Add a "Screenshot Output" Hotkey That Saves the Program Output as a PNG by au-sf · Pull Request #6231 · streamlabs/desktop

au-sf · 2026-09-26T00:08:59Z

Summary

Adds the hotkey OBS Studio has had for years: press a key, get a full-resolution PNG of what is being streamed or recorded, dropped into the recording folder. The motivating use is grabbing a thumbnail candidate during a session without leaving the app or scrubbing a recording afterwards. Behaviour is copied from OBS deliberately, so anyone coming from OBS finds the same file in the same place with the same name.

Depends on streamlabs/obs-studio-node#1786 (streamlabs/obs-studio-node#1786), which has shipped in obs-studio-node 0.27.19; staging (merged into this branch) already pins that version in scripts/repositories.json. The desktop app cannot read pixels off the canvas itself: the editor preview is a native child window drawn by the OBS backend, and obs-studio-node has never exposed a readback call. That PR adds one native function; this PR is the thin frontend on top of it. On an older backend without the function, pressing the key shows a "needs a newer backend" warning and does nothing else.

Fixes

app/services/screenshot.ts (new, ScreenshotService). takeScreenshot(display = 'horizontal') gathers the same inputs OBS uses and hands them to the backend in one synchronous call, NodeObs.OBS_content_takeScreenshot(video, directory, filenameFormat, noSpace): the horizontal video context from VideoSettingsService.contexts, the recording folder from OutputSettingsService.getRecordingSettings(display).path (mode-aware, unlike SettingsService.recPath, which only reads the Advanced key), the Advanced → Recording → FilenameFormatting pattern (defaulting to OBS's %CCYY-%MM-%DD %hh-%mm-%ss), and the mode-specific "file name without space" flag, read with the same lookup OutputSettingsService already uses. The backend renders the program mix at canvas resolution and writes Screenshot <formatted>.png, adding (2), (3)… if the name is taken. On success the service pushes a SUCCESS notification, "Screenshot saved as ", whose click action calls showScreenshot(path), which reveals the file with shell.showItemInFolder, and records ScreenshotOutput feature usage. A missing recording folder, a missing video context, an older backend without the function, or a backend error each produce a WARNING notification instead of a crash.

app/services/hotkeys.ts. New general action SCREENSHOT_OUTPUT (label "Screenshot Output"), placed after SPLIT_FILE so it sits next to the other output-related hotkeys in Settings → Hotkeys. The action name is permanent: saved bindings are keyed by it (see the warning above getMigrationMapping).

app/app-services.ts. Registers ScreenshotService. app/i18n/en-US/hotkeys.json. The label and the four notification strings. test/regular/settings/hotkeys.ts. "Screenshot Output" added to the list of hotkeys the settings test expects to find.

Files changed: app/services/screenshot.ts, app/services/hotkeys.ts, app/app-services.ts, app/i18n/en-US/hotkeys.json, test/regular/settings/hotkeys.ts

Performance Implications

None on any existing path: nothing runs until the hotkey is pressed. A press is one synchronous backend call that renders one frame, reads it back from the GPU and encodes a PNG; on a 1080p canvas that is roughly 100–300 ms during which the worker window is blocked, comparable to other synchronous NodeObs calls the app already makes. There is no polling, no new state, and the file write happens in the backend process.

Verification

yarn typecheck and yarn eslint on the changed files: clean. In test/regular/settings/hotkeys.ts, "Populates essential hotkeys" passes with the new label in the list. "Binds a hotkey" fails on this Mac at its post-restart assertion, and fails identically on the parent commit (52638c543) with the same bundle and harness, so it is pre-existing and unrelated.
OSN side: the native function's own tests pass (five cases: file written at canvas size, (2) de-duplication, _ substitution with noSpace, missing directory throws, non-video argument throws).
End to end in the real app (macOS arm64, Electron 29.3.1), with the locally built obs-studio-node from the companion branch dropped into node_modules: a throwaway e2e probe added a Color Block source, called ScreenshotService.takeScreenshot() twice (the hotkey's exact code path), and confirmed Screenshot 2026-09-25 16-52-24.png and …16-52-25.png in the recording folder, each a valid 1280×720 PNG with the block visible (17% non-black pixels), the footer toast "Screenshot saved as …", and both entries listed as clickable rows in the Notifications window. The probe is not part of this PR.
With the stock backend (no OBS_content_takeScreenshot), the same probe confirmed the key press produces only the "needs a newer backend" warning and the app keeps running.

Notes

Only the horizontal canvas is captured. In dual-output mode the vertical canvas is a natural follow-up (a second hotkey or a display argument); the service already takes a display parameter so that is a one-line change once the product decision is made.
The screenshot captures the program output (what viewers see), not the preview, matching OBS's "Screenshot Output" rather than "Screenshot Preview".

