The macosxhints Rating:

[Score: 9 out of 10]

• Developer: John Haney / [Product Page]
  
• Price: Free

Do you take screenshots? Lots of screenshots, for publication on the web or in print? Do you get tired of playing the "setup everything" dance every time you need a screenshot? You know the game; change your desktop image to something bland and acceptable, move your desktop icons out of the way, make sure just the right windows for the chosen application are visible, etc. It's a very time-consuming and annoying process.

Enter Backdrop. With Backdrop running, you get a desktop-covering borderless window as a backdrop for all your screenshots. You can control the color of the backdrop, or even specify an image to use as the backdrop (and whether to center, stretch, or tile that image). You can also specify where the backdrop itself "floats." If you specify "In between," then your backdrop is just another application window. If you choose "Behind icons," then your backdrop becomes your desktop image.

The only annoyance I have with Backdrop is that it has a dock icon when running. If you're taking Dock screenshots that require a backdrop, this is a pain -- you'll have to Photoshop the final result if you don't want the Backdrop icon visible. You can avoid this by modifying the info.plist file within the application package (as described in this really old hint (ignore the Panther Broken bit; it now seems to work again as expected; I just tested it myself). However, if you make this modification, then you cannot access Backdrop's preferences, and you have to quit it via Activity Monitor or the Terminal. It'd be great if it was a true faceless background app with some method of accessing its prefs (System Preferences panel, contextual menu, etc.).

Other than the dock icon issue, I love Backdrop -- it saves me quite a bit of time whenever I need screenshots for the site, book, or some publication.