HACKER Q&A
📣 joenewbry

Searchable Screenshot History


Hi all,

New(ish) poster here. Wondering what tools you recommend for a searchable + sharable history of my computer screen.

I'd like something that takes a screenshot every second and then allows me to semantically search to find things.

Use Case:

1. Bug fix - I'd like to be able to describe a bug and then see any screenshots related to similar issues I've run into the past. [Easy] 2. Post hoc workflow sharing - Someone ask my workflow a week after I've done something. [Hard] 3. Daily updates - a summary of work done each day. [Hardest]

Thanks for the suggestions!


  👤 codetrotter Accepted Answer ✓
> I'd like something that takes a screenshot every second and then allows me to semantically search to find things.

Tbh a video recording at say 15 fps or lower will probably take significantly less storage than capturing a PNG screenshot every 1 second, because the video can compress several frames as smaller deltas of changes during times at which the screen does not change much.

Aside from that I do wish that some computer systems could save screenshots in a special format where text was saved as raw utf-8, and window decorations etc were stored by reference to elements from the system. Of course this would require a stable API first.


👤 surprisetalk