How to Take Snapshots in VLC

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Want to capture a screenshot of a specific scene in your videos? In that case, use VLC Media Player’s built-in snapshot feature to do this. You can use a keyboard shortcut, a menu bar option, or an advanced control button to do this. We’ll show you how.

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Take a screenshot in VLC media player

To take a screenshot, first open your video with VLC. Then go to the scene you want to capture. You can use VLC’s frame-by-frame feature to access a specific frame in your video.

Then capture the screenshot by pressing Shift+S (Windows and Linux) or Command+Alt+S (Mac). Alternatively, you can select Video > Take Snapshot from the VLC menu bar.

Choose Video > Take Snapshot from the menu bar.” width=”650″ height=”418″ src=”/pagespeed_static/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif” onload=”pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);” onerror=”this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);”/></p>
<p>If you want to use advanced controls to capture the screenshot, select View > Advanced Controls from the VLC menu bar to enable those controls.  Then click the camera icon in the lower left corner of VLC to take a snapshot.</p>
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Your screenshot will now be captured and saved to a folder on your computer. The following section tells you where this folder is located on your specific operating system.

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Access and change VLC’s default snapshot directory

To find all the screenshots you took with VLC, go to the following folder on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer:

  • window: C:\Users\username\Pictures
  • Mac: Writing desk/
  • Linux: ~/images

If you want to change where VLC saves your screenshots or if you want to change the file format, from the VLC menu bar, choose Tools > Preferences.

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<p>In the Easy Settings window that opens, select the Video tab.</p>
<p>To change the default screenshot directory, click Browse next to Directory in the Video Snapshots section.  Then choose the new folder you want to set as the default for your screenshots.</p>
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If you want to use a different image format (the default is PNG) for your snapshots, click the Format dropdown menu and choose a new format. Your options include PNG, JPG, and TIFF.

Choose a file format from the "format" drop down menu.

After making the changes, click Save at the bottom of the Easy Settings window to save your changes.

Here’s how to capture stills from your videos using a free, open-source app on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. Enjoy!


Did you know you can use VLC to trim your videos? Our guide will show you how.

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