Application for taking pretty screenshots (like OS X does)

Question

I've been building a website for a guy who uses Mac OS X and occasionally he sends me screenshots of bugs. They come out looking like this:

This is fairly typical of Mac screenshots. You get the window decorations, the shadow from the window and a white or transparent background (not the desktop wallpaper -- I've checked).

Compare this to an Ubuntu window-shot (Alt+Print screen):

It's impossible to keep a straight face and say the Ubuntu one anywhere near as elegant.

My question is: Is there an application that can do this in Ubuntu?

Edit: Follow up: Is there an application that can do this in one move? Shutter is pretty good but running the plugin for every screenshot is pretty tiresome as it doesn't seem to remember my preference (I want south-shadow and that requires selecting south, then clicking refresh, then save) and it's more clicks than I'd like.

Is there a simple way of telling shutter I want south-shadow for all screenshots (except entire desktop and area-selection)?

Answer 1

Using Shutter

• First go to Edit -> Preferences and tick the two options mentioned below .

• Now Take the screenshot of a window and right-click and select run a plugin .

• Now select Hard Shadow and run it .

• Your Final Screenshot will look like this .

Using gnome-screenshot

• Launch 'Take Screenshot' from the dash and select 'Include the window border' with the Effect Drop 'Shadow' or 'Border' and then take the screenshot.

• To do the same using the terminal ( Ctrl + Alt + T ) paste

  gnome-screenshot -w -b -d 5 -e border

where 5 is delay in seconds and border can be replaced with shadow for 'Drop Shadow' .

Answer 2

Shutter

You can achieve this in Shutter. To grab a whole window, including decorations, you can right click on the notification icon then click 'Window under Cursor' or from the application window, click the window icon (4th from the left in the toolbar). You can then select a window with your mouse to take the screenshot of that window.

To make rounded window decorations look better, go into Edit->Preferences, click the 'Advanced' tab and tick 'Force rounded window corners'.

To add a shadow effect, once you have taken a screenshot, click Screenshot->Run a Plugin... and choose 'Hard Shadow' then click 'Run'.

You can then edit the options for the shadow and click 'Save' to apply the effect.

The end result looks something like this:

Answer 3

KWIN (KDE's window manager) added a functionality like that recently: https://svn.reviewboard.kde.org/r/4814/ KWIN is offering the API via DBUS. If you are using KDE you can simply use KSnapshot to get a screenshot like that ("window under cursor").

If we want to have this functionality in Unity(or Classic Desktop) Compiz needs to offer an API for it. I have written a feature request for it: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/781280

I would love to implement it for Shutter, as well ;-)

Answer 4

To answer your follow-up question ("Is there a simple way of telling shutter I want south-shadow for all screenshots?"), unfortunately no. There is an open request to allow automatically running plugins.

Answer 5

KSnapshot

A really great application from KDE, to make a screenshot just press PrtScreen, you don't need plugins or any other complicated stuff. I am not sure if it works on Ubuntu but on Kubuntu it works just great. Here is a link to the "official" page: http://kde.org/applications/graphics/ksnapshot/

To install it on Ubuntu try writing into the terminal: sudo apt-get install ksnapshot

Answer 6

If you use Google Chrome or Chromium then there is an extension than will capture all of the screen, a visible part of the page or capture a selected area.

Google Chrome: Awesome Screenshot

Answer 7

Are you running Compiz? If so, go to Compiz Settings (you must install compiz-settings if you have not done so yet) and:

Activate the screenshot plugin.

Set the folder to which it saves.

Then all you have to do is press [Super] and [Click and Drag]. The area you select will be saved to the destination you have set.

Answer 8

Taking a mac, like screenshots is possible to be made by simply changing the default gnome-screenshot behaviour. You don't need shutter for that :)

On http://www.pc-freak.net/blog/how-to-take-area-screenshots-in-gnome-take-quick-area-selection-screenshots-in-g-linux-and-bsd/

You can read thorough tutorial for improving GNOME default screenshot behaviour and how to assign keys for region selection screenshota with added the drop shadow / border effects in.

Best