How do I set a shortcut to screenshot a selected area?

Question

In gnome's screen shot program, the quick keys PrtScn captures the entire screen and alt+PrtScn captures the active window. Is there a way to script or set up the third capture option of a selected area?

Update: I don't seem to have this key already mapped...

in 16.04 There is already a short cut of shift-print – Christian Bongiorno Mar 16 '16 at 21:13 — Christian Bongiorno, Mar 16 '16 at 21:13
This question was for 12.04. (It was a tag) – Rick Mar 16 '16 at 21:42 — Rick, Mar 16 '16 at 21:42

score 163 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '14 at 08:29

163

Open System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts
Select Custom Shortcuts(you can go to Screenshot-s too and it will work)
Click +
Fill fields
- Name to Take a screenshot of area
- Command to gnome-screenshot -a or shutter -s(if u prefer shutter)
Click OK
Double-click on what you make and set shortcut Shift+PrtSc

— And that's all ... ;)

edited Jun 20 '14 at 08:29

rubo77

34,212

answered Jul 31 '12 at 14:57

hingev

6,714

How should I do this on Lubuntu 12.04 ? – Neptunno Jul 31 '12 at 16:51
open Sistem Settings -> Keyboard settings and follow steps @Halkinn, or go to chat and say what you can't get – hingev Jul 31 '12 at 16:54
3

Ubuntu 12.04 has this shortcut built in out of the box now as per the answer below. – sjakubowski Jun 11 '14 at 18:30
2

In Linux Mint, it's Preferences -> KeyboardShortcuts, and the command you need is mate-screenshot -a – Gordon Williams Oct 31 '16 at 19:14
Been a long time but theres a shortcut for this in Ubuntu 14.04 its 'ctrl+shift+prntscrn' hope this helps. – Josyula Krishna Apr 09 '17 at 17:17
gnome-screenshot -a -c to send the screenshot to clipboard. After doing that, I tried import gtk; gtk.clipboard_get().wait_for_targets() in Python and got ('TARGETS', 'MULTIPLE', 'image/tiff', 'image/jpeg', 'image/x-MS-bmp', 'image/x-bmp', 'image/bmp', 'image/png', 'SAVE_TARGETS', 'TIMESTAMP'), so it offers multiple formats to the application where you paste it. Trying it in Inkscape, then saving, it becomes an embedded PNG. Pasting it into Google Docs, then Download as ... Web Page, it also becomes a PNG. Pasting it into Gmail, sending then Show Original, also PNG – Evgeni Sergeev Apr 05 '18 at 22:38
1

Do you provide any CLI solution to map the shortkey with this command? – alhelal May 30 '18 at 08:27
Yeah, I'd like a CLI option maybe, too. When I hit the PrintScreen button to set the shortcut, it... just takes a screenshot. :) – CivMeierFan Aug 18 '20 at 04:16
Oh, if I Disable the original shortcut, then I can set the PrintScreen button to my own shortcut. This was for setting up /usr/bin/flameshot gui shortcut, so I can jazz those snips up. – CivMeierFan Aug 18 '20 at 04:18
If you want to show the ui instead, use gnome-screenshot -i – pushStack Nov 17 '21 at 15:13

score 134 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 30 '12 at 20:43

134

That shortcut is already built-in: Shift+PrtScr :)

The full-list of screenshot keyboard shortcuts is:

enter image description here

answered Jul 30 '12 at 20:43

ish

142,198

2

Thanks, but I don't seem to have that. Would you mind posting a screen shot of which command this is mapped to? I've included a screen shot of mine above in the update. – Rick Jul 31 '12 at 14:49
1

Found it: gnome-screenshot -a – Rick Jul 31 '12 at 14:57
1

that is only in ubuntu 12.04+, and @Richard i have posted answer – hingev Jul 31 '12 at 15:03
7

Also works on Ubuntu 14.04 – Yehonatan Tsirolnik Jun 11 '14 at 15:19
Works for me too on Ubuntu 14.04 – Abderrahmane TAHRI JOUTI Jan 22 '15 at 08:46
1

Just to report in, this still works in Ubuntu 16.04 :) – Jeff McJunkin Jun 08 '16 at 21:04
It is documented here: https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/screen-shot-record.html – heroin Feb 20 '18 at 14:51
1

