Scrot, A Simple Screenshot Taking App

Introduction

According to Wikipedia, Scrot is a minimalistic command line screen capturing application. It allows substantial degree of flexibility by specifying parameters on command line, including the ability to invoke a third-party utility to manipulate the resulting screenshot.

When I installed Debian, I started from minimal install. So it didn’t come with any screenshot taking app by default, then I installed scrot. I just thought that scrot was quite enough for my necessity.

Scrot is a CLI app, it doesn’t come with a GUI like Gnome Screenshoter or Xfce Screenshoter. To take a screenshot, you only need to execute scrot from terminal. But, common way to use scrot is by creating a keybind executing scrot.

Installation

Scrot is available in most distro repository. I use Debian, so I use apt to install it.

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sudo apt-get install scrot

Run

You can test taking a screenshot by using scrot command in terminal. The image will be saved in your home. And the file name will contains the date & time of when the screenshot was taken.

Then try to create a keybind to make PrtScreen button executes scrot. I personally use Openbox. So, I edit my rc.xml to add keybind. Well, actually more than this. I will explain them in the next paragraph.

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        <!-- Take a screenshot, say "Cheeeese!" -->
        <keybind key="Print">
            <action name="Execute">
                <command>scrot</command>
            </action>
        </keybind>

More Tricks

Preparations

Instead of executing scrot. I set my keybind to execute a script named screeny.

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#!/bin/bash

# A simple script to take screenshoot using scrot
# Then add date to the file name
# Then open the result instantly using default image viewer
# Need xdg-utils, mostly preinstalled
# Cheers! Addy

# 'screeny -f' to take a screenshot for current focused window only
if [[ $1 = "-f" ]]; then
    scrot 'Cheese_%y.%m.%-d_%H.%M.%S.png' --focused --border \
    -e 'mv $f ~/Pictures; xdg-open ~/Pictures/$f'

# 'screeny -s' to take a screenshot with selection by dragging a rectangle
elif [[ $1 = "-s" ]]; then
    scrot 'Cheese_%y.%m.%-d_%H.%M.%S.png' --select \
    -e 'mv $f ~/Pictures; xdg-open ~/Pictures/$f'

# 'screeny' only to take a screenshoot normally
else
    scrot 'Cheese_%y.%m.%-d_%H.%M.%S.png' \
    -e 'mv $f ~/Pictures; xdg-open ~/Pictures/$f'
fi

I put that screeny script in ~/.scripts folder, along with my other custom scripts. Then I export that folder to my $PATH using Openbox autostart file, so I can execute screeny command only by typing screeny, instead of ~/.scripts/screeny. Here is the example of my ~/.config/openbox/autostart file.

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#!/bin/bash
export PATH="${PATH}:$HOME/.scripts"
compton -b
xbacklight -set 10
hsetroot -center ~/.wallpaper.jpg
xset +fp ~/.fonts/misc/
urxvtd -q &
xsettingsd &
conky | lemonbar -g x28 \
-f -*-rissole-* -f -*-waffle-* \
-B "#141c21" -F "#93a1a1" &

Show The Result of The Screenshot Instantly

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        <!-- Take a screenshot, say "Cheeeese!" --> 
        <keybind key="Print">
            <action name="Execute">
                <command>screeny</command>
            </action>
        </keybind>

When I take a screenshoot, it will rename the file to Cheese_<date>-<time>. Then move it to ~/Pictures folder. Then open the screenshot using default image viewer. So, I could delete it immediately using Del button in my keyboard if I was not satisfy with the result. By the way, my default image viewer is Viewnior.

Take A Screenshot of Current Focused Window Only

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        <keybind key="A-Print">
            <action name="Execute">
                <command>screeny -f</command>
            </action>
        </keybind>

Hit Alt+PrtSCreen to take the screenshot of current active window only. The script then will rename it. Then move it to ~/Pictures folder. Then open the screenshot using default image viewer. Taking the focused window only is pretty handy for asking support in the forum. I only need to show the necesarry part of the issue I get.

Take A Screenshoot in Custom Area

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        <keybind key="C-Print">
            <action name="Execute">
                <command>screeny -s</command>
            </action>
        </keybind>

Hit Ctrl+PrtScreen then draw a rectangle by dragging your mouse. It will take a screenshot in the rectangle you draw. The script then will rename it. Then move it to ~/Pictures folder. Then open the screenshot using default image viewer.

Thank You

And as always, thanks for reading!