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How to Automate Screenshots#

Screenshots are useful for capturing and documenting the visual appearance of a web page. By automating the process, we can save time and ensure consistency when capturing screenshots across browsers and devices.

Settings#

Global Destination#

You can set the directory where the screenshots are saved by customizing the screenshot_dir parameter of the BrowserSettings. For example:

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from browserist import Browser, BrowserSettings

settings = BrowserSettings(screenshot_dir="/screenshots/folder")

with Browser(settings) as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.screenshot.visible_portion()

Info

By default, screenshots are saved in the Downloads folder of the user.

Override Destination Locally#

Or you can override the global settings for a specific screenshot each time you take a screenshot. Simply add the destination_dir parameter to the screenshot method:

browser.screenshot.visible_portion(destination_dir="/screenshots/folder")

browser.screenshot.complete_page(destination_dir="/screenshots/folder")

browser.screenshot.element("//xpath/to/element", destination_dir="/screenshots/folder")

Custom File Naming#

You can customize the name of the screenshot file each time you take a screenshot. For example:

browser.screenshot.visible_portion("image.png")

browser.screenshot.complete_page("image.png")

browser.screenshot.element("//xpath/to/element", "image.png")

Or combine custom file naming with a custom destination directory:

browser.screenshot.visible_portion("image.png", "/screenshots/folder")

browser.screenshot.complete_page("image.png", "/screenshots/folder")

browser.screenshot.element("//xpath/to/element", "image.png", "/screenshots/folder")

Note

When setting a custom file name, screenshots should always be saved as a PNG file with a .png extension.

Different Types of Screenshots#

Visible Portion#

How to capture the visible portion of a web page, i.e. the current viewport:

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from browserist import Browser

with Browser() as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.screenshot.visible_portion()

Element#

You can also take screenshots of a specific element on a web page:

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from browserist import Browser

with Browser() as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.screenshot.element("//xpath/to/element")

Complete Page#

To capture the entire page, including parts that are not currently visible in the viewport, Browserist scrolls the page programmatically and takes multiple screenshots, which are then stitched together to create a full-page screenshot:

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from browserist import Browser

with Browser() as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.screenshot.complete_page()

Firefox Is Recommended for Complete Page Screenshots

Firefox is recommended browser for complete page screenshots as it executes this in one go. Other browsers can't capture the entire page at once, and so we need to merge screenshots portion by portions – and this is obviously much slower. For example:

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from browserist import Browser, BrowserSettings, BrowserType

settings = BrowserSettings(browser_type=BrowserType.FIREFOX)

with Browser(settings) as browser:
    browser.open.url("https://example.com")
    browser.screenshot.complete_page()