How to programmatically take a screenshot on Android?

Call this method, passing in the outer most ViewGroup that you want a screen shot of:

public Bitmap screenShot(View view) {
    Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getWidth(),
            view.getHeight(), Config.ARGB_8888);
    Canvas canvas = new Canvas(bitmap);
    view.draw(canvas);
    return bitmap;
}

No root permission or no big coding is required for this method.

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On adb shell using below command you can take screen shot.

input keyevent 120

This command does not required any root permission so same you can perform from java code of android application also.

Process process;
process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("input keyevent 120");

More about keyevent code in android see http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html

Here we have used. KEYCODE_SYSRQ its value is 120 and used for System Request / Print Screen key.

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As CJBS said, The output picture will be saved in /sdcard/Pictures/Screenshots

Note: works only for rooted phone

Programmatically, you can run adb shell /system/bin/screencap -p /sdcard/img.png as below

Process sh = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su", null,null);
OutputStream os = sh.getOutputStream();
os.write(("/system/bin/screencap -p " + "/sdcard/img.png").getBytes("ASCII"));
os.flush();
os.close();
sh.waitFor();    

then read img.png as Bitmap and use as your wish.

Here is the code that allowed my screenshot to be stored on an SD card and used later for whatever your needs are:

First, you need to add a proper permission to save the file:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

And this is the code (running in an Activity):

private void takeScreenshot() {
    Date now = new Date();
    android.text.format.DateFormat.format("yyyy-MM-dd_hh:mm:ss", now);

    try {
        // image naming and path  to include sd card  appending name you choose for file
        String mPath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString() + "/" + now + ".jpg";

        // create bitmap screen capture
        View v1 = getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();
        v1.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
        Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(v1.getDrawingCache());
        v1.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false);

        File imageFile = new File(mPath);

        FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(imageFile);
        int quality = 100;
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, quality, outputStream);
        outputStream.flush();
        outputStream.close();

        openScreenshot(imageFile);
    } catch (Throwable e) {
        // Several error may come out with file handling or DOM
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

And this is how you can open the recently generated image:

private void openScreenshot(File imageFile) {
    Intent intent = new Intent();
    intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
    Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(imageFile);
    intent.setDataAndType(uri, "image/*");
    startActivity(intent);
}

If you want to use this on fragment view then use:

View v1 = getActivity().getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();

instead of

View v1 = getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();

on takeScreenshot() function

Note:

This solution doesn't work if your dialog contains a surface view. For details please check the answer to the following question:

Android Take Screenshot of Surface View Shows Black Screen