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Posted by: Brian Chandler Nov 2 2024, 02:22 AM

I wanted to save a screenshot of my bank statement, so if it logs me out I can still copy the numbers. So in Firefox I right-clicked, and found "screenshot"; selected an area, then it said "Copy" (presumably meaning to the clipboard) or "Download" [sic]. Clicking "Download" indeed produces a bit of whirring and a delay while it looks like this "screenshot" is being downloaded. But hang on, where could a screenshot be downloaded from? My bank statement is confidential, and I do not want it "uploaded" to anywhere it could be "downloaded" from, so what the hell is going on?

Posted by: coothead Nov 2 2024, 04:51 AM

I think that in this instance "download" is rather misleading.

"Screenshot" is a Firefox browser tool so the screenshot is
just sent from the browser tool to the downloads folder.

There is no external process.

coothead

Posted by: Christian J Nov 2 2024, 08:15 AM

There's an awful lot of "telemetry" going on though, as described here: https://github.com/mozilla-services/screenshots/blob/master/docs/METRICS.md (I have no idea what it all means).

Apparently the telemetry can be disabled in the Firefox Preferences: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/take-screenshots-firefox?redirectslug=firefox-screenshots&redirectlocale=en-US#w_can-i-opt-out-of-data-collection (no idea if those settings actually make a difference or are just for show).

Posted by: coothead Nov 2 2024, 09:42 AM

Hi there Brian Chandler,

After reading Christian J's post it appears that the
content of mine is actually just a load of bollocks.

Unfortunately for me I am unable to delete it. This,
I suppose, is a just punishment for my stupidity

coothead

Posted by: pandy Nov 2 2024, 09:58 AM

What's wrong with using the Print Screen key?

Posted by: Christian J Nov 2 2024, 01:18 PM

Your post might be correct: Firefox may not copy the actual contents of the screenshot to its servers, only various stats associated with it. Then again, one can't be too careful...

Posted by: coothead Nov 2 2024, 03:58 PM

Good point.

The one drawback with the Print Screen key is that it only
gets the visible screen rather than the full scrollable page.

coothead

Posted by: pandy Nov 2 2024, 04:23 PM

There are screen capture programs that do. Or just take several screen shots. Or print the page to PDF.

Posted by: coothead Nov 2 2024, 05:09 PM

Actually, that is the best solution to the O.P.'s problem.

coothead

Posted by: Brian Chandler Nov 3 2024, 09:17 AM

Thanks for the responses. To go from the (problem) end, it does look as though the "telemetry" stuff is just collecting statistics. The "Download" label appears (as in Coothead's original non-garbage! answer) to be an illiterate misnomer.

More generally, what I almost always want is a bit of data selected from the page; print to pdf is hopeless if I want to print just the relevant bit, as is the "PrintScreen" button I had never noticed before. There is a "screenshot" utility, but it doesn't let me do the obvious thing, which is to print the selection on a bit of paper; and now I know that the firefox "screenshot" function is equally deficient. Hmm.

Posted by: Christian J Nov 3 2024, 10:40 AM

Which OS are you using? Windows' Snipping Tool lets you select a rectangle on the screen, and then print it directly.

You can't select content outside of the screen though. When I must do that, I zoom out the page until everything fits on screen; then maybe one can increase the size back to a legible size on the Print Preview?

Posted by: pandy Nov 3 2024, 06:28 PM

Surely there are lots of programs that let you capture a selection. But now you want to print it directly? Don't know about that. I know Greenshot has a Send to Printer option, but since I don't have a printer anymore and hardly printed anything when I did I've never tried it. You could take a look. It's available for Windows and Mac, I think.

https://getgreenshot.org/