Most of the times we need to take screenshot of the whole screen or part of the window on the screen. While on Android or iOS, you can also do it with the click of a button, here on Linux, we have special tools that make taking screenshots easier, giving you flexibility on both full screen and part of the screen.
Some of these tools are not only meant for taking screenshots, but also for editing the image, adjusting borders, depth, color and much more by capturing the screen of a particular application or an entire window.
There are many open source tools in the market for this purpose and they are easily available on Ubuntu Linux system, we will focus on some of them which are both popular and flexible when it comes to the features they provide.
1. Shutter
You can easily install shutter on Ubuntu or Linux Mint with the help of apt-get command as shown:
$ sudo apt-get install shutter
To take a screenshot using the shutter, open a new session by launching the shutter app or simply select the window to capture from the shutter icon in the notification bar.
2. Image magick
One of the powerful open source tools for editing, converting and viewing image files in more than 200 image formats. It includes, in addition to taking screenshots of the selected portion of the screen, a rich set of commands for editing and transforming images.
In addition to the command line, imagemagick also includes a native X-window graphical interface for Unix systems that helps simplify image rendering. Licensed under the Apache 2.0 license, Imagemagick offers a number of plugins for various languages such as: PerlMagick (Perl), Magickcore (C), Magick++ (C++) to name a few.
Using imagemagick, you can take screenshots in the following ways:
This command takes a screenshot of the entire screen with all currently active windows.
$ import -window root image1.png
Running this command converts the mouse pointer into a crosshair cursor which can be used to select any area of the screen and take the screenshot of that part.
# import calc.png
3. Gnome screenshots
Another tool to capture screenshots is gnome-screenshot , is the default tool that comes with Ubuntu on the gnome desktop environment. It was initially the part of the GNOME utils package, but was later separated into its own version independent package 3.3.1 .
Like the tools above, it's also so powerful that it can take screenshots of the whole screen or part of the screen as needed.
Below are ways to take screenshots using gnome-screenshot:
One way to take a screenshot is to use the Shift + PrtScr shortcut which changes the mouse pointer into a crosshair, using which you can select the part of the screen you want to screenshot.
Using the GUI you can also take a screenshot. For this just open the GUI and select one of the following options: - Select an area to grab, Grab the whole screen or Grab the current window. Accordingly any requirement can be achieved.
4. I say
Kazam It is a multifunctional tool that can be used for both video recording and screen capture. Like Gnome screenshot, it also has a GUI that provides a list of options, both for screencasting, for taking a screenshot, and for that too, either for the whole area or for a part of it.
It was the first secreencaster with on-the-fly screenshot and tagging capabilities. Also, it has a silent mode, where it starts without a GUI.
Ways to take screenshot using kazam:
GUI mode allows you to take screenshots with the click of a button. Just select any of the four options there i.e. Full Screen, All Screens, Window, Area and select Capture. For area selection, it will let you select the specific area and press Submit to capture.
5. The Gimp
Gimp is a free and open source image editor that can be used to manipulate, edit, resize, retouch images, etc. It is written in C, GTK+ and distributed under the GPLv3 license. It is highly extensible and expandable and implemented with the use of scripting interface.
Besides being an image editing program, Gimp has the ability to take full or half area screenshots and then edit the image accordingly by adding effects to it.
When you will open the Gimp GUI, navigate to Fillet - & gt; Crea screenshot and this menu will appear and you can select the option you want, whether to take screenshots of all or part of the screen.
After this, the created image snap will be available on the GUI for editing, where you can edit the image, apply effects and so on.
6. Deepin Scrotum
Deepin scrot is a lightweight screen capture application used in Linux Deepin OS , which allows you to add text, arrows, lines and drawings on the screenshot. It is much more powerful than the tool Gnome and much lighter than Shutter .
- Full screen capture (PrintScreen)
- Capture screenshot of window under cursor (Alt+PrintScreen)
- Rectangular Region and Freehand Region (Ctrl+Alt+A)
- Delay capture of Full Screen (Ctrl+PrintScreen)
- Take screenshot of a selected area
- Draw rectangle, elipse, arrow, line or text to screenshot
- Save screenshot to file or clipboard
7. ScreenCloud
ScreenCloud is a free, open source, simple, easy to use, cross-platform tool for taking and sharing screenshots. Works on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
- Supports easy sharing.
- Allows you to save or upload screenshots.
- Supports addition of an FTP server.
- Comes with a system tray for quick access and more.
8. Flameshot
Flameshot is a free, open source, simple yet powerful application for taking screenshots. It supports keyboard shortcuts and is fully configurable via GUI or command line.
- Ity’s easy to use and comes with fully customizable user interface.
- Comes with a DBus interface.
- Supports in-app screenshot edition.
- Allows you to upload screenshots to Imgur.
- Supports a system tray and more.
9. Appearance
Lookit is also a free and open source tool for quickly taking and uploading screenshots on Ubuntu.
- Supports right-clicking on the dock icon to take a screenshot.
- Allows you to capture a selected area on your screen, entire screen, or active window.
- Allows quickly uploading screenshots to an FTP/SSH server, or shared on Imgur and more.
10. Entertainment
Spectacle is another easy-to-use tool for taking screenshots on the desktop. It can capture the entire desktop, a single monitor, the currently active window, the window currently under the mouse, or a rectangular portion of the screen.
- Launch in GUI mode (default)
- Capture a screenshot and exit without showing the GUI
- Start in DBus-Activation mode
- Save image to given file format in background mode
- Wait for a click before taking screenshot
Conclusion
Here we have listed some easily available and feature-rich tools for taking screenshots on Linux system Ubuntu . There may be many more that some of you may prefer. If you have any other tools in your list, please share it with us in your comments.
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