How to take screenshots on the Samsung Galaxy S

Naturally you have seen the awesome Samsung Galaxy S screenshots we have taken for our user guides and you are wondering, "How did they do that?"

The Samsung Galaxy S runs on Android 2.1 and as of now, no applications are available that allow for on-device screenshots. This guide will provide you with the software you need and show you how to get stunning screen captures from your device.

Two separate pieces of software are required and must be installed on your PC:

1. The Android software development kit (SDK)
2. The Java SE software development kit (SDK)

Once your downloads are complete a few steps are required to get things ready.

On your computer:

1. Extract the Google Android SDK to a folder on your desktop
2. Install the the Java SE SDK

On the Samsung Galaxy S:

1. Press the Home icon, press Menu and then tap Settings (figure 1)
2. Tap on Applications
3. Tap on Development
4. Check the box for USB debugging

Now you are ready to get started.

1. Plug your Samsung Galaxy S into your computer via USB and Windows will attempt to install all of the appropriate drivers; one of the drivers will not be found and thus you must proceed to Device Manager in your Control Panel and find the Samsung Galaxy S (there will be a yellow icon next to it)
2. Right-click on the Samsung Galaxy S entry and select properties; instruct Windows to update/install the driver for this device and when asked, simply browse to the usb_driver folder inside of the Android software development kit folder that you extracted to your desktop earlier -- the device is recognized and the driver is installed
3. Browse to the Android SDK folder that you extracted to your desktop and run the SDK Setup.exe to start the program
4. Once the application has launched you will be presented with a window as shown in figure 2 above
5. Click on the Refresh button so that the application can update its list of operating system SDKs available from Google
6. Check off the section next to the URL that is shown in the application (figure 2); you are now presented with a list of Android SDKs and Google APIs you wish to install
7. It is recommended that you select select all available packages for maximum compatibility
8. Once the files have been downloaded simply close the application
9. Browse to the Tools folder inside the Android SDK folder you extracted to your desktop
10. Double click on DDMS.BAT to execute the Dalvik Debug Monitor
11. The application will launch with a DOS command window and eventually a Windows based application -- your phone will be listed on the left hand side, and you should click on it to make sure it is selected
12. Click on the Device menu and select Screen Capture or use the CTRL-S key combo
13. The capture now appears on your screen, but there is one final undocumented step
14. We recommend that you click on the Copy button and paste the screenshot into your image editor of choice (Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc) -- the reason for this is that there is a known bug that does not carry over the colors of the actual screenshot inside the capture utility

Voila! You now have a stunning screenshot from the display on your Samsung Galaxy S. Repeat steps 12-14 to generate more screenshots.