How to Take a Screenshot of an Element with Python and Selenium

Sometimes you may want to capture a screenshot of just a specific element on a webpage—like a button, image, or a specific div—instead of the entire page. With Python and Selenium, this is not only possible but straightforward.

Requirements

• Python installed
• Selenium installed (pip install selenium)
• A WebDriver for your browser (like ChromeDriver)

Code Example

Here's a simple script that opens a webpage, finds an element by its ID, and takes a screenshot of that element:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
import time

# Set up the WebDriver (you can replace with Firefox or Edge)
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

# Load a webpage
driver.get("https://example.com")

# Wait for the page to fully load (can be adjusted or replaced with WebDriverWait)
time.sleep(3)

# Find the element you want to capture
element = driver.find_element(By.ID, "element-id")

# Save screenshot of that element
element.screenshot("element_screenshot.png")

print("Screenshot saved as 'element_screenshot.png'.")

# Quit the browser
driver.quit()

Things to Note

• The element.screenshot() method only works on visible elements.
• You can use other selectors like By.CLASS_NAME, By.XPATH, or By.CSS_SELECTOR.
• If the image file seems broken or blank, ensure the element is actually rendered and not hidden with CSS.

Use Cases

This technique is useful for:

• Automated testing (e.g., capturing UI states)
• Monitoring layout changes visually
• Creating visual documentation or bug reports

Conclusion

Capturing just a portion of a web page is incredibly useful, and with Python + Selenium, it's just a few lines of code. Use this method to streamline your automation and reporting workflows!