Use Puppeteer’s page.screenshot() method with a clip object. Set the rectangle’s x, y, width, and height, then save the returned image or bytes:
await page.screenshot({ path: 'clip.png', clip: { x: 100, y: 80, width: 500, height: 300 } });This captures the specified rectangular region instead of the whole page. The sections below show how to choose coordinates, capture a DOM element, control output, handle dynamic pages, and diagnose common failures.
Capture a rectangle with page.screenshot()
A clipped screenshot is defined by a ScreenshotClip object. It extends Puppeteer’s BoundingBox shape, so provide x, y, width, and height. The following complete Node.js script launches Chromium, waits for navigation, captures the rectangle, and writes a PNG file.
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
try {
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.setViewport({ width: 1440, height: 900 });
await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });
await page.screenshot({
path: 'clip.png',
type: 'png',
clip: {
x: 100,
y: 80,
width: 500,
height: 300,
scale: 1
},
captureBeyondViewport: true
});
} finally {
await browser.close();
}Install Puppeteer with npm install puppeteer (or use the package and browser setup already present in your project). The official screenshot guide demonstrates navigating before calling page.screenshot(); its example uses waitUntil: 'networkidle2'. That wait condition is useful when you want most network activity to settle, but it is not a universal requirement: choose a readiness condition that matches the page you are capturing.
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What the rectangle means
xandyidentify the rectangle’s origin.widthandheightdefine its size.scaleis optional and defaults to1.- Use positive dimensions. A zero-sized or otherwise invalid rectangle cannot produce a useful image.
Keep the viewport fixed when you need repeatable output. Coordinates are interpreted by Puppeteer according to the installed release’s screenshot API; do not assume a particular device-pixel-ratio conversion without checking the documentation that matches your version.
Clipping content outside the initial viewport
Puppeteer documents captureBeyondViewport as false by default when no clip is supplied and true by default when a clip is supplied. Set it explicitly when the result must be stable across upgrades or when your rectangle reaches beyond the visible viewport, as in the example above. This makes your intent clear instead of relying on a conditional default.
Choose the correct capture method
| Need | Method | What it does | Important behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
| A fixed rectangular crop | page.screenshot({ clip }) |
Captures the coordinates and dimensions you provide. | You must calculate and maintain the rectangle. |
| A particular DOM element | elementHandle.screenshot() |
Captures the element’s rendered box. | Puppeteer scrolls the element into view when necessary; a detached element causes an error. |
| The entire document | page.screenshot({ fullPage: true }) |
Creates a full-page image rather than a coordinate crop. | fullPage defaults to false. |
Use a clip when the crop is part of a visual specification (for example, a 500-by-300 region at a known origin). Prefer an element screenshot when the target is semantic and its position changes with responsive layout, localization, or asynchronous content.
Capture an element without measuring coordinates
When the page already exposes a stable selector, let Puppeteer locate the element and take its screenshot. This avoids manually calculating a bounding rectangle.
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import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
try {
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com/dashboard', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });
const card = await page.$('[data-testid="sales-card"]');
if (!card) {
throw new Error('sales card was not found');
}
await card.screenshot({
path: 'sales-card.png',
type: 'png'
});
} finally {
await browser.close();
}Keep the element handle close to the screenshot call. Frameworks that re-render a component can replace the node between lookup and capture; in that case, obtain a fresh handle and try again. A selector that identifies one stable component is safer than a long chain of classes generated by a CSS-in-JS system.
Control the output format and destination
| Option | Default or rule | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
path |
No file is written when omitted. | Provide a filename when the screenshot should be saved directly to disk. The image type can be inferred from the extension. |
type |
PNG | Choose PNG, JPEG, or WebP when your installed Puppeteer release supports the format. |
encoding |
Binary | Use 'base64' when a string is easier to send through a JSON response; otherwise consume the returned binary data. |
quality |
Not used for PNG | Set a quality value for formats other than PNG when file size matters. |
omitBackground |
false |
Set to true to hide the default white background and permit transparency. |
fullPage |
false |
Use only for a full-document image, not a coordinate crop. |
captureBeyondViewport |
false without a clip; documented as true with a clip |
Set explicitly when the rectangle can extend outside the current viewport. |
Return bytes or base64 instead of a file
With no path, the screenshot method returns image data. The standard options overload returns a Uint8Array; adding encoding: 'base64' selects the base64-string overload.
const bytes = await page.screenshot({
clip: { x: 0, y: 0, width: 640, height: 360 },
type: 'webp'
});
// bytes is suitable for an HTTP response, object storage upload, or Buffer.from(bytes).const base64 = await page.screenshot({
encoding: 'base64',
clip: { x: 0, y: 0, width: 640, height: 360 }
});Build a reliable clipping workflow
- Pin the viewport. Call
page.setViewport()before navigation. A responsive breakpoint can move the target and invalidate hard-coded coordinates. - Navigate to the intended URL. Use an appropriate
waitUntilcondition. A network-idle event does not guarantee that a client-rendered chart, font, or image has finished painting. - Wait for the content that defines the crop. Wait for a selector, a known application state, or a deliberate delay after your page’s own rendering signal. Do not use a long arbitrary delay when a deterministic selector is available.
