap with cursor image", which requires at least a temporary license from me to test. I also made auto-print and bitmap save options saved and restored from the registry between runs. Also auto-save now uses bitmap options setting from Save As... dialog for the format of bitmap it creates.

ver. 2.51, released 1995.10.31
Cosmetic changes: fixed focus for file dialogs - was not set until you clicked on any control. Fixed tab order for some dialogs and made 'A' a menu shortcut for Save As... item on File menu.

ver. 2.50, released, 1995.10.25
Added JPEG read/write. Fixed GIF output to do dithering when reducing colors to 256 from hi-color modes (this is an option on File/Save As dialog). Changed Save dialogs from having separate menu functions for BMP and GIF to just one Save As... dialog. In capture window/client mode added a blinking frame that shows what will be captured as you move the mouse cursor around. Other new features - drag and drop BMP, GIF or JPG file from file manager or Win95 folder to HyperSnap window to open and view it, or start Snap32 with a command line argument to open that particular file. Added "Snapshot Options..." item under "Options..." menu. You can set there "Auto Print" and "Auto Copy" actions that are taken right after a snapshot is done. The image will be printed on the default printer and/or copied to the Windows clipboard. You may also turn off the "Auto Restore" feature and keep HyperSnap window minimized (in Windows 95 taskbar) after each snapshot. Added keyboard shortcut keys for Edit/Copy (Ctrl-C), Paste (Ctrl-V) and Clear (Ctrl-X) functions. Also added "Options" to Save in BMP format, that allows to select bitmap type (1, 4, 8 or 24 bits per pixel). Fixed many bugs.

Ver. 2.44, released 1995.09.20
Fixed two small bugs: in Save GIF, if you did not type the extension, it used to be BMP, not GIF. Also on the same dialog the word "Transparent" was misspelled.

Ver. 2.43, released 1995.09.14
Added this really nice help file (if you are a developer, ask me who wrote it!) and made links to it from HyperSnap program.

Ver. 2.42, released 1995.09.09
Fixed some small problems in color palette when capturing images from palette intensive applications. Also upgraded Register to ver. 1.18.

Ver. 2.41, released 1995.08.25
Fixed a license number problem for long names (over 30 characters). Also moved registry entries for window position, print setup and hot keys to HKEY_CURRENT_USER tree, so that each user on a machine could have her/his own settings saved.

Ver. 2.40, released 1995.08.23
Fixed the printing bug under Windows 95 (it would not print at all), introduced since ver. 2.34.
Changed the way license numbers are generated. Until now the numbers were based on the name of the machine, where the program was running. Now they are based on the name of the owner, so that people could use HyperSnap on several machines. Still the "single user license" number must be entered separately on each machine, but since it is tied to the owner name, one can install it e.g. on her/his desktop and laptop computer independently. The name of the owner appears in the "Help/About" box. People who registered earlier and have licenses based on machine names can upgrade to a "single user license" at no cost by sending me an email message or a letter containing their machine name and old license number. The old licenses will still work.

Ver. 2.34, released 1995.07.30
Bug fix: HyperSnap saves its position and window size on exit, and when restarted, its window is positioned as before. This created problem when the saved position was completely off-screen so the window was not visible. Fixed by checking for any corner of HyperSnap window being off-screen, and if so - repositioning the window to the center of the screen. Also modified the message that appears if HyperSnap can not register its hot keys, e.g. due to another program (sometimes another copy of HyperSnap) using them. This message is less cryptic now, explains the reason and suggests changing the keys with "Configure Hot Keys" dialog under "Options" menu.
Also fixed: "Enable hot keys" check box in hot keys setup dialog was not doing anything.

Ver. 2.33, released 1995.07.23
Added ability to read GIF files, but only in registered version. You may read-in GIF file to view it, print it, translate to BMP file or change the GIF file attributes like interlaced mode and transparent background.

Ver. 2.32, released 1995.07.14
Working on a MAP file for a GIF image for one of my WEB pages I needed to read coordinates of points on the bitmap. Added the display of last mouse click coordinates to the title of HyperSnap window.

Ver. 2.31, released 1995.07.12
There seems to be a bug in Win95 betas - when asking how many colors the display supports (GetDeviceCaps(dhdc,BITSPIXEL) call ) it says "2" even if it is in 16 color mode. For this reason the bitmaps or GIFs saved in 16 color mode were black and white only. Worked around this bug by forcing 16 colors always if less colors are reported.

Ver. 2.30, released 1995.07.05

Added hot key configuration dialog. Added "Repeat last capture" function and hot-key. Added the "Auto capture and save" feature - save pre-defined screen area to a file every time the "Repeat last capture" hot key is pressed, or a specified time elapses. Added "save with cursor image included" option (registered version only). Fixed hot-keys under NT 3.5 - previously they worked only if HyperSnap window was the active window.

Ver. 2.29
Made separate functions "Save BMP" and "Save GIF" under "File" menu for easier access. Save GIF has now options to set interlaced mode for GIF file (fade-in effect on WEB) and to set transparent background attribute. The transparent background is available only in registered version.
Added "Setup" button to "Print" dialog for easier access.

Ver. 2.28
Fixed GIF save for graphics cards with more than 256 colors. Fixed BMP save - used to save always 256 color bitmaps, now it's the same as the display color resolution.

Ver. 2.26:
Fixed problems with color printing.
Removed printing and clipboard copy restriction for non-registered version.

Ver. 2.25:
Changed registration info, added REGISTER application.

Ver. 2.24:
Changed hot keys to F12, since PrintScreen did not work on Windows 95. Fixed printing on Windows 95.

Ver. 2.23:
Added hot-keys (PrintScreen with different Shift and Ctrl combinations). Among other things they allow capture with menus pulled down.

Ver. 2.22:
Fixed the capture problem on Windows 95, that caused parts of HyperSnap windows be visible after selecting one of the functions from Snapshot menu.

Ver. 2.21:
Fixed the problem that sometimes caused HyperSnap to hang on startup.

Ver. 2.20:
Added ability to save captures in GIF format, important e.g. for people working on HTML (Web) documents.
Worked around a problem in NT 3.51 beta and Win95 where Print Setup dialog crashed the program.

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