About a month ago I switched from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to Arch and I'm quite happy with this decision. However, I miss some features with my new distro, especially Shift+printscr which in Unity allows selection of a screen region to be captured.
I use i3 WM. So, my question is: how can I configure Unity-like screenshot behaviour to be able to snap screen regions or windows with a keyboard shortcut or something (without digging into window id and console stuff)?
You can use import, part of ImageMagick.
Capture a region
This will change your cursor into a crosshair and when you click and drag to form a box, that box will be saved as ss.png.
import ss.png Capture whole display
import -window root ss.png You can also replace the word root with the window id to capture a specific window.
import ss.png in order to take a screenshot of that window. bindsym $mod+shift+s exec import ~/screenshot.png to your config. Doesn't do anything for me. bindsym --release Print exec import ~/screenshot.png. Check here for explanation as to why i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html Print stands for printscr key. That's just the personal keybinding I use. It's been a long time since I'd asked this question and it looks like it's helpful for some of the users. So I provide my own script for making screenshots with xclip and imagemagick packages.
First of all, install the above mentioned dependencies. Then you can do whatever you want with the script below. It supports making a screenshot of a whole screen or a screen region and also it automatically copies a screenshot to a clipboard so you can paste it everywhere (e.i browser or Telegram messenger).
A couple of not so hard to come up with hacks would add a support for capturing specific windows and toggle copying part.
#!/usr/bin/env bash # screenshots stuff # TODO: docs function help_and_exit { if [ -n "${1}" ]; then echo "${1}" fi cat <<-EOF Usage: scregcp [-h|-s] [<screenshots_base_folder>] Take screenshot of a whole screen or a specified region, save it to a specified folder (current folder is default) and copy it to a clipboard. -h - print help and exit -s - take a screenshot of a screen region EOF if [ -n "${1}" ]; then exit 1 fi exit 0 } if [ "${1}" == '-h' ]; then help_and_exit elif [ "${1:0:1}" == '-' ]; then if [ "${1}" != '-s' ]; then help_and_exit "error: unknown option ${1}" fi base_folder="${2}" else base_folder="${1}" params="-window root" fi file_path=${base_folder}$( date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S' )_screenshot.png import ${params} ${file_path} xclip -selection clipboard -target image/png -i < ${file_path} And here is my reference shortcuts for an i3wm to make use of this script:
# take a screenshot of a screen region and copy it to a clipboard bindsym --release Shift+Print exec "scregcp -s /home/ddnomad/pictures/screenshots/" # take a screenshot of a whole window and copy it to a clipboard bindsym --release Print exec "scregcp /home/ddnomad/pictures/screenshots/" Flameshot is a decent alternative.
bindsym Print exec flameshot full bindsym Shift+Print exec flameshot gui You can use option -p /path/to/directory to skip selecting the save directory.
You can edit config in here ~/.config/i3/config and reload the config using i3-msg reload.
have you tried scrot a, simple commandline screen capture utility
ref., : https://faq.i3wm.org/question/202/what-do-you-guys-use-for-printscreen/
First, install xclip, imagemagick and jq!
pacman -S imagemagick jq xclip I have this line in my i3 config:
bindsym $mod+Print exec \ import -window $( \ i3-msg -t get_tree | \ jq 'recurse(.nodes[]) | select(.focused).window' \ ) png:- | \ xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png This will put a screenshot of the active window on your clipboard when you press mod (Window / Alt) + Printscreen.
i3-msg -t get-tree gets all windows from i3 as json, then we use jq to get the window id of the focussed window. We pass it to imagemagicks import command and pipe the result to xclip who will put it on the clipboard!
Use maim. It's more actively developed and depends on slop which is way better.
Don't use scrot. Its selection box corrupts and leaves an impression in the screenshot (also the box deforms when resizing) when used over an updating window (say htop).
I like shutter for its post-processing capabilities (hand-drawn red circles!) and comprehensive configuration options.
You can grab a screen region by running
shutter --select You can set up key bindings in .config/i3/config like so:
bindsym Print exec shutter --full bindsym Shift+Print exec shutter --select It takes a second to load, so you may want to autostart it in the background:
exec shutter --min_at_startup Shutter will be accessible via a tray icon then, which gives you many useful options beyond the above.
