Is there a way to automatically take a screenshot of a website through a URL?

I am trying to find a PHP script (or a script in a different language) 开发者_开发技巧that after passing a URL, it takes a screenshot of the website for that URL. So for example if I pass stackoverflow.com, it should take a screen shot of the website (in this case the homepage), keep it on the server, and provide a link to that pic.

Is there an easy way to do that?

I know it is possible because that's how they take thumbnails for websites in Alexa for example.

If you need more explanation of what I mean please just post a comment and I will explain more.

Thank you :)

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Start a Browser (like system("firefox [url]")), run a screengrabber for that window and save the image somewhere.

Since the output is always depending on the render engine used it is not possible by using php alone.

Other option would be to embed a rendering engine (Gecko or similar) into your php script.

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You can use browsershots.org service or litmusapp.com. Both of these will generate screenshot of a page. You can then download the screenshot and use it in a way you need to.

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Something like Litmus?

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Browsershots normally has their backend source code available, but as of this answer, it appears to be offline at the moment. There is an outdated mirror on Github which you can look at.