Screenshot

A screenshot is a stillframe image of in-game action saved in the game's Screenshots subfolder. Screenshots allow players to document events, treasure memories, provide evidence for abuses, or just create Guild Wars-based user art. The default screenshot button is Print Screen.

Currently, screenshots are saved in JPEG format, but can be saved as bitmaps by editing the game's command line with the -BMP parameter.

The naming scheme for screenshots is gwXXX.jpg. XXX is replaced by a three digit number, which counts from 001 to 999. When you run past 999 screens, a new folder will appear, and all of your screenshots from then on out will be saved to there.

Screenshots are automatically saved into one folder. The full path of the screenshot, including the name of it, shows up in your chat dialogue when you take a screenshot. The default locations are:
 * Windows XP:
 * Windows Vista/Windows 7:
 * Steam:

Tips on screen capturing

 * For highest quality screenshots you should capture them in the .bmp format. See Command line.
 * For high quality screenshots, Graphic options (F11/Graphics) should be set as follows:
 * Anti-Aliasing - highest option available with your video card
 * Visual Quality - 3/4 to highest quality or higher
 * Terrain Quality - High
 * Reflections - All
 * Texture Quality - High
 * Shadow Quality - Off
 * Shader Quality - High
 * Enable Wait for vertical sync
 * Disable Post processing effects
 * Enable Use best texture filtering
 * Press Shift + Print Screen to hide the game interface during the capture, so you get a clean shot.
 * You can also toggle the game interface off (and back on again) by pressing Ctrl + Shift + H.
 * Watch for the mouse hover. A mouse hovering over objects will make them glow (sometimes covering their details).
 * Depending on the performance of your computer and the graphics settings, the capture will not take place in the instant you press the key, but up to half a second later. This is important to know when trying to capture moving objects, such as dancing players.
 * When setting up a scene to take a capture, take heed of the direction from which the light comes. Capturing images of objects with backlight will make them lose a lot of detail due to shadows. NPCs will turn towards you when talked to. This can be used to make them face the light.
 * When choosing a location to take screenshots, take heed of the color and brightness of the light. Some areas are brighter than others and in many places the light is strongly hued.

Trivia

 * As of the January 19, 2007 update, screenshots are saved as JPG files. Before the update, bitmap files were used, which provided higher quality uncompressed images at the expense of greater disk space consumption. There is a command line parameter to make screenshots save as higher-quality bitmaps.