Slightly edited the solution by @ddnomad above, here's the bash version of the script with more explicity and another flag that allows saving only to clipboard.
#! /bin/bash - help_and_exit() { cat <<-EOF Usage: scregcp [-h|-s|-c] [<screenshots_base_folder>] Take screenshot of a whole screen or a specified region, save it to a specified folder (current folder is default) and copy it to a clipboard. -h - print help and exit -s - take a screenshot of a screen region -c - save only to clipboard EOF exit 0 } base_folder="./" savefile=true region=false params="-window root" while test $# -gt 0; do case "$1" in -h|--help*) help_and_exit ;; -r|--region*) params="" shift ;; -c|--clipboard-only*) savefile=false shift ;; *) if [[ $1 =~ ^\- ]] ; then echo "error: unknown flag '$1'" help_and_exit fi base_folder="${1}" shift ;; esac done file_path=${base_folder}$( date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S' )_screenshot.png import ${params} ${file_path} xclip -selection clipboard -target image/png -i < ${file_path} if [ "$savefile" = false ] ; then rm ${file_path} fi Then this is what you add to i3 config:
bindsym --release Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id "/dir/to/script.sh -r $HOME/Pictures/screenshots/" bindsym --release Control+Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id "/dir/to/script.sh -r -c $HOME/Pictures/screenshots/" bindsym --release Print exec --no-startup-id "/dir/to/script.sh $HOME/Pictures/screenshots/" bindsym --release Control+Print exec --no-startup-id "/dir/to/script.sh -c $HOME/Pictures/screenshots/" So the keybinding is:
PrtSc = make a screenshot+Control = only save to clipboard+Shift = only capture a specific region of the screenA very simple option if you have it installed or don't mind installing it is using xfce4-screenshooter and i3 config would be:
bindsym Print exec --no-startup-id xfce4-screenshooter Caveat: although fairly lightweight there are some dependencies if you are not using any other xfce4 programs
This perl6 script takes root, area, window, or delay ScreenShots using import and saves them in a $file and in the clipboard.
#!/usr/bin/env perl6 use v6; sub print_window(Str $file) { qx{xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)"} ~~ /(0x\S*)/; run <import -window>, $0, $file; } sub MAIN( Str $option where $option ∈ <root area window delay> ) { my $today = DateTime.now( formatter => { sprintf "%04d_%02d_%02d_%02d-%02d-%02d", .year, .month, .day, .hour, .minute, .second } ); my $file = "$*HOME/Dades/Imatges/ScreenShots/$today.png"; given $option { when 'root' { run <import -window root>, $file } when 'area' { run 'import', $file } when 'window' { print_window($file) } when 'delay' { sleep 10; print_window($file) } } run <xclip -selection clipboard -target image/png -i>, $file; run <xmessage -nearmouse -timeout 3>, "Screenshot in clipboard, and saved in $today.png"; } These are the key bindings in i3 to run the script:
bindsym $mod+Print exec Print_Screen root bindsym --release $mod+Shift+Print exec Print_Screen area bindsym $mod+Mod1+Print exec Print_Screen delay bindsym $mod+Control+Print exec Print_Screen window | Feature | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Full Screen | PrtScrn |
| Selection | Shift + PrtScrn |
| Active Window | Super + PrtScrn |
| Clipboard Full Screen | Ctrl + PrtScrn |
| Clipboard Selection | Ctrl + Shift + PrtScrn |
| Clipboard Active Window | Ctrl + Super + PrtScrn |
maimxclipxdotoolSet this on your i3 config file ~/.i3/config.
## Screenshots bindsym Print exec --no-startup-id maim "/home/$USER/Pictures/$(date)" bindsym $mod+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --window $(xdotool getactivewindow) "/home/$USER/Pictures/$(date)" bindsym Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --select "/home/$USER/Pictures/$(date)" ## Clipboard Screenshots bindsym Ctrl+Print exec --no-startup-id maim | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png bindsym Ctrl+$mod+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --window $(xdotool getactivewindow) | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png bindsym Ctrl+Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --select | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png source: https://dev.to/dianjuar/i3wm-screenshot-shortcuts-3n7b
