How to Copy Live Chat Pictures

Saving a picture from a video chat can take less than a minute.

Webcams are readily available and even built into many computers, so instant messaging programs utilize this technology to allow live chat with video between two or more cameras. Though they generally can't record video directly, nearly every computer with a keyboard has the capability to copy pictures and save them with the help of picture-editing software.

Things You'll Need

• Instant messenger
• Webcam
• Picture-editing software

Instructions

1. Re-size your video chat window to change the dimensions of the picture as desired by hovering your cursor over a bottom corner (it will turn into a double-sided arrow), left-clicking and holding it and dragging the corner. Move the corner toward the center to make the window smaller, or away from the center to make it larger. The size that appears on your screen is the size the finished pictures will be, unless you edit it later.

2. Press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard, usually located in the top-right corner. It is sometimes written as "Prt Scn" on smaller keyboards to save room. This button copies the whole image on screen and saves it to your computer's clipboard, similarly to when you highlight text, press "Ctrl" and "C" or right-click it and select "Copy."

3. Post your image into a image editing program such as MS Paint or Photoshop by holding the "Ctrl" button and pressing "V," or selecting "Paste" from the "Edit" menu at the top of the screen. Your image will be posted into the editing field of the software.

4. Use the cropping tool, generally denoted by a dotted square, to select only the image the other party's webcam recorded. Click and hold your mouse in the top corner of the image and drag down to the bottom corner, then release, to select it. Hold "Ctrl" and press "C" to copy the image.

5. Open a new document in the picture editing software. For MS Paint and most others, select "New" from the "File" menu. Paste your copied image by holding the "Ctrl" button and pressing "V" or selecting "Paste" from the "Edit" menu again. Select "Save" from the file menu to store the image on your hard drive.