The screenshot is a picture of the display screen to capture the screen information. Screenshots are commonly used in computers and mobile to capture display content. These tools allow us to capture the entire screen, specific areas of the screen, and another window. Taking a screenshot in Ubuntu is different from other operating systems like windows.
5 Best Ways to Take Screenshots in Ubuntu
Many tools are in the market for taking screenshots, but this guide will teach you the best 5 ways to take screenshots in Ubuntu. Let’s discuss the GUI-based methods first.
GUI-Based Methods
In this section, we will elaborate on the GUI methods with visuals and their main features.
Method 1: Take a Screenshot Using the Default Screenshot App
Use the default screenshot app in Ubuntu to take the screenshot without installing any new app in the system. If you want to take s screenshot without any editing, use the shortcut keys and default screenshot app installed in your system.
Features:
- Screenshot area selection option
- Capture screenshots directly through shortcuts
To take a screenshot with the system default “screenshot app”, press the “PrtScr” key from the keyboard, and the below window will open up to take the screenshot:
Do you want to take a screenshot of an entire screen or a specific region on your desktop? There are multiple built-in shortcuts. To see the screenshot shortcuts and use them. Go to “Show Applications” from the dock panel, search “shortcut” in the search bar and click on “Settings” from the search result, as shown in the below picture.
Clicking on “Settings” will direct you to the keyboard shortcuts window, now click on the “view and customize shortcuts”
Click on “Screenshots” to see all the built-in screenshot shortcuts you can use.
Now, you can see the screenshot shortcuts in the below picture for your system:
Let’s try the built-in screenshot shortcuts in Ubuntu.
How to Take a Screenshot of the Entire Screen in Ubuntu?
You can use the default shortcut keys “Shift + PrtScr” on your desktop to create a screenshot of the entire screen. It will save the screenshot in the “Pictures” folder, which is built in on your “Home” when you install Ubuntu in your system. A screenshot of the shortcut is given below:
How to Take a Screenshot of the Specific Area of Screen in Ubuntu?
If you need to take a screenshot of a specific area in Ubuntu, you can press the “PrtScr” button on your keyboard. It will show you two new windows, one for “Selection Area” and the other for screen options, as shown in the below picture:
Select the area to capture the screenshot and press the white lens button (as indicated in the above picture).
You will see the below output of the above selection area screen using the “PrtScrn” screenshot.
Method 2: Take a Screenshot Using Flameshot
Flameshot is cross-platform, open-source, and free software to capture screenshots with many built-in properties in Ubuntu. It is a useful tool for capturing and customizing screenshots with powerful features.
Features:
- Crop the image
- Blur the image
- Edit images (Highlight or Add text and many others)
- Upload images to Imgur
How to Install Flameshot in Ubuntu?
In this section, we will see how to install Flameshot and take a screenshot of it. You can download the software from Official Flameshot (.rpm file) if you don’t have the software. To install Flameshot software in Ubuntu, run the below-mentioned command:
$ sudo apt install flameshot -y
It will take a few seconds, and flameshot software will be installed.
To take screenshots with Flameshot, run the Flameshot software. A flameshot icon will appear on the right side of the header. Click on the flameshot icon, and a dropdown of different options will appear. To take a screenshot of the entire screen, click on the option “Take Screenshot,” as indicated in the below picture.
The captured screenshot will automatically save in your default pictures folder.
Method 3: Take a Screenshot Using Ksnip
Ksnip is an open-source lightweight tool to capture and provides the option to edit screenshots quickly. Its main features are as follows.
Features:
- Annotate & Edit
- Multiple capture modes
- Custom file naming
- Capture screenshots through the terminal
$ sudo apt install ksnip -y
Open the “Ksnip” software in your system, and the below interface will show up. To take a screenshot of the window, click on the “New” button to capture the screenshot.
Method 4: Take a Screenshot Using Shutter
The shutter is a powerful screenshot software available for Ubuntu. It provides advanced features to take screenshots with a compact GUI.
Features:
- Captures scaleable screenshots
- Crop & blur screenshots
- Add text and shapes to screenshots
- Share screen to websites
How to Install Shutter in Ubuntu?
To install Shutter software in your system, run the below command:
$ sudo apt install shutter -y
When you open the Shutter software in Ubuntu, the below interface will appear. It will show options in the menu bar. To take the screenshot of the desktop, click on the “Desktop” option; it will capture the screenshot of the desktop and save it in your system:
Command Line-Based Method
Now, let’s see how we can take screenshots using the terminal. Let’s discuss it.
Method 5: Take a Screenshot using GNOME Screenshot
GNOME screenshot is the default tool that captures the picture of the whole screen using the command from the terminal. The GNOME screenshot tool is in every system with the GNOME utility package.
The main features of gnome-screenshot are as follows:
- Delayed screenshot
- Advanced editing options
- Picture area selection
To take a screenshot using GNOME screenshot, run the below command:
$ gnome-screenshot
A screenshot will be taken immediately after executing the command and saved in your system.
GNOME screenshot allows you to take screenshots with delay. For capturing screenshots with a delay of 3 seconds, use the below-mentioned command where “d” shows the delay option and the “w” option is used to capture the current screen width:
$ gnome-screenshot -w -d -3
A screenshot of the window will be taken and saved to the default pictures folder.
That’s it from this guide!
Conclusion
Many tools are used to take screenshots in Ubuntu, like the Default screenshot app, flameshot, Ksnip, and shutter. Ubuntu 22.04 allows taking screenshots using the shortcut key “PrtScr” using the screenshot app. Moreover, we discussed the 5 best screenshot tools that offer easy and best features to capture the screenshot, including the command line GNOME method.