Linguistics 120

Linguistic Phonetics

Praat handout #5

Printing and copying/pasting Praat images

Images from Praat, such as waveforms, spectrograms, and spectral slices, can be printed out
or pasted into word-processing documents in several ways.

The Praat software is frequently updated by its authors. The changes are usually small, but if you are using this
handout along with a different version of Praat than the one listed below, you may find that some of the
functions and features look or act slightly differently from the way they are described here.

Section 5.1 was written on Novermber 9, 2005. 5.2 was last updated for Praat version 4.1.05 on August 23, 2003.

5.1 Screenshots
The simplest way to take what you can see on your computer screen and turn it into a
graphics file is to make a screenshot.
(1)

How to make a screenshot on a Windows computer

(a) Press the key on your keyboard that says something like PRINT SCREEN or
PRTSCR. This copies the entire view showing on the monitor screen and stores it
on the "clipboard," allowing you to paste it into another program.
To copy only the active window, use ALT+PRINT SCREEN.
(b) To edit the image:
Open your favorite graphics or Paint program.
"Paste" (from the Edit menu, or CTRL-V). The screenshot will appear.
Edit the image as desired and save it as a graphics file (.JPG, .GIF, etc.).
This graphics file can be printed as-is, or it can be included in a word
processor document.

(2)

How to make a screenshot on a Macintosh computer (adapted from Wikipedia, 2005.11.09)

(a) Saving the screen image to disk:
To save an image of the entire screen to disk, press COMMAND+SHIFT+3.
To take a picture of part of the screen, press COMMAND+SHIFT+4 and then
select the area to be captured.
Where the files go:

Mac OS X v10.4 stores the captures on the desktop (~/Desktop/) in PNG format. Mac OS
X v10.4 saves the capture in PNG, Mac OS X v10.3 and Mac OS X v10.2 save them in PDF
format, and Mac OS X v10.1 saves them as TIFFs. In Mac OS versions prior to X, the
captures are saved as a ordered-numbered PICT files (Picture 1, Picure 2, Picture 3...) in the
root level of the startup disk.

(b) Copying the screen image to the clipboard:

To copy the capture to the clipboard instead of saving it as a file, press the
CONTROL key along with the other keys as described in (a). The image can
then be pasted into another program to edit or save.

5.2 The Praat Picture window

For better control over what information from Praat you want to include in your images,
you can work with the Praat Picture window. Once you have "drawn" or "painted" an
image into the Picture window, you can print it, copy it into your word processor, or save it
as a PostScript file. Some of these options may work better than others for you, depending
on your computer setup.
5.2.1 Preparing a spectrogram to send to the Picture window
(1)

Start out by selecting a Sound object in the Objects window. Click on Edit, which
will open a Sound window. Zoom in or out until the window shows the part of the
spectrogram that you want to print.

(2)

Click on Spectrum > Extract visible spectrogram to create a Spectrogram

object in the Objects window. It's called "untitled" by default, but you can Rename it
if you want to keep track of your spectrograms.

(3)

You can double-check that you've got the spectrogram view that you want by
selecting (highlighting) the Spectrogram object and clicking View on the right-side
menu. (Note that the red time and frequency markers you see here will not be
included in the spectrogram that you send to the Picture window. See section 5.2.2
on how to add markers like these.)

(4)

Go over to the Picture window and prepare a space for your spectrogram (see 5.2.2).
Then click on Paint on the right-side menu bar (and click OK in the dialogue box),
and your spectrogram will appear in the Picture window.

5.2.2 Working with the Picture window

The Picture window looks like a blank piece of paper, 12 inches by 12 inches (the
dimensions are labeled at the margins). Remember that letter-sized paper, which you
will be printing on, is 8.5 by 11 inches, and plan accordingly. Also, your printer may not
be happy if you use the paper all the way out to the edges, so leave at least a half-inch
margin. A one-inch margin is even better.

The basic concept behind the Picture window is that you first define a space in the
window by clicking and dragging with the mouse. (This space will appear surrounded by
a thick pink margin on a Windows system, or as a highlighted area on a Macintosh.)
Then you Paint (or Draw, which is the choice you get when you have an object that isn't
a spectrogram) an object from the Objects window into that space. Your spectrogram
will be "painted" with whatever vertical and horizontal proportions you use when you
create the space. Note that you can place several spectrograms on each page.

When you define a space and paint/draw an object into it, Praat refers to this as a
"world". As long as you don't click on the Picture window workspace, you can make
additions to this world. But after you click on the workspace, which begins defining a
new world, you can no longer make changes to the world you were working with.

Additions that you might want to make to your world:

(a) Click on Margins > Text top to put a text label (such as an indication of what
sound or word the spectrogram shows) above your spectrogram. Text left,
right, bottom are also available under Margins, but note that the left and bottom
areas are already being used by the frequency and time scales.
(b) Click on Margins > Marks > Marks left and tell it to make 6 marks, with
Write numbers, Draw ticks, and Draw dotted lines all checked. This will
put four dotted lines (plus one at the top and one at the bottom) evenly spaced across
your spectrogram. Assuming you are using the default spectrogram settings, the
frequency range displayed is 0-5000 Hz, so the six marks are placed every 1000 Hz
from 0 to 5000 Hz.

You can save a Praat picture that you want to come back and use later by clicking on
File > Write to Praat picture file. Later, you can read it back into the Picture
window by clicking on File > Read from Praat picture file.

You can put other things besides spectrograms into the Picture window.
(a) For a waveform: highlight a Sound object in the Objects window and click on the
Draw button in the right-side menu.
(b) For a spectral slice: highlight a Spectrum object in the Objects window and click on
the Draw button in the right-side menu.

5.2.3 Options for printing your spectrogram pictures

(1)

Printing directly from the Praat program

If your computer is attached to a PostScript printer, you can click on File > Print
in the Picture window and send the file directly to the printer as PostScript code.
This is the easiest option, but it may not work for everyone.

(2)

Pasting into your word processor

Option (a): Copy to clipboard. In the Picture window, select (draw a box around)
the entire image that you want to put into your word processor. Then click on
File > Copy to clipboard. In your word processor, click on Edit > Paste.
Option (b): Write out to file. In the Picture window, select the entire image that you
want to put into your word processor. Then click on File > Write to Windows
metafile (or Write to Mac PICT file if on a Macintosh). A dialogue box will
3

ask you where to save the file. In MS Word, click on Insert > Picture > From
file and tell it where your file is. (Other word processors work similarly.)
(3)

Saving your picture as a PostScript file (you'll probably want to try the other options first)

Click on File > Write to EPS file. (EPS stands for Encapsulated
PostScript.) A dialogue box will open up; tell it what to call the file and where to
put it.

Once you have your EPS file, there are several things you can do with it. Here
are some examples.
(a) If you have Adobe Acrobat Writer (not the free Acrobat Reader, but the full
Writer), you can use the Distiller tool to make the EPS file into a PDF file.
Once you have the PDF file, you can print it with the Acrobat Writer software
or from any computer that has the free Acrobat Reader installed (available for
download at
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).
(b) If you have Ghostscript, you can open the EPS file with that (available for
download at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/). Then print from inside
Ghostscript, or, if your printer can't deal with PostScript files, use Ghostscript
to convert the EPS file into a PDF file and then print with Acrobat Reader as
above.