HMI screens do not convert to presentation slides. Capture each screen as a picture: turn the editor grid off, snip the screen area, crop to the canvas, save as PNG and insert the picture at its native pixel size. A capture shows the drawn screen only, so no live tag values or alarm states survive it.
An HMI screen cannot be converted into a presentation slide. The screen lives as objects inside the editor's project file, and slide software reads pictures, so the working path is to capture each screen as an image and place the images on slides. A capture takes a few minutes per screen and needs only the editor, Windows and an image editor. Accept one thing up front: the picture shows what the editor draws, so no live tag values, alarm banners or button states come with it. This page walks through the capture, the crop, the file format, the way the picture lands on a slide, and the checks to run before you present.
What a capture keeps and what it loses
A capture is a snapshot of the design-time view. Every object is drawn exactly as the editor last drew it: a motor stays gray, a batch value stays at its default, an alarm banner stays hidden. The live colors come from controller tags at runtime, which is how PLC-driven HMI graphics represent equipment states, and none of that reaches a picture file. A capture also misses anything that only exists in the runtime, such as pop-up windows, login dialogs or the current date and time. Use the pictures for documentation, training decks and project reviews. When a slide has to show an alarm or a fault state, draw that state in the editor on a copy of the screen and capture the copy.
What you need
- The programming software's screen editor, open on the project.
- Windows, for the snipping shortcuts.
- An image editor; Paint ships with Windows and handles the paste and crop.
- Slide software such as PowerPoint, or any similar presentation tool.
- For large projects, a printer driver that writes a graphics file for each page printed.
Capture one screen in five steps
- Turn the editor grid off. The grid is an overlay that helps you place objects, and the panel itself never draws it, but in a snip it shows as dots or lines across the picture. The switch lives in the editor's view or display settings. Exported image files pick up the same dots, which getting clean HMI screen images when export keeps grid dots covers in depth.
- Bring the screen forward. Open the screen you want, with no dialog, palette or taskbar over the drawing area.
- Snip it. Press Win+Shift+S and drag a rectangle around the screen drawing on Windows 10 or 11, or press Alt+Print Screen to copy the whole editor window to the clipboard. Plain Print Screen copies the entire desktop, which means more crop later.
- Paste and crop. Paste into the image editor and crop tight to the screen boundary. Keep the same rectangle shape for every screen so all slides hold one frame.
- Save and name. Save as PNG. Name the files in navigation order, screen01, screen02 and on, so the slide sequence matches how an operator steps through the panels.
Check: zoom to 100% in the image editor. No grid marks inside the screen area, and the smallest text stays legible.
Example: fitting a capture to a slide
Say the screen was drawn on an 800 x 600 px editor canvas, a common small-panel size. The default widescreen slide in PowerPoint is 13.33 x 7.5 in. With Windows display scaling at 100%, slides place pictures at 96 px per inch, so the capture lands at 800 / 96 = 8.33 in wide and 600 / 96 = 6.25 in tall. That leaves 5.0 in of spare width and 1.25 in of spare height for a heading, so the picture fits as placed, at every pixel it owns.
At 150% Windows display scaling the same file inserts at 800 / 144 = 5.56 in wide and 600 / 144 = 4.17 in tall, because the software then assumes 144 px per inch. The pixels are identical; only the placed size moves. Dragging the picture wider than 8.33 in spreads each pixel over more screen dots and softens the text, so scale down when a slide runs short of room.
Now the room. A projector throwing a 60 in wide image shows all 800 px across 60 in, which is 60 / 800 = 0.075 in per capture pixel. A 12 px capital label measures 12 x 0.075 = 0.90 in on the screen. The planning figure for capital letter height is 30 ft of viewing distance per inch, the FHWA signage rule, so those labels read from 0.90 x 30 = 27 ft. With a back row at 30 ft, the labels need 30 / 30 = 1.0 in on the screen, which is 1.0 / 0.075 = 13.3 px, so draw them at 14 px in the editor and capture again.
Which file format to save
Save PNG. It is lossless, it keeps flat colors and sharp text edges, and the files stay a reasonable size.
| Format | Behavior on HMI graphics | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| PNG | Lossless, sharp text, moderate file size | Always, as the default |
| BMP | Lossless but uncompressed: 3 bytes per pixel at 24-bit color, about 1.4 MB for 800 x 600 px | When a tool in the chain refuses PNG |
| GIF | Lossless inside a 256-color palette, small files | Flat-color screens with no gradients |
| JPG | Lossy, leaves smudges along text edges | Only under a hard file-size limit |
JPG throws detail away on every save, and text edges are the first thing it smudges. A comparison of BMP, JPEG and GIF image formats in HMI software shows how each format holds up inside real projects.
Many screens: print each one to a graphics file
Snipping works screen by screen. A project with 40 or 50 screens justifies a printer driver that writes a graphics file for each page printed. Pick the file-writing driver as the printer inside the screen editor, print the screens you need, and each one lands in the output folder as an image ready to insert. Pages come out consistent, which keeps crop and placement identical across the deck.
Check the driver before you commit to it: print one screen, snip the same screen, and compare resolution and layout. Keep the driver output only if it matches or beats the snip.
Check the deck before you present
- Count the slides against the screens in the project so nothing is missing.
- Confirm every picture has the same crop size and sits in the same position on its slide, so the deck does not jump.
- Run the slideshow full screen on the presentation computer, whose display scaling differs from yours and changes how big the pictures land, as the example above shows.
- Keep the source captures in a folder beside the deck. A screen change then costs one re-capture and one image swap.
The short version
Recommendation: For a deck of fewer than about 20 screens, snip each one with Win+Shift+S, crop to the editor canvas and save PNG, then insert at the native placed size, 8.33 in wide for an 800 x 600 px canvas. Set up a print-to-graphics-file driver once the project has more screens than you want to snip one at a time. Scale a picture down when a slide runs short of room, never up, and run the finished slideshow on the presentation computer before the meeting.
Questions
Can I capture screens from the running panel instead of the editor?
Sometimes. Many panel makers document a screenshot function in the runtime; where yours has one, it is the better source, because the running screen shows the live values and alarm states the editor view lacks. Look for it in the panel's own documentation first. If no screenshot function is documented, capture in the editor and draw the states you need onto a copy of the screen.
What capture size does a projector or large screen need?
Match or beat the display's pixel grid. A projector or panel with 1920 x 1080 pixels shows an 800 x 600 capture sharp at its native size, with borders around it; filling the frame means stretching 800 px over 1920 screen dots, which softens text. When a small canvas has to fill a high-resolution display, redraw the screen on a larger canvas in the editor and capture again.
Why is the text sharp in the editor but soft in the deck?
Check two things in order. First, the file format: JPG saves with detail thrown away, so re-save the capture as PNG. Second, the placed size: a picture dragged past its native placed size spreads each pixel over more screen dots. Set the width back to the native figure, 8.33 in for an 800 x 600 px canvas, and scale only down from there.
Planning information, not legal or engineering advice. Rules differ by place: check codes and permits with your local authority and your licensed trades.