Where is the file saved? – israteneda Apr 07 '20 at 18:22
2

@israteneda In your Pictures folder (/home/yourname/Pictures) – Sumit Apr 14 '20 at 09:47
Works in linux mint 19.3 too – Shafaet May 05 '20 at 18:06
This has stopped working in Ubuntu 22.04. :O – odinho - Velmont May 16 '22 at 12:39
Ah, actually just pressing "prt scr" / print screen and not any shift will now allow you to snip it. – odinho - Velmont May 16 '22 at 12:43
Ctrl+Shift+Print is my favorite (checked on 20.04) – user1068352 Nov 09 '22 at 12:54

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered May 16 '22 at 12:51

11

Gnome now includes a tool by default.

The previous Shift+Prt Scr seem to no longer work for me. Not sure if that is a regression.

But just pressing Prt Scr (Print screen) will bring up this UI, allowing you to snip:

Image courtesy omg! ubuntu! Ubuntu 22.04 LTS: Screenshot Tour

answered May 16 '22 at 12:51

odinho - Velmont

985

perfect! This is useful. – arilwan Oct 19 '22 at 16:11
Thanks! This needs to go to the top! – thomasa88 Dec 06 '22 at 06:13
1

This is the best feature of Ubuntu 22 I discovered so far. I think it was lacking in the previous LTS version (version 20). Thanks! – Sajjad Ahmed May 08 '24 at 08:12
I don't like the fact that this new tool automatically also saves every screenshot in the ~/Pictures/Screenshots directory, even if you only want to immediately paste it somewhere from the clipboard, or if you want to discard it altogether. – natka_m Mar 30 '25 at 00:01
1

@natka_m True. I use Flameshot in addition nowadays, especially when I need to do a timed screenshot, which is often because hitting Print Screen and other shortcuts usually closes context menus I want to screenshot. That has a busy UI, but you only need one or two buttons. :) – odinho - Velmont Sep 24 '25 at 09:31

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 07 '16 at 06:42

While to above answers worked for me in Ubuntu; after switching to Lubuntu I noticed that the ShiftPrtScn was no longer working.

The following procedure fixed it for me. Since in Lubuntu the program scrot is used, I found that I had to add the following to the ~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml:

<!-- Launch scrot with interactive select when Shift-Print is pressed -->
<keybind key="S-Print">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>scrot -s</command>
  </action>
</keybind>

After the change do not forget to issue: openbox --reconfigure to activate the updates.

See the Lubuntu documentation for more details.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 27 '17 at 08:24

you can try this command from terminal if you have a problem with shortcuts.

sleep 5 && gnome-screenshot -a -c

Now open the window you want to take screenshot from and select the area after 5 seconds after the command execution.

sleep 5

makes the terminal waits 5 seconds before executing the command so you can go to the window you want within this while

gnome-screenshot -a -c

takes screenshot of an area and copy it to clipboard.

Copy to clipboard (-c) was exactly what I was looking for. — Miladiouss, Apr 05 '20 at 20:30

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 08 '24 at 10:49

1

in Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS use the hotkey combination Ctrl + Shift + S

answered Sep 08 '24 at 10:49

XOC

11

I am using Ubuntu 22.04.4 and that does noting on my machine. – David DE Sep 10 '24 at 06:21
I am using Ubuntu 22.04.4 and is gives me the option to "Select a region". – stumblebee Nov 18 '24 at 02:22

Ilya Sheershoff · Answer 7 · 2019-01-17T22:03:59.730

0

For xubuntu and xfce users:

Run Keyboard app from the launcher menu, go to Application Shortcuts, check current action for Print, if it's xfce4-screenshooter -f:

add a new action: xfce4-screenshooter -r
Set Shift+PrtScn for it
Check
Enjoy

If it's not xfce4-screenshooter - check the current tool how to run it in the "region screenshot" mode

edited Jan 17 '19 at 22:03

answered Jan 17 '19 at 15:55

Ilya Sheershoff

151

A suggestion to add this to the default xubuntu package: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xubuntu-default-settings/+bug/1812234 – Ilya Sheershoff Jan 17 '19 at 15:56

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 11 '20 at 19:16

0

To take screenshot from a selected area And copy to clipboard, just press:

Ctrl+Shift+PrtScrn

answered Jun 11 '20 at 19:16

Savrige

333

How do I set a shortcut to screenshot a selected area?

8 Answers8