Is there a snip equivalent on Raspbian?

Question

I use snip all the time on windows for taking screenshots.

Is there something similar in raspbian?

Note: I wish to take screenshots in the raspbian desktop environment, (LXDE).

My desktop details are as follows:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ dpkg --get-selections | grep desktop
desktop-base                                    install
desktop-file-utils                              install
gir1.2-freedesktop:armhf                        install
gnome-desktop3-data                             install
gsettings-desktop-schemas                       install
libgnome-desktop-3-10                           install

The linux standard base is as follows:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsb_release -a
    No LSB modules are available.
    Distributor ID: Raspbian
    Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 8.0 (jessie)
    Release:        8.0
    Codename:       jessie

goldilocks · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-11T14:08:57.740

"The raspbian desktop environment" is actually LXDE, so you might want to investigate that way.

If nothing turns up, as a last resort GIMP will take screenshots and should be available via apt. It is a bit of a sledgehammer in this context:

Open it on a separate desktop (I think having multiple desktops is unfamiliar to most MS Windows users?).
Select File->Create->Screenshot, there are further self-explanatory options there.
Switch back to the desktop you want a snap of and click the mouse.
To save the image, use File->Export As; GIMP's native format is viewable only in GIMP.

GIMP is fairly versatile and, as the homepage says, now in its 20th year, so if you look around there may be a way to do this via a command or script you could associate with a hotkey in LXDE.

ImageMagick provides a simpler method (apt install imagemagick first), e.g.:

import -window root screenshot.jpg

Again, this could be associated with a hotkey or something. You can do it from another desktop terminal by using a brief pause:

sleep 3; import -window root screenshot.jpg

Then switch over to wherever.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '16 at 14:58

To add a screenshot tool as a hotkey, these instructions detail how to:

set up a tool (personally, I recommend scrot, as you can get it to set the file name to include the date and time)
edit ~/.config/openbox/lxde-pi-rc.xml (NB: different for a Raspberry Pi than the instructions) to include something like this in the <keyboard> section:
```
<keybind key="Print">
 <action name="Execute">
  <command>scrot 'screenshot-%F_%T.png'</command>
 </action>
</keybind>
```
Reload your preferences with openbox --reconfigure

This should save a screen shot if you hit PrintScreen.

Is there a snip equivalent on Raspbian?

2 Answers2