imagesnap ☆

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Description:
Tool to capture still images from an iSight or other video source

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Multimedia

Tags: camera imaging cli macos capture

Install: brew install imagesnap

About:
Imagesnap is a command-line utility designed to capture single frames from video input devices on macOS, such as built-in iSight cameras or external USB webcams. It allows users to save these snapshots to files in various formats, providing a lightweight and scriptable solution for image acquisition. The tool is particularly useful for automation and integration into larger workflows where visual data capture is required.

Key Features:

Captures still images from any macOS-compatible video source
Command-line interface for easy scripting and automation
Supports multiple image output formats
Can list available video devices on the system

Use Cases:

Automated security camera snapshots or timelapse creation
Scripting image capture for scientific data logging
Quickly capturing a photo from the command line for documentation

Alternatives:

ffmpeg – A much more comprehensive multimedia framework that can also capture video and audio, but is significantly larger and more complex.
AppleScript – Can control the built-in camera via system APIs but is less portable and harder to integrate into non-Apple scripting environments.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 14, 2024 6:13am		0	VERSION_BUMP	e7083323