Video still bookmarklet

Capture a still frame of the first video element in the page.

Bookmarklet installation

Drag this link Capture still to your browser bookmark bar.

Capturing images

1. Viewing a web page with a playing (or paused) video.
2. Click the bookmarklet.
3. A new window will open displaying the captured still as an image.
4. Right click to save or copy it.

More frames to capture?

1. Don’t close the window previously opened by the bookmarklet.
2. Return to the video page, resume or seek to a new frame.
3. Click the bookmarklet.
4. Each click will append an image to the previously opened page.

The resulting images are PNG which is likely a much heavier download than it needs to be. Before posting images captured like this to a website – be sure to optimise them with something like Squoosh to a more appropriate image format.

Hat tip

Built upon a console script posted by Dave Rupert How to capture single frame from an HTML video.

More on the making on this bookmarklet in my blog: Capturing video stills with a bookmarklet.