Video Frame Grabber

How to save a frame from a video

1. Drop a video on the box above, or click it to choose a file. MP4 and WebM work in every browser.
2. Play the video or drag the Position slider to the moment you want. The time is shown to the millisecond.
3. Fine-tune with ◀ Previous frame and Next frame ▶, which move exactly one frame back or forward.
4. Choose the Image format: PNG (lossless) or JPG (smaller).
5. Press Capture frame. The frame appears below at the video’s full resolution, with its time and size. Press Download to save it.

Capturing several frames at once

In Several frames at once, set One image every (seconds), and optionally From and To to limit the range (the whole video is selected by default). The line next to the button tells you how many images that makes. Press Capture and download ZIP: the tool jumps to each moment, captures the frame and packs all the images in a single ZIP file, named after their time in the video (for example clip-1m05.250s.png). Up to 300 images per ZIP; a Cancel button stops the process.

How it works

The video is played by your browser’s own decoder, exactly as in any web page, from a local file link: it is not uploaded and not even copied into memory, so large files are fine. When you capture, the frame currently displayed is drawn onto a canvas at the video’s native resolution (for example 1920 × 1080 for a full HD video, whatever the size of the preview on screen) and encoded as PNG or JPG.

Frame stepping needs the frame rate, which a video file doesn’t expose to web pages. The tool measures it while the video plays, by timing the frames the browser actually presents (with the requestVideoFrameCallback API), and snaps it to a standard rate such as 23.976, 25, 29.97, 30, 50 or 60 fps. Until you have played the video for a moment, 30 fps is assumed. Each step aims at the middle of the next frame, so rounding never lands twice on the same image.

PNG or JPG?

• PNG (lossless) keeps the frame exactly as decoded, with no additional loss. Choose it for screenshots of text, user interfaces, or images you’ll edit further. A full HD PNG usually weighs 1 to 4 MB.
• JPG (smaller) is saved at quality 92: visually identical for photos and film scenes, typically 5 to 10 times lighter than PNG. Choose it for thumbnails, sharing or large batches.

Keep in mind that a video frame is already compressed: a frame from a streaming-quality video will never be as sharp as a real photograph, and frames during fast motion are often blurred. Stepping a few frames forward or back frequently finds a sharper one.

Limits

Only formats your browser can play are supported. MP4 (H.264) and WebM play everywhere, MOV from iPhones usually works, and HEVC (H.265) depends on your system. AVI, WMV or many MKV files can’t be read: convert them first, for example with the video compressor. Protected streaming videos (DRM) can’t be captured.