Screenshot

A screenshot taken in-game, using F1 to hide the heads-up display.

Screenshots are images taken in-game by pressing the F2 key or Fn+F2 for Macs and sometimes other keyboards. The screenshots are automatically saved in the "screenshots" folder of the .minecraft directory.

Dating system

Screenshots are saved as PNG files with a naming format based on the current date and time: YYYY-MM-DD_HH.MM.SS.png. For example: "2012-05-13_12.35.05.png" translates to "May 13th, 2012, 12:35:05".

Screenshot options

It is possible to change what features you include in your screenshot by pressing control keys. By default, the screenshots look exactly like the screen during regular gameplay. It is possible though to hide certain features.

Control Key	Function
F1	Hides the Health Bar, Hunger Bar, Experience Bar, and what you are holding including your hand. If the player is underwater it also hides the 'Air' Bar. In multiplayer it also hides the server chat.
F3	Displays the debug screen. This shows your coordinates as well as the world seed. If you do not want the charts in screenshot hold ⇧ Shift + F3 to pull up debug screen with out the charts.

Using the F3 is a quick and efficient way to find and save your coordinates and world seed, so that you can access it later on. There are many features to taking screenshots, which can be adjusted to your needs using these command keys.

Windows

If you are using Windows XP or higher, you can find the directory in which the screenshots are saved under by opening the "run" application and entering "%appdata%". Then select the folder ".minecraft" and then the folder titled "screenshots". If you access the screenshots a lot, then you might want to create a short-cut.

Mac OS X and GNU/Linux

The screenshots folder location varies by operating system. If you are using Mac OS X or GNU/Linux, the files are saved in a different directory. Look at the Table below to locate your directory.

Operating System	Directory
Windows XP / Vista / 7	%appdata%\.minecraft\screenshots
Mac OS X	~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/screenshots
GNU/Linux	~/.minecraft/screenshots

You can also access the screenshots folder by going to Texture Packs on the main menu, clicking on Open texture pack folder, and going up one level.

History

The screenshot function was implemented in Alpha 1.2.0, and originally required you to hold F1 when taking screenshots.

After Beta 1.2, screenshots can be taken using the F2 key without having to first hold down the F1 key.

From Beta 1.2_02 - Beta 1.4, pressing ⇧ Shift + F2 would call an unfinished experimental screenshot function that attempted to generate a huge 645 megapixel TGA image with a resolution of 36,450×17,700 pixels. Pressing this key combination would cause the client to either freeze for a while, displaying several clipped tiles of the current view, or crash, depending on the amount of available RAM. During this time it would attempt to generate a file of 1.8 GB in size that may end up corrupt.