Screenshots are not photographs. They contain flat colors, sharp text, thin lines and interface icons. That means the usual photo advice, export as JPG and compress hard, can make a screenshot look terrible. Text becomes fuzzy, borders shimmer and small controls look unprofessional.

For tutorials and documentation, clarity matters more than maximum compression. Readers are trying to follow exact steps. If a button label or menu item is hard to read, the image is failing even if the file size is small.

Start by cropping the screenshot to the relevant area. Full-screen captures often include browser tabs, desktop wallpaper and unrelated panels. Removing those pixels makes the image smaller and focuses the reader's attention.

Then resize to the width of your content column. If your article body is 760 pixels wide, a screenshot around 1000 to 1500 pixels wide gives enough detail for retina screens without shipping a giant full-resolution desktop capture.

PNG is usually safest for screenshots because it preserves sharp text. WebP can also work well if your publishing system supports it. JPG should be a fallback only when the screenshot is photo-heavy or the platform rejects PNG and WebP.

After export, view the screenshot inside the actual blog layout. A file can look fine at full size but too small or blurry once embedded. The final page view is the only test that matters.