Paparazzi! Is this one of the perfect Mac apps?

I’m not so popular that I worry about neighborhood Paparazzi when I head down to Wal-Mart for a new load of diapers, or out to Taco Bell for lunch.

But on my Mac, Paparazzi! rules.

I love Mac applications that do exactly what you expect. What would you expect of a new Mac app called Paparazzi? It takes pictures, right?

Just like the real paparazzi, the photographers that hound movie stars and celebrities and Bambi Hambi when she goes out for dinner.

Speaking of the aforementioned Ms. Hambi, don’t let her beauty fool you. It’s not that she’s not smart, though that and blonde are not often seen together.

It’s her tendency to mix beauty and brawn in a way that sounds pleasant and enjoyable but with a hint of potential retribution.

My case in point is Mac360. Where’d everybody go? Tera remains very ill, Bambi was out for the longest time, Jack and Carol were bicycling in Europe, and I’m doing daily runs to Wal-Mart for diapers because baby has daily runs, too.

Jack and Carol decided to stick around for the Tour-de-France and gete a glimpse of Lance Armstrong, who’s obviously on TV more these days than Sheryl Crow in days past.

Bambi wants a vacation away from Las Vegas after being on the road for almost two months, so I’m supposed to pick up the slack or be called a slacker.

Bambi: Alex, can you help us out? We need some articles on Mac360.
Alexis: Bambi, it’s not like I’m not busy. Wal-Mart only sells the diapers.

Bambi: You know what they tell college professors, right?
Alexis: Is this going to hurt you more than me?

Bambi: Publish or perish. That’s what they say.
Alexis: I get the idea… Nice talking to you, too, honey.

This is forced servitude with a twist.

Yet, it’s a labor of love; we’re certainly not in this for the money, which is what makes it all that much more fun when you seen a nifty new Mac application that does something cool, something needed, and doesn’t cost much.

Enter, Paparazzi! for the Mac. Don’t ask me why I missed this one; it’s been out since spring. Maybe it had something to do with the earlier mentioned watermelon growing in my abdomen last spring; said melon miraculously transforming itself into a screaching child at a hospital where they charge $10 for two Bayer aspirin.

I could have spent thousands on aspirin alone, though my Bose noise cancelling headset came in handy. You know, you don’t need to use those on an airplane. They’re great when children are near by.

Paparazzi on the Mac is an application, a utility that makes screenshots of web pages. Big whoop, right? Ah ah, not so fast. Yes, you can use your Mac’s built-in key combinations to take a screen snapshot (who knows what the keystroke combinations are for taking snapshots?), but that wouldn’t be as much fun.

What happens when you have a web page in Safari that’s actually longer than your Mac’s screen? After all, most Mac screens are wider than they are long, and most web pages are longer than they are wide.

What will you do? What WILL you do? (my apologies to the estate of the late Karl Malden).

That’s exactly what Paparazzi! does. It takes screen shots of the web page. The whole web page. Top to bottom. Even is said web page is longer than your screen, there’s no need to scroll down.

Have no fear, Paparazzi is here (my apologies to Underdog fans everywhere).

All you have to do is launch Paparazzi!, fill in the URL and a minimum size, and click the Capture button. Paparazzi grabs the entire web page and creates an image of the page, top to bottom.

The image can then be saved as a JPG, or PNG, or TIFF, or PDF (your size may vary). That’s it. Instant web page graphic. The whole page, and nothing but the whole page.

It just works. Is that cool, or what? Great application, great name, great price. Perfect. Almost. It’s 2006, so let’s get rid of that brushed aluminum look and go for the more trendy plastic platinum that’s all the rage.

Click here for a look at Paparazzi. Did I mention that it’s free?