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I have tried various tools such as Greenshot, Ksnip, and ShareX as well as Windows clipping tool, etc., but I can only get it to save as .jpg, not copy to clipboard.

I want this because for web use I can get a compressed .jpg at 200kb that would be 10x that size with .png.

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  • I think you're looking at the wrong direction. It isn't the screenshot capture that is or isn't JPG, it's the fact that the Windows Clipboard always encodes pictures in it as PNG. If you open a JPG in a photo viewer copy it to clipboard (not the file in explorer, but the actual image from the viewer) it will also then paste as PNG.
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 20:25

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While any image is in the clipboard, it's not in JPEG format or any other disk-oriented format. It will be in a memory-resident format which is bitmap or PNG.

To get for example Greenshot to save the image on the disk as JPEG:

  • Right-click the Greenshot traybar icon and select "Preferences..."
  • In the "Output" tab set your folder and and name
  • Set the "Image format" drop-down box to "jpg"
  • Set the "JPEG quality" (mine is 100%)
  • In the "Destination" tab ensure that "Save directly" is checked ("Copy to clipboard" is optional and not required). You can optionally add a check-mark next to an image-editor that will open automatically the saved image
  • Click OK.

enter image description here

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  • Yes, I can do this already, but it wastes a lot of time. Is there any such software that can automatically save .jpg in clipboard? Just like when I use greenshot to create the .jpg, and then copy that image, that .jpg is now in the clipboard and I can paste it other places like the browser or the file manager I use.
    – Eternal482223
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 20:02
  • @Eternal482223 isn't "Save directly" as harrymc suggested explicitly what you are asking for?
    – Yorik
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 20:05
  • @Eternal482223: "Save directly" is almost immediate.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 20:07
  • When I save directly, I have to open that folder and copy it from the folder, which takes at least 2x as long as just having it copied to the clipboard. Since apps like Greenshot will upload to places like Imgur and put the link in your clipboard, I would have assumed some app can put a compressed .jpg in your clipboard.
    – Eternal482223
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 20:18
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    @Eternal482223: The clipboard format is hardwired to be what it is (and I don't believe that it's compressed although the format might support this). The compression is done when converting the memory image to the disk image in JPEG format, so it's done after, not before. There is really no way to avoid it, the screenshot is just a snapshot of the pixels from the screen buffer area that is kept by Windows, so it's not in a sophisticated image format like JPEG, and was never meant to be.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jul 7, 2023 at 8:46
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A screenshot is going to be in some uncompressed format such as PNG TIF OR BMP as screens are not compressed. However, once you take a screenshot, there are plenty of tools that can then permanently save it as a jpg.

Windows Snipping Tool for instance can save the screenshot by selecting FILE > SAVE AS... and selecting JPG.

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  • png, tif and bmp all support compression.
    – Yorik
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 19:54
  • @Yorik, I didn't say that didn't support compression. I said as screenshots they are uncompressed formats as screens are not compressible.
    – Brian
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 19:58
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    @Brian - The format of a screenshot isn’t determined until the file extension is chosen. The absolutely disagree with the technical statement contained within this answer.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 6, 2023 at 23:47
  • I generally agree with Ramhound. The mention of various file formats ("PNG TIF OR BMP") makes this answer misleading. As does "screens are not compressed". True, but so what? The fact that the backing bitmap driving screen display is not compressed, has no relevance to what Windows OS chooses to store in clipboard. In memory, Windows holds an image as a Device-Independent Bitmap (DIB). AFAIK, that DIB memory array is what clipboard holds. Yes, that is an uncompressed format. That much of the answer is correct.
    – ToolmakerSteve
    Commented Jun 8 at 23:05

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