---
title: Screen
description: Screenshots, display geometry, and resizing the coordinate space.
---

## Screenshot

<CodeGroup>

```ts TypeScript
const shot = await machine.screen.screenshot({ format: "png" });
shot.image; // base64
shot.display.width; // the geometry it was captured at
```

```python Python
shot = machine.screen.screenshot(format="png")
shot["image"]              # base64
shot["display"]["width"]   # the geometry it was captured at
```

</CodeGroup>

`format` is `png`, `jpeg` or `webp`, and `quality` applies to the lossy two. The image comes back
base64 with the display it was taken at **alongside it**, so a result is self-describing and a
coordinate can be checked against the frame that produced it.

Reads need no [input lease](/docs/sdk/input#the-input-lease).

## Display

<CodeGroup>

```ts TypeScript
const display = await machine.screen.display();
display.width;
display.height;
display.up;
```

```python Python
display = machine.screen.display()
display["width"], display["height"], display["up"]
```

</CodeGroup>

`up` is what [`waitForDesktop`](/docs/sdk/machines#running-is-not-ready) polls. Before the
desktop answers, this route raises `compute_unavailable`.

## Resize

<CodeGroup>

```ts TypeScript
await machine.screen.resize(1920, 1080);
```

```python Python
machine.screen.resize(1920, 1080)
```

</CodeGroup>

**Resize really resizes.** The display server cannot do it in place, so the machine restarts the
display and says so in the response. Reporting a new size while every subsequent screenshot came
back at the old one would be worse than refusing.

That means a screenshot taken before a resize is **stale for clicking**. Take a fresh one:

<CodeGroup>

```ts TypeScript
await machine.screen.resize(1920, 1080);
const shot = await machine.screen.screenshot({ format: "png" });
await machine.mouse.click({ at: { x: 960, y: 540 } });
```

```python Python
machine.screen.resize(1920, 1080)
shot = machine.screen.screenshot(format="png")
machine.mouse.click(at={"x": 960, "y": 540})
```

</CodeGroup>

Resizing is an input action and takes the lease.

## Live frames

For continuous frames rather than one at a time, see [streams](/docs/sdk/streams).