Take a Screenshot in Linux

21 September 2023

Here's a tool to take a screenshot in Linux.

One thing I love about MacOS is the built-in screenshot utility. It's always there. It works well. I've come to use it a lot.

When I'm in Linux, I can miss such a tool. Luckily, there's a great, free, open-source option, Flameshot.

Install

Run:

sudo apt install flameshot

To run, open with flameshot command.

For me, in i3, Flameshot appears in the i3 status bar (ie, system tray). Depending on your environment, look for something similar.

I like the terminal for most things. But I like a GUI when taking screenshots.

If you click on the system tray icon, you'll be able to immediately take a screenshot. You can trace the area you want to capture.

From here, you can save, or you can even upload to Imgur directly from the tool. Lots of other options to adjust with rotation, annotation, etc.

Open terminal and try something like

flameshot full

And it will take a screenshot of your entire desktop. As another example, taking a screenshot of only one screen with a delay of 3 seconds:

flameshot screen --number 2 -d 3000

For other usages, check out man flameshot.

It's a flaming-great tool!