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Screenshots now are saved in JPG instead of PNG. Can I fix it and revert to PNG saving?

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 387 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Firefox used to save screenshots of the web pages in PNG. It was totally fine but after recent update to 64.0.2 screenshots are saved locally in JPG. I didn't find any settings for the screenshots in the preferences or about:config and I would like to change this behavior back to the way it was previously.

Is it possible?

Firefox used to save screenshots of the web pages in PNG. It was totally fine but after recent update to 64.0.2 screenshots are saved locally in JPG. I didn't find any settings for the screenshots in the preferences or about:config and I would like to change this behavior back to the way it was previously. Is it possible?

Chosen solution

1. Go to some website (my last example was synology). 2. Click ellipsis icon in the location bar. 3. Select “Take a Screenshot” in dropdown menu. 4. Click “Save Visible” in the screenshot overlay. 5. Check Downloads folder for saved screenshot in JPG format.

I tried this with this forum thread and the screenshot turned out to be a PNG, which is even more confusing — it seems that for some reason screenshot utility makes a choice of format by itself (probably based on some resulting file size threshold), and rules for this choice are opaque, baked in and not configurable.

It looks like I have to go and complain about it in the GitHub issues for screenshots rather than here on Support Forum. :\ And/or alter the help article to mention the cutoff limit in the first place.

(Digged around a bit more)

I found a thread about cutoff limits on GitHub: https://github.com/mozilla-services/screenshots/issues/3969 Hopefully it will help other people to find it if they come here looking for answer.

And a handy tip from that thread: “Found a workaround: Using the Devtools console and :screenshot --fullpage saves a PNG where the screenshot button seems to go with JPEG. I assume the cutoff must be less than 1.9MB, the size of a PNG that led me seek out this issue.

To have the full page PNG screenshot feature as a button, enable devtools.command-button-screenshot.enabled in about:config.”

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (6)

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Are your screenshots bigger than 2MB?

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No, two of the last ones are JPGs in the range of 600-700 KB.

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Give steps that your using so others can verify where the problem is happening?

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Chosen Solution

1. Go to some website (my last example was synology). 2. Click ellipsis icon in the location bar. 3. Select “Take a Screenshot” in dropdown menu. 4. Click “Save Visible” in the screenshot overlay. 5. Check Downloads folder for saved screenshot in JPG format.

I tried this with this forum thread and the screenshot turned out to be a PNG, which is even more confusing — it seems that for some reason screenshot utility makes a choice of format by itself (probably based on some resulting file size threshold), and rules for this choice are opaque, baked in and not configurable.

It looks like I have to go and complain about it in the GitHub issues for screenshots rather than here on Support Forum. :\ And/or alter the help article to mention the cutoff limit in the first place.

(Digged around a bit more)

I found a thread about cutoff limits on GitHub: https://github.com/mozilla-services/screenshots/issues/3969 Hopefully it will help other people to find it if they come here looking for answer.

And a handy tip from that thread: “Found a workaround: Using the Devtools console and :screenshot --fullpage saves a PNG where the screenshot button seems to go with JPEG. I assume the cutoff must be less than 1.9MB, the size of a PNG that led me seek out this issue.

To have the full page PNG screenshot feature as a button, enable devtools.command-button-screenshot.enabled in about:config.”

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I have the opposite problem.

Mine saves in png and I want it in jpg.

Can anyone please help me recert to jpg? I cannot attach png to emails and I have to go through the labourious process of using an image editor!

Thank you in advance for anyone willing to invest his time/expertise to help me.

Tommaso

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When the PNG exceeds a specific size limit then a compressed JPG file is saved instead and this file is likely a lot smaller. You can always use an image editor application to convert files to JPG. You could possibly go from JPG to PNG by making the screenshot of a smaller screen area and/or zoom out.