- Measure when layout is dynamic. Evaluate the target’s bounding box immediately before capture and pass those values to
clip. Re-measure after any action that can cause reflow. - Make the capture options explicit. Specify the output type, path or return mode, and
captureBeyondViewportrather than depending on defaults. - Close the browser in a
finallyblock. This prevents orphaned Chromium processes when navigation or screenshotting throws.
For a measured rectangle, this pattern reads the element’s box in the page and converts it to the clip fields expected by Puppeteer:
const box = await page.$eval('#invoice-total', (node) => {
const rect = node.getBoundingClientRect();
return { x: rect.x, y: rect.y, width: rect.width, height: rect.height };
});
await page.screenshot({
path: 'invoice-total.png',
clip: box,
captureBeyondViewport: true
});Measure and capture in the same stable page state. If an animation is still running, the box and pixels can disagree; disable the animation with page-specific CSS or wait for the application’s completed state.
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Troubleshooting clipped screenshots
The crop is blank or shows the wrong area
- Verify the viewport dimensions and the rectangle’s origin. A coordinate crop is not automatically tied to a selector.
- Wait for the component that paints the pixels, not just the initial HTML response.
- Check whether a cookie dialog, modal, sticky header, or consent layer is covering the intended region.
- If the rectangle lies outside the viewport, set
captureBeyondViewport: trueexplicitly.
Images or fonts are missing
Navigation completion and network idleness do not prove that every visual asset has been decoded and painted. Wait for a specific image or component, or have the page expose a ready flag that you can await. For fonts, wait for document.fonts.ready in a page evaluation when that is appropriate for your application.
The element screenshot throws because the node was detached
A framework re-render can invalidate an ElementHandle. Query the selector again after the render and capture the new handle. Avoid retaining handles across navigations.
The file is not created
When path is omitted, Puppeteer returns data instead of writing a file. When a path is supplied, ensure the parent directory exists and that the process has write permission. Use a filename extension that matches the requested type, or set type explicitly.
The output is unexpectedly large
PNG is lossless and is the documented default. For photographic or large full-page content, choose JPEG or WebP and set quality where supported. A smaller clip, a lower scale, or a controlled viewport also reduces bytes; balance that against the detail your reader needs.
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Code behaves differently after a Puppeteer upgrade
The reviewed official references are labeled Puppeteer versions 25.10.0 through 25.12.0. Screenshot defaults and option behavior are release-sensitive, so check the documentation matching the version in your lockfile. Keep explicit options in production code and add a visual regression check when upgrading.
Performance, reliability, and cost considerations
Performance
- Reuse a browser process for multiple pages or captures when your workload permits, but isolate pages so cookies and application state do not leak between jobs.
- Clip only the region you need. A full-page image can require more layout, rasterization, memory, and transfer time than a small rectangle.
- Use a selector wait or application-ready signal rather than an unnecessarily long fixed delay.
- Choose WebP or JPEG for bandwidth-sensitive pipelines; retain PNG when lossless edges, text, or transparency are important.
Reliability
- Use a deterministic viewport, URL, locale, timezone, and authentication state for repeatable results.
- Record the URL, Puppeteer version, clip values, output type, and wait condition with each job so a mismatch can be diagnosed.
- Retry navigation failures cautiously. Repeating a screenshot after a detached-element error without re-querying the element will not fix the cause.
- Set an outer job timeout and always close the page or browser in cleanup code.
Cost
Self-hosting Puppeteer means accounting for Chromium CPU, memory, storage, and execution time. The screenshot API itself has no separate Puppeteer charge, but your infrastructure and any browser-running service still incur their own costs. Measure your workload’s concurrency and image sizes before choosing a deployment model.
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open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);ScreenshotNeo also supports capturing one element by CSS selector, full-page captures with lazy images loaded, custom CSS and JavaScript, clicks before capture, waits for a selector, delay, or network idle, device presets and arbitrary viewports, dark mode, retina scale, request blocking, custom headers and cookies, timezone and geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, TTL-based caching, signed links, asynchronous jobs with signed webhooks, bulk capture of up to 100 URLs per call, a usage API, and an OpenAPI specification. Its parameter names are compatible with those used by other screenshot APIs, which can simplify migration. An MCP server exposes take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf to Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients.
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| Plan | Included shots | Price |
|---|---|---|
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FAQ
Does an element screenshot work when the element is below the fold?
Yes. Puppeteer’s element screenshot method scrolls the target into view when needed before invoking the page screenshot operation. It still fails if the element handle has been detached from the DOM, so query it again after a framework re-render.
Which Puppeteer documentation should I use for these defaults?
Use the reference that matches the Puppeteer version installed in your project. The reviewed screenshot references are labeled 25.10.0 through 25.12.0, and screenshot option defaults can change between releases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an element screenshot work when the element is below the fold?
Yes. Puppeteer scrolls the target into view before capturing it; obtain a fresh handle if the page re-rendered and detached the original node.
Which Puppeteer documentation should I use for these defaults?
Check the reference matching the version in your lockfile. The references covered here are labeled 25.10.0 through 25.12.0, and screenshot behavior is release-sensitive.
Quick Recap
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