Annotated Screenshot Burner
A trade journal built from screenshots is only useful if each image can be identified without opening MT4 and cross-checking the timestamp. A plain Ctrl+Alt+S capture gives you the chart and nothing else - no symbol, no account, no note about what the setup was supposed to be. Adding that information later, by hand, in an image editor, is the step most journals quietly stop doing after a week. This script draws a compact header bar directly on the chart - symbol, timeframe, server date and time, account number and an optional free-text setup tag such as "A+ pullback" or "revenge trade, skip next time" - then calls the chart screenshot function so the header is part of the saved pixels, not a chart object that only exists inside MT4. By default the header is removed again immediately after the shot, leaving the live chart exactly as it was; an input can keep it in place instead. The screenshot call itself only queues the capture rather than writing the file synchronously, which is easy to get wrong: a script that deletes its own header the instant the call returns can race the actual render and ship an image with a half-drawn or missing header. This script polls for the file's appearance on disk before removing anything, closing that gap. Notes and limitations - The screenshot captures whatever the chart currently displays. If price action or another indicator is drawing over the header's screen area, that is captured as-is - move or resize the header inputs if it clashes with something else pinned to the same corner. - The header only ever affects two objects, both prefixed "asb_", and InpKeepAnnotation aside, cleanup only ever touches those two - nothing else on the chart is read or modified. - If the terminal or chart window is minimised, the queued screenshot can fail to appear; the script waits up to roughly three seconds before reporting that the file never showed up.
Script · MT5 · v1.0 · Free
About Annotated Screenshot Burner
Annotated Screenshot Burner is a script for MetaTrader 5. It can alert you with a pop-up, sound, email or push message. It has 7 settings, such as Setup tag, Bar colour and Text colour. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: AnnotatedScreenshotBurner.ex5, AnnotatedScreenshotBurner.mq5, AnnotatedScreenshotBurner.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Setup tag | Free-text setup/mistake tag, e.g. "A+ pullback" | |
| Bar colour | clrBlack | Header background colour |
| Text colour | clrWhite | Header text colour |
| Font size | 10 | Header text font size |
| Keep annotation | false | Leave the header on the chart after the screenshot |
| Image width | 1024 | Screenshot width in pixels |
| Image height | 640 | Screenshot height in pixels |
How to install
- Download the ZIP from your PolyMaria library and unzip it.
- In MetaTrader 5 open File → Open Data Folder, then go to MQL5 → Scripts.
- Copy the .mq5 file(s) there. Put any .mqh files in MQL5 → Include.
- Open the .mq5 file in MetaEditor and press Compile (F7) if MetaTrader does not show it.
- Drag the script onto a chart to run it once.
Tags: Alerts · MT5 Script · MQL5 Source Code