4 Ways to Take Full Web Page Screenshots in Chrome, iOS

There have been times in my life when I’ve needed to capture a web page – and I mean all of it. Sometimes it was for archival reasons or when I was trying to gather up the curriculum for my coding class. Sometimes it was to share a page with someone. You might have your own reasons for capturing a full web page in image form, archives being at the top of the list.

If you’re a designer or you have to send feedback to a designer about a website, you want to capture more than what’s on the screen. And you might want to annotate on the screenshot as well. You can, of course, use an app like Skitch but who wants to launch a whole new app.

Below, we’ll talk about full web page screenshot tools for Chrome and iOS (Ashish has covered an Android tool already). We’ll also take a look at websites that will generate an image of any web page for you – no need to install additional software.

1. Full Page Screen Capture for Chrome

I’ve been using Full Page Screen Capture for a couple of months now. It’s worked out very well for me. It’s a simple extension with no options. All you have to do is make sure the page is set to the default view size (not zoomed in or out) and click the extension icon. It will do its thing and the image will be downloaded to the default folder. Doesn’t get much simpler really.

2. Awesome Screenshot Extension for Chrome

Awesome Screenshot came under some heat last year for comprising user’s privacy. The extension has since removed the adware, and the makers have rectified their mistakes.

Secondary Option: If you don’t feel comfortable using the extension, take a look at the alternative – Blipshot.

Awesome Screenshot is popular for a reason – it does a lot, and it does it well. The extension will let you capture screenshots of the web page (yes, full web page screenshots are supported), annotate them, and then share them using a unique link.

3. Awesome Screenshot Extension for Safari on iOS 8

A lot of browsing these days takes place on mobile phones. So it makes sense that you might want to capture web pages as served to an iPhone or iPad.

iOS 8 now supports extensions. Using Awesome Screenshot’s extension you can capture a full web page from right within Safari and also annotate and share/save it. No switching to Skitch or another app.

4. Screen Capture Website

Screen Capture is a simple website from tech blogger extraordinaire Amit Agarwal. All you have to do is paste in the link for the web page and then click Capture Screenshot. The website will do its thing and you’ll have downloaded a PNG file of the full page.

The beauty of the Screen Capture website is that it works anywhere – desktop, iOS, and even Android.

Bonus: Download Web Pages as PDFs

Downloading the web page as a PDF is a good alternative to simply downloading it as an image. When you’re talking about a really long web page, it’s going to work much better this way.

On Chrome, try the Save as PDF extension, which features one-click web page to PDF download. You can also try Pdfcrowd and HTML to PDF websites.

What Do You Use Full Page Screenshots For?

Do you use them for archival reasons or to critique? Share with us in the comments below.