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How to take a snapshot in VLC player and where to find them
Is there a frame of a film you want to extract as a picture? Then VLC is the right tool for the job. VLC has an inbuilt option called snapshots which lets you export your favorite parts of a video as images with just the click of a button. You can also use VLC to rotate or cut videos. Here’s how to take a snapshot in the VCL Media Player and choose where to save them.
QUICK ANSWER
To take a snapshot in the VCL player, press Shift + S on Windows or Command + Alt + S on macOS. To find your VCL snapshots, navigate to C:\My Documents\My Pictures on Windows or Desktop/ on Mac.
KEY SECTIONS
How to take a snapshot in the VLC player
Open a video file in VLC and pause the video on the frame you want to capture. Then, select Video > Take Snapshot from the top menu.
Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + S on Windows or Command + Alt + S on macOS.
You’ll know that the Snapshot was successful when you see a thumbnail of the photo at the top of the player, along with its saved file location and file name. The white text will fade away quickly.
Where does the VLC player save snapshots?
Snapshot files automatically save to the default location of your operating system. For Windows, this will be C:\My Documents\My Pictures, and for Mac, they will be saved in Desktop/.
If you want to change the file format or location where VLC saves your screenshots, select Tools–> Preferences from the VLC Media Player.
In the Simple Preferences window, select Video and click Browse beside Directory to choose where you want to save your video snapshots.
You can also change the Prefix file name to make finding your images in your folder easier or change the Format you save your snapshots between png, jpg, and tiff.
FAQs
On Windows, you can find your saved snapshots in C:\My Documents\My Pictures. For macOS, you can find your saved snapshots on Desktop/.
To extract stills from a video in VLC:
- Open the video in VLC.
- Pause at the frame you want to capture.
- Click on “Video” in the menu, then “Take Snapshot”.
VLC media library is stored in the following locations:
- Windows: %APPDATA%\vlc\ml.xspf
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/org.videolan.vlc/ml.xspf
- Linux: ~/.local/share/vlc/ml.xspf
VLC snapshots are saved in the PNG format by default.
A snapshot is an image file that captures a single frame or moment in time, typically in formats like PNG, JPEG, or BMP.
To save a VLC screenshot as a JPEG:
- Go to “Tools” > “Preferences” in VLC.
- Choose “Video” from the left side.
- In the “Video snapshots” section, change the “Format” to “jpg”.
- Click “Save” and restart VLC. Snapshots will now be saved as JPEGs.