Firefox Screenshots is a system add-on, but you have to turn it on so you can use it, as it is disabled by default

Apr 21, 2017 00:06 GMT  ·  By

A cool new feature is heading your way via Firefox, namely Screenshots. Formerly known as a Test Pilot experiment PageShot, Firefox Screenshots is now a feature in Firefox 55 Nightly. 

According to Techdows, the screenshot feature has been added as a system add-on to the Nightly version, but it is disabled by default. What this feature does, as the name suggests, is allow you to capture web pages and save them to your computer or share them to social media platforms. Normally, this isn't possible without a third-party add-on or the good ol' PrintScreen+Paint combination.

Since this feature is turned on by default in Nightly, you'll have to take a few steps to get to use it.

First, you'll have to visit about:config and change the value of "extensions.screenshots.system-disabled" to "false." This will make a new screenshot icon appear in your toolbar to the right of your address bar. There's also a new "Take Screenshot" option available in the tab context menu if you want to use that instead.

What can it do?

This cool new feature allows users to take, share, and save screenshots without as much as using Alt-Tab to switch to another tool. It lets you drag or click on the page to select a region of the web page that you want to capture. Alternatively, you can save the full page or save only what's visible so you don't even have to bother with resizing a rectangle.

Regardless of whether you chose to capture the entire page or just part of it, a new tab opens where the shot is created. A link to it will be created and automatically copied to the clipboard so you can paste it in any image editing app if you so desire. You can also delete, download or share the shot to the web.

So far, the feature is available for Firefox Nightly only, which is the beta version of the browser where such things are tested out. Whether or not it will make it into the stable version most people use remains to be seen, depending on the feedback.

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