Importing screenshots, scans and video frames into Paint by Zaweba
File > Import in Paint by Zaweba captures the screen or a window, scans through Windows, brings in video frames as layers and opens the clipboard.
Not every picture starts as a file on disk. Sometimes it is on screen, on paper or inside a video. Paint by Zaweba gathers the ways to bring those in under File > Import: screen capture, scanner or camera, video frames to layers, and New from Clipboard.
Screen capture
You can capture the whole screen, a single window, or a region you drag out. A delay is available, which is what makes awkward captures possible: set a few seconds, then open the menu, hover the tooltip or start the animation you want to catch before the shot is taken.
The capture opens as a document, ready to crop, annotate with shapes and text, blur private details, or drop into a larger layout. For tutorials, bug reports and how-to guides, that saves a lot of saving and reopening.
Scanner or camera
Scanning goes through Windows' own dialog, so any scanner or camera that Windows recognises is available. You get the device's familiar settings, and the result lands in Paint by Zaweba as a new document.
Scan at a higher resolution than you need if you plan to retouch, because cleaning dust, straightening and sharpening are easier with extra pixels. Old photographs often benefit from scanning in colour even when they look black and white, since fading and stains are easier to correct with the colour information.
Video frames to layers
Video frames come in as layers at a rate you choose, N frames per second. A low rate gives you a handful of stills to choose a thumbnail from. A higher rate gives you enough frames to make an animated GIF, a sequence for a motion study, or a stack for blending frames together.
Because each frame is a layer, you can compare them by toggling visibility, delete the ones you don't want, and use Make Frames from Layers to turn them into a Timeline animation. Keep the rate modest for long clips, since every frame is a full-size layer.
New from Clipboard
New from Clipboard creates a document from whatever image is on the clipboard, at its size. Copy an image in a browser, a screenshot from another tool, or a selection from another program, and this turns it straight into a document without pasting into a blank canvas of the wrong size.
Tips for clean imports
Capture at the size you need. Screenshots are already at screen resolution, so enlarging them later makes text soft. If you need a bigger image, zoom the application before capturing.
Watch what is visible. A full screen capture can include notifications, email subjects or open tabs. Use a window or region capture, or crop and blur afterwards, before sharing.
For scans, clean the glass. A few seconds with a cloth saves minutes with the healing brush.
After the import
Imported pictures are ordinary documents. You can retouch them with the healing and clone tools, add adjustment layers, annotate with text and shapes, and export with Export As or Save for Web. Everything stays on your PC, because Paint by Zaweba works offline with no account, which is reassuring when the screenshot or scan contains something private.