Asana Link

https://app.asana.com/0/1207748235152481/1216010475168255

… a PNG [Asana: 1216010475168255] Mirrors OBS Studio's "Screenshot Output": one key press writes "Screenshot <Filename Formatting>.png" at canvas resolution into the recording folder and shows a notification that reveals the file. The capture itself is the new OBS_content_takeScreenshot in obs-studio-node (branch screenshot-output); this adds the ScreenshotService that gathers the recording folder, filename format and no-space flag the same way OutputSettingsService does, the SCREENSHOT_OUTPUT general hotkey, the strings, and the label in the hotkeys settings test. On a backend without the function the key shows a warning instead.

bundlemon · 2026-09-26T00:21:43Z

BundleMon

Files added (4)

Status	Path	Size	Limits
✅	renderer.(hash).js	+10.9MB	-
✅	vendors~renderer.(hash).js	+4.67MB	-
✅	updater.js	+115.29KB	-
✅	guest-api.js	+40.23KB	-

Total files change +15.72MB

Final result: ✅

View report in BundleMon website ➡️

Current branch size history

OBS_content_takeScreenshot now returns a Promise instead of blocking the caller. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

The context fallback can capture the wrong canvas, functional coverage is missing, and the backend dependency remains unshipped.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 1 · 1

Open (2)

Avoid horizontal fallback when vertical display initialization fails · New
Add integration coverage for mode-aware screenshot capture · New

What changed in this PR

Adds an OBS-backed hotkey for saving the program output as a PNG in the recording folder.

Changes:

Adds screenshot capture, notifications, and usage tracking.
Registers the service and hotkey with localized strings.
Updates hotkey settings coverage.

File	Description
`app/services/screenshot.ts`	Implements screenshot capture and notifications.
`app/services/hotkeys.ts`	Adds the Screenshot Output hotkey.
`app/app-services.ts`	Registers the screenshot service.
`app/i18n/en-US/hotkeys.json`	Adds user-facing strings.
`test/regular/settings/hotkeys.ts`	Verifies the hotkey is listed.

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summeroff · 2026-09-29T23:55:41Z

+  @Inject() private jsonrpcService: JsonrpcService;
+  @Inject() private usageStatisticsService: UsageStatisticsService;
+
+  async takeScreenshot(display: TDisplayType = 'horizontal') {


Agreed; deferred until the osn release with OBS_content_takeScreenshot is pinned. Before that, a test can only reach the needs-newer-backend path.

Falling back to the horizontal canvas paired it with vertical recording settings; a missing context now takes the existing warning path. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

summeroff · 2026-09-30T17:03:27Z

require changes coming with this OSN version #6250

…creenshot-output-hotkey

…rts it [Asana: 1216010475168255]

…: 1216010475168255]

Copilot

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

The screenshot test cannot pass until the required backend dependency is pinned.

Review effort: Balanced
Findings: 1 · 1

Open (2)

Test fails with pre-screenshot backend dependency · New
Add integration coverage for mode-aware screenshot capture

Resolved since last review (1)

Avoid horizontal fallback when vertical display initialization fails

au-sf requested review from michelinewu and summeroff September 26, 2026 00:12

au-sf mentioned this pull request Sep 26, 2026

Add OBS_content_takeScreenshot: save a PNG of a canvas' program output streamlabs/obs-studio-node#1786

Merged

Await the non-blocking OBS_content_takeScreenshot

45f753e

OBS_content_takeScreenshot now returns a Promise instead of blocking the caller. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

summeroff requested a balanced review from Copilot September 29, 2026 23:17

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of summeroff September 29, 2026 23:18 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Sep 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

Use only the requested display's video context for screenshots

ac8b46f

Falling back to the horizontal canvas paired it with vertical recording settings; a missing context now takes the existing warning path. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

au-sf added 2 commits October 2, 2026 09:14

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/staging' into 1216010475168255-s…

e9a4a17

…creenshot-output-hotkey

test: Screenshot Output writes a PNG to the recording folder and repo…

eac726c

…rts it [Asana: 1216010475168255]

au-sf changed the base branch from master to staging October 2, 2026 16:16

test: assert the Screenshot Output success toast in the footer [Asana…

4d7d435

…: 1216010475168255]

au-sf marked this pull request as ready for review October 2, 2026 16:29

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings October 2, 2026 16:29

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of au-sf October 2, 2026 16:30 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Oct 2, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread test/regular/screenshot.ts

michelinewu added ready for review needs QA requires QA testing on the branch before merging labels Oct 2, 2026

summeroff approved these changes Oct 2, 2026

View reviewed changes

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Add a "Screenshot Output" Hotkey That Saves the Program Output as a PNG - #6231

Add a "Screenshot Output" Hotkey That Saves the Program Output as a PNG#6231
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au-sf commented Sep 26, 2026 •

edited by summeroff

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au-sf commented Sep 26, 2026 • edited by summeroff Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Summary

Fixes

Performance Implications

Verification

Notes

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au-sf commented Sep 26, 2026 •

edited by summeroff

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