Capture Screen

Programmatic screenshot capture on macOS: find windows, control views, capture images.

Quick Start

# Find Excel window ID

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift Excel

# Capture that window (replace 12345 with actual WID)

screencapture -x -l 12345 output.png

Overview

Three-step workflow:

1. Find Window  →  Swift CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo  →  get numeric Window ID

2. Control View  →  AppleScript (osascript)           →  zoom, scroll, select

3. Capture       →  screencapture -l <WID>            →  PNG/JPEG output

Step 1: Get Window ID (Swift)

Use Swift with CoreGraphics to enumerate windows. This is the only reliable method on macOS.

Quick inline execution

swift -e '

import CoreGraphics

let keyword = "Excel"

let list = CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo(.optionOnScreenOnly, kCGNullWindowID) as? [[String: Any]] ?? []

for w in list {

    let owner = w[kCGWindowOwnerName as String] as? String ?? ""

    let name = w[kCGWindowName as String] as? String ?? ""

    let wid = w[kCGWindowNumber as String] as? Int ?? 0

    if owner.localizedCaseInsensitiveContains(keyword) || name.localizedCaseInsensitiveContains(keyword) {

        print("WID=\(wid) | App=\(owner) | Title=\(name)")

    }

}

'

Using the bundled script

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift Excel

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift Chrome

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift          # List all windows

Output format: WID=12345 | App=Microsoft Excel | Title=workbook.xlsx

Parse the WID number for use with screencapture -l.

Step 2: Control Window (AppleScript)

Verified commands for controlling application windows before capture.

Microsoft Excel (full AppleScript support)

# Activate (bring to front)

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'

# Set zoom level (percentage)

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    set zoom of active window to 120

end tell'

# Scroll to specific row

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    set scroll row of active window to 45

end tell'

# Scroll to specific column

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    set scroll column of active window to 3

end tell'

# Select a cell range

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    select range "A1" of active sheet

end tell'

# Select a specific sheet

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    activate object sheet "DCF" of active workbook

end tell'

# Open a file

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    open POSIX file "/path/to/file.xlsx"

end tell'

Any application (basic control)

# Activate any app

osascript -e 'tell application "Google Chrome" to activate'

# Bring specific window to front (by index)

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"

    tell process "Google Chrome"

        perform action "AXRaise" of window 1

    end tell

end tell'

Timing and Timeout

Always add sleep 1 after AppleScript commands before capturing, to allow UI rendering to complete.

IMPORTANT: osascript hangs indefinitely if the target application is not running or not responding. Always wrap with timeout:

timeout 5 osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel" to activate'

Step 3: Capture (screencapture)

# Capture specific window by ID

screencapture -l <WID> output.png

# Silent capture (no camera shutter sound)

screencapture -x -l <WID> output.png

# Capture as JPEG

screencapture -l <WID> -t jpg output.jpg

# Capture with delay (seconds)

screencapture -l <WID> -T 2 output.png

# Capture a screen region (interactive)

screencapture -R x,y,width,height output.png

Retina displays

On Retina Macs, screencapture outputs 2x resolution by default (e.g., a 2032x1238 window produces a 4064x2476 PNG). This is normal. To get 1x resolution, resize after capture:

sips --resampleWidth 2032 output.png --out output_1x.png

Verify capture

# Check file was created and has content

ls -la output.png

file output.png    # Should show "PNG image data, ..."

Multi-Shot Workflow

Complete example: capture multiple sections of an Excel workbook.

# 1. Open file and activate Excel

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    open POSIX file "/path/to/model.xlsx"

    activate

end tell'

sleep 2

# 2. Set up view

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    set zoom of active window to 130

    activate object sheet "Summary" of active workbook

end tell'

sleep 1

# 3. Get window ID

#    IMPORTANT: Always re-fetch before capturing. CGWindowID is invalidated

#    when an app restarts or a window is closed and reopened.

WID=$(swift -e '

import CoreGraphics

let list = CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo(.optionOnScreenOnly, kCGNullWindowID) as? [[String: Any]] ?? []

for w in list {

    let owner = w[kCGWindowOwnerName as String] as? String ?? ""

    let wid = w[kCGWindowNumber as String] as? Int ?? 0

    if owner == "Microsoft Excel" { print(wid); break }

}

')

echo "Window ID: $WID"

# 4. Capture Section A (top of sheet)

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    set scroll row of active window to 1

end tell'

sleep 1

screencapture -x -l $WID section_a.png

# 5. Capture Section B (further down)

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    set scroll row of active window to 45

end tell'

sleep 1

screencapture -x -l $WID section_b.png

# 6. Switch sheet and capture

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Excel"

    activate object sheet "DCF" of active workbook

    set scroll row of active window to 1

end tell'

sleep 1

screencapture -x -l $WID dcf_overview.png

Failed Approaches (DO NOT USE)

These methods were tested and confirmed to fail on macOS:

Method

Error

Why It Fails

System Events → id of window

Error -1728

System Events cannot access window IDs in the format screencapture needs

Python import Quartz (PyObjC)

ModuleNotFoundError

PyObjC not installed in system Python; don't attempt to install it — use Swift instead

osascript window id

Wrong format

Returns AppleScript window index, not CGWindowID needed by screencapture -l

Permission Troubleshooting

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift reads on-screen windows via CoreGraphics, so it needs Screen Recording permission on macOS.

Use this order:

• Confirm trigger

• Confirm target identity

• Add/enable exact app in Settings

If the command fails with ERROR: Failed to enumerate windows, do this:

open "x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_ScreenCapture"

Or print the same checklist directly from the script:

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift --permission-hint screen

swift scripts/get_window_id.swift --permission-hint microphone

Then:

• In Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, enable the target app.

• If your app is missing from the list:

• Ensure you granted permission to the real app bundle (not swift / terminal helpers).

• For CLI tools, build/run as a packaged .app during permission verification.

• Click + and add the .app manually from /Applications.

• Re-run the command after restarting the app.

• If this is a CLI workflow, also check whether the launcher is a helper binary:

• In most cases the entry shown in TCC is the helper process (swift, Terminal, iTerm, etc.), not the business app.

• Permission still works after helper-level grant, but it is not ideal for final UX.

For mic-access-related prompts, use the same pattern with the microphone pane:

open "x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Microphone"

The same rule still applies: the system can only show permissions for a concrete .app bundle. If the request is made by a helper binary, the settings list can be misleading or empty for your product app.

Quick Check Template

1) Error: permission denied

2) Open target pane

3) Verify identity shown by OS = identity you granted

4) If not matched, use the script-reported candidate identities and grant the launcher process

5) Reopen/restart and verify

For production apps, avoid requesting permissions via swift/python entry points; always route permission checks in the packaged app process so users only see one target.

If you maintain another macOS permission-related flow, reuse this standardized triage template:

• permission-triage-template.md

Supported Applications

Application

Window ID

AppleScript Control

Notes

Microsoft Excel

Swift

Full (zoom, scroll, select, activate sheet)

Best supported

Google Chrome

Swift

Basic (activate, window management)

No scroll/zoom via AppleScript

Any macOS app

Swift

Basic (activate via tell application)

screencapture works universally

AppleScript control depth varies by application. Excel has the richest AppleScript dictionary. For apps with limited AppleScript, use keyboard simulation via System Events as a fallback.