Linux Multimedia Hacks

Take a Screenshot

Use command-line or GUI tools to take screenshots in a variety of formats.

If you spend any time changing the look of your desktop with fancy themes and icons, what fun is it if you don’t post your new cool desktop for everyone to see? The final proof of any successful desktop tweaking is a screenshot you can show off to your friends. You can use a number of methods to take screenshots, and this hack introduces you to some of the most common ones.

From the Command Line

One of the simplest and most universal ways to take a screenshot is with the import command from the ImageMagick suite of utilities. This is a very common tool, and chances are that ImageMagick is already installed by your distribution; if not, packages should be readily available. import has two major screenshot modes. To take a picture of the entire screen, type:

	$ import -window root screenshot.png

The -window root argument tells import to take a picture of the entire screen. If you type:

	$ import screenshot.png

Your cursor turns into crosshairs, allowing you to drag across the section of screen you want to copy. Once you release the mouse button, the part of the screen that is selected becomes the part import will put into your image. import supports all common image formats used for screenshots, including JPEG, PNG, and BMP (useful for lossless screenshots). All you have to do is name your output file with the file extension you want—import will figure out the rest.

If you want to set a time delay ...