PNGShot

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Overview

PNGShot is a lightweight homebrew sysmodule for the Nintendo Switch, written entirely in C, that captures screenshots and saves them as PNG files instead of the system’s default JPEG format.

Using PNG provides lossless compression that preserves the quality of the capture while keeping file sizes smaller.

Features

• Captures system screenshots as lossless PNG images
• Optional compatibility mode to allow both PNG and JPEG captures
• Simple SD card–based configuration
• Low-overhead sysmodule design written in pure C
• Highly stable

Installation and usage

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page.
2. Extract the contents of the ZIP archive to the root of your Switch’s SD card.
3. (Optional) To keep system JPEG captures, create an empty file named sdmc:/config/PNGShot/allow_jpegs
4. If a future Switch firmware update causes compatibility issues, check the patches directory for updated patches. In most cases, if PNGShot breaks after a firmware update, this is the cause. The sysmodule code itself is extremely stable.

Building from source

Requirements

• Ensure you have the following tools installed:

  git
  make
  zip
  

• A working DevKitPro installation with the following packages:

  devkitA64
  switch-tools
  libnx
  switch-libpng
  switch-zlib
  

• You will also need to build hactool.

Building instructions

• Clone PNGShot's repository with the following command:

  git clone https://github.com/J-D-K/PNGShot.git
  

• Open the cloned repository and run the following command:

  make -j
  

• Once PNGShot is built, you will have a folder named dist in the root of your local copy of the repository. Copy the contents to your SD card along with the patches included from cloning the repo.

Big Thanks

• Impeeza for enhancing the makefile and the basis for the patch generating script.