Screenshot instructions

Screenshots.md

Photos/videos of the screen are not usually allowed as they're often blurry and difficult to see. Legible photos may be acceptable for quick questions - though still never encouraged. But when you're showing off a base, design or something interesting in the game, please always take a proper screenshot.

Photos/videos of the screen generally don't get as good a response from the community - they will be reported to mods, downvoted, and usually don't get as many constructive comments. So it's best for everyone if proper screenshots/in-game videos are used.

Screenshots should be taken during daytime - unless the thing you are showing is only visible at night - and with "Alt" mode turned on, so as to provide the maximum amount of information.

You can take a screenshot of the game using OS tools such as:

• Windows: hit Print Screen then paste the resulting image into a new post, or to an image sharing site. Or open the Snippet tool from the Start Menu, or hit Win-Shift-S to bring up the new Windows 10 screenshot tool, "Snip and Sketch". This allows dragging a box around the area to copy, which gets automatically added to the clipboard, and can also be easily saved to a file for upload.
• macOS: Hit Cmd-Shift-5 to open the screenshot utility, which also supports making videos. Once the tool opens, you can choose between capturing the whole screen, or dragging a box to capture a portion of it.
• Linux: Print Screen should work here too, or Shift+PrintScreen to capture a portion of the screen. Other more advanced options are also available: read this article for more screenshot options in Linux.

Additionally, the game has a built-in screenshot facility: open the console and type /screenshot, then open the script-output folder under the Factorio User Data folder. This folder can be found at:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\factorio\script-output
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/factorio/script-output
• Linux: ~/factorio/script-output

The /screenshot command optionally takes parameters for resolution and zoom level, see Factorio Wiki:Console for more details.

Alternatively, there are many advanced third-party screenshot utilities, such as Lightshot which is available on both Windows and macOS.

For making videos, ShareX on Windows is often recommended, or OBS for more sophisticated work. Linux and macOS can also run OBS. macOS also has built-in video capture as of version 10.14, Mojave, accessible any time by pressing Cmd-Shift-5.

Thanks.

For linux, the directory is ~/.factorio/script-output (leading .)