The short answer: seven steps
Keep your screenshots as PNGs, because PNG keeps text and lines crisp. Then:
- Name your files in order, such as 01-aim.png, 02-code.png, 03-output.png.
- Open PNG to PDF and choose all the screenshots at once.
- Check the order of the cards. The number on each card is its page number. Drag any card that is out of place.
- Pick the page: Same as picture for reading on a screen, or A4 for printing.
- Convert and open the PDF. Zoom in on the code to see that every line is readable.
- Join it with your typed pages (cover, aim, conclusion), using Merge PDF.
- Number the pages and fit the size limit, in that order. The sections below explain each step.
Everything happens in your browser, so a screenshot with your roll number or a half-finished program is never sent to anyone. If you only need the general steps for screenshots, Combine screenshots into one PDF has them. This post is about the extra things a lab record needs.
Take screenshots that read well on a page
A lab record gets read on a screen, or printed and checked with a pen. Either way, small text is the biggest problem. A few habits make every page easy to check:
- Make the text bigger before you capture, not after. Zoom in your editor or terminal, so the code is clear when the whole screenshot is shown on a page.
- Capture only what is needed. Crop away the taskbar, other windows and the empty parts of the screen. Smaller pictures also make a smaller PDF.
- Keep the program's name and the output visible together, or in two screenshots one after the other. Your teacher is checking that you ran it yourself.
- A light background prints better than a dark one, and uses less ink. If your editor is dark, switch to a light theme for the screenshots.
- Look at the edges for private things. Notification banners, open chats and other tabs can sit at the edge of a screenshot. Crop them away first.
Take the screenshots from your own run of your own work. The record is meant to show what you did. Many labs also ask for your name, roll number or the date on each page. Check your lab sheet for what is needed, and add it in the typed pages if the screenshots can't carry it.
Get the order right, before and after
The cards appear in the order you pick the files, and phones and computers often sort files by name or date. Two habits save time:
- Number the file names with two digits (01, 02, ... 10, 11), not one. Plain 1, 2, 10 sorts as 1, 10, 2 in many file lists, and that puts page 10 in the wrong place.
- Pick them all at once from one folder. If you add them a few at a time, the later ones go to the end, and you will have to drag them.
Then check the cards. Each shows a small picture of its page and its page number. On a phone, drag a card by the numbered handle in its corner. On a computer, drag it from anywhere. If one screenshot came out sideways, press the turn button on its card until it stands upright. Turning doesn't compress the picture again.
A typical experiment runs in this order, and each part can be a screenshot or a typed page:
| Part | What goes on the page | Usually |
|---|---|---|
| Aim | One or two lines about what the experiment shows | Typed page |
| Program or procedure | The code, or the steps you followed | Screenshot |
| Output | What the program printed, or a graph or table it drew | Screenshot |
| Result | One line on what you saw and learned | Typed page |
Follow your own lab sheet, which always wins. These are the usual parts, not a rule.
Page shape: for the screen, or for the printer
This is the choice that changes how the record looks. Each picture is scaled to fit its page and centred, never cropped or stretched. What differs is the page.
| If the record is... | Pick | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Submitted on a portal and read on screens | Same as picture, margin None | Each page is the shape of its screenshot, with no empty paper around it |
| Printed on A4 sheets | A4, Direction Auto, margin Small | Wide screenshots get landscape pages, tall ones portrait, and the edges stay clear of the printer's margin |
| Printed and then bound or filed | A4, Direction Auto, margin Big | White space on every edge, for punching holes or stapling |
| Printed with every sheet upright | A4, Direction Portrait | Wide screenshots sit across the page with white space above and below, a little smaller |
Auto is the best start for a record with both code (often wide) and a narrow output window. It turns each page to suit its picture. If you want every sheet to be the same shape, Portrait is the neat choice, at the cost of smaller text on wide screenshots. Our PNG to PDF guide has the same advice for other kinds of pictures.
If you'll print, look at one printed page before you print all of them, and use the print window's "Fit to page" setting if an edge is cut off.
