Free Video Frame Extractor

A screenshot copies what is on your screen. The picture is the size of the player window, it may include buttons and overlays, and it has been scaled to fit. A frame taken from the video itself is the picture as it was stored, at the video's own width and height.

That makes a saved frame sharper and cleaner, and the right shape for a thumbnail, a cover or a reference image. A 1080p video gives a 1080p picture, whatever size your window is.

The tool takes the frame from the same player you are looking at, so the picture shown above is the one you get. The video is read in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

PNG is lossless: the picture is saved exactly as it is, and the file is larger. Choose it for a cover, a poster or anything you will edit further, because saving a PNG again never adds loss.

JPG is lossy but much smaller. At the high fixed quality the tool uses, the difference is hard to see on a photo-like frame, and the file is easy to share or upload. Text and sharp edges, such as subtitles, show JPG's compression most.

A video frame has already been through the video's own compression, so neither format can add detail the video never had.

Frame rate is how many pictures a video shows each second. Film is often 24, many web videos are 30, and smooth footage is 60. One frame lasts one over the frame rate: about 41.7 milliseconds at 24, 33.3 at 30 and 16.7 at 60.

The Previous and Next frame buttons move by exactly one frame, using the frame rate the tool reads from the video. If it can't read one, it assumes 30. The arrow keys move by a tenth of a second, which suits getting close first.

Moving things blur between frames, so the frame just before or after the peak of the action can be much sharper. Step a few frames either way before you save.