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How to create screenshots and GIFs
50% draft
The purpose is to highlight and illustrate the best features of Mattermost user interface.
When choosing what to highlight in the screenshot, follow this order:
- 1.An end-user screenshot that best illustrates the feature.
- 2.Screenshot of System Console or other settings help text.
- 3.Screenshot of documentation.
- 4.Screenshot of a code mentioning the feature and/or Mattermost.
- Use the Mattermost Desktop App, which has a nicer border.
- Create a secondary account with [first.last][email protected] email address. This makes triggering notifications for yourself easier (for the screenshot). You can also use a second browser to login to the second account while taking the screenshot.
- Screen size:
- Size your Mattermost Desktop App or browser to capture a screenshot approximately 900px by 640px, excluding browser navigation.
- Use default 100% zoom.
- Tip: Close the right-hand sidebar, and close the team sidebar by leaving all but one team.
- Font size:
- All text should have large enough font size so that text is easily readable.
- Visuals:
- Profile pictures and real people’s names should be filled out throughout the screenshot.
- For the profile picture, use either normal-looking Avatars or stock photography from istockphoto.com.
- Select the default "Mattermost" theme color in Account Settings > Theme.
- Left-hand sidebar:
- Include Favorite, Public, and Private channels on the left-hand sidebar.
- Make sure that you scroll all the way to the top in the channel list on the left-hand sidebar for the screenshot.
- You can have a few unreads or mentions visible, but don't include an “unread posts” indicator in the left-hand sidebar.
- Favorites channel list: Include the following:
- One Public channel.
- One Direct Message channel with someone who is online.
- One Group Direct Message channel using people with short names to avoid truncation.
- Center pane:
- Make the center pane one of the Favorited channels.
- Make sure that the heading of the center pane is fully visible to avoid truncation.
- Make the first message in the center pane fully visible right below the channel header.
- Team list
- Connect team names to channel names, e.g. Contributors, Developers, Toolkit, etc. to contribute to a broader overall theme and story.
- E.g. could use icons of different maps, or city skylines, to indicate offices of different teams, or business units of a bank (customer service, security, research, etc.), etc.
- Clarity:
- Avoid showing any text with acronyms and abbreviations.
- Do not show any bugs or defects.
- Outline:
- Ensure that the screenshot has a grey (#F7F9FA) outline in all four edges. This helps ensure the screenshot looks good against both dark and light backgrounds.
- Outstanding look: Ensure that the contents of the screenshot shows the Mattermost product in the best light.
- Show the feature in action.
- Make sure that the screenshot is positive - give whoever is viewing it a positive emotion.
- Show how the feature can be extended and customized. For instance, use custom slash commands instead of the default commands.
- 1.Share the original: Always share the original in .JPG or .PNG format, or pasted in a slide.
- 1.If you share screenshots in a slide with a drop shadow or other formatting, make sure the original is provided as a backup in case the user needs a different manipulation.
- 2.Share the manipulation (optional): If you're modifying screenshots using a format that can include layer or the original manipulation (e.g. Photoshop), offer the file containing modifications if you can in .PSD or .TIF format.
When you need to show a particular part of the product, don't crop the image and zoom past 100% to show the functionality. Screenshots should be full-sized (no zoom-in, no resizing within Google Doc), potentially stored in a .TIF file. For optimal quality on Mac screenshots, see this help article.
Example of what not to do:
DO NOT use Zoom level other than 100% for screenshots
Instead, show the sub-component at 100% zoom with a 12pt white border (so there's white space) and a grey (#F7F9FA) background with no border, so the image is neatly framed:
Example of what not to do ("Stop" and "created with gifrecorder.com" overlayed at the end of the GIF):
Text is hard to read when image is reduced for sharing on blog posts, social media and possibly in slides:
This enables sharing the image in documentation, social media, and marketing content more easily.
Last modified 2yr ago