Adding the cover, aim and conclusion
Most records mix screenshots with pages you type in a word processor. Here is a simple way to put them together without redoing any work:
- Write the typed pages (cover, index, aim, result) in your word processor, and save each as a PDF. The Word to PDF page does this in your browser, and Word to PDF looks different? Fonts, layout and fixes helps if the pages change.
- Make the screenshot PDF here, as described above.
- Join the PDFs in Merge PDF. Drag the cards into the order of the record: cover first, then each experiment's pages.
If you have many experiments, make one PDF for each, then join them all at the end. Set Make to A PDF each if you want a separate file for every screenshot instead. You then get one ZIP file, with a PDF named after each picture.
If your lab sheet wants the record to run page after page, number it. Do that last, so the numbers run through the whole record: Numbering a PDF made from several files explains why. Pick Page 1 of 9 if the checker should be able to see that no page is missing, and use All but the first if the cover should stay bare. The page Add page numbers to PDF starting from page 2 shows how the counting works.
If the portal has a size limit
A PDF made of plain PNG screenshots is about as big as the screenshots themselves, because they go in untouched. In our own tests, run in headless Chromium at computer size, one phone screenshot of 482 KB made a PDF of 482 KB, and a computer screenshot of 1920 × 1080 was 214 KB. A busier screen is bigger: another 1920 × 1080 screenshot, in our JPG to PDF tests, was 882 KB. So add up the screenshots to get a rough idea of the record's size. The result line shows both numbers for your own files.
If the PDF is over the limit, you have three ways to make it smaller:
- Before converting: crop the pictures, remove duplicates and retakes, and capture only the window, not the whole desktop. This costs nothing in quality.
- After merging: use Resize PDF and type the size the portal wants. It makes the sharpest version that fits, and tells you if it can't. Quality may drop to reach a small size.
- For email or chat: our PDF compressor works at Recommended. In our test, two phone screenshots, 664 KB, made a 663 KB PDF, and the compressor brought that to 143 KB. Your computer screenshots will give their own result.
Shrink last, after merging and numbering, so the limit is checked on the exact file you upload. Keep the full-quality PDF in case another place asks for a different size. The post PDF to 500 KB, 1 MB or 2 MB for visa and admission forms has more on sizes between 500 KB and 2 MB.
One thing screenshots can't do: be searched
Text in a screenshot stays a picture. In the PDF you can read it, but you can't search it, select it or copy it, because our tool doesn't recognise text in pictures. For most lab records that is fine, since the record is meant to be read.
But sometimes the code itself is needed as text, for example if the teacher wants to run or check it. Ask before you submit. If they want code as text, paste it into your typed pages and use the screenshot only for the output. Screenshots are also easy to retake, so if someone asks for a clearer page, you can fix it quickly and convert again.
Common mistakes, and how to fix them
- The code is too small to read.
- The page is fine but the picture was small. Retake it with a larger font in the editor, or capture only the part with the code, then convert again.
- Wide screenshots look small on A4 portrait.
- That is the portrait page at work. Switch Direction to Auto, so wide pictures get landscape pages.
- Pages are in the wrong order.
- Check the cards before converting. If you only notice later, change the order of the cards and press Convert again, or fix a finished record with Organize PDF.
- One page is sideways.
- Press the turn button on its card until it is upright, then convert. For a finished PDF, use Rotate PDF.
- The PDF is far too big.
- The screenshots are full-screen or you added copies. Crop, remove extra ones and try again, or shrink the finished PDF as shown above.
- My name or roll number is missing from the pages.
- Our tool puts your pictures in a PDF as they are. It doesn't add text to pictures. Include your name in the typed pages or inside the screenshot.
Your work stays on your device
A lab record is your own work, often with your name and roll number on it. The tools used here have no upload step and never send your files anywhere. Your own browser puts the pictures into the PDF. The page contacts only this site and Google's ad service, which shows the ads that keep the tools free, and our code never gives your files to the ad code. The privacy policy has the details.
Try it: choose your screenshots, check the order of the cards and press Convert.
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