How to define a shortcut key to grab part of the screen?

Question

I've been trying to create a short-cut key for grabbing part of the screen.

If I run the command /usr/bin/gnome-screenshot --area the program I want runs and does what I want. When I createa a custom action in the keyboard shortcuts menu, and I activate the command (using ctrl-prnscr) the command fires up but behaves as though the --area option isn't there (it grabs the whole screen instead of giving me a cursor to choose with). If I run ps -eaf |grep screen I get:

$ ps -eaf |grep screen
yfarjoun  2082     1  0 Oct29 ?        00:00:21 gnome-screensaver
yfarjoun 17730     1  0 17:34 ?        00:00:00 gnome-screenshot --area
yfarjoun 17735 17730  1 17:34 ?        00:00:00 gnome-screenshot --area
yfarjoun 17741  2599  0 17:34 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto screen

So the option is definitely transfered to the command....

Why is it not honoring the option? How can I fix this?

Answer 1

It works for me when pressing the shortcut twice (fast).

This seems to have worked at some point but doesn't anymore (see this thread at ubuntuforums.org - it doesn't work for me, with or without the '-i' switch).

There's already a bug report opened: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-utils/+bug/549935

Answer 2

In 12.04 (at least), the default shortcut is Shift+PrtScr.

Answer 3

An alternative is to use Shutter and:

1. Set Preferences -> Advanced to start with the selection size and location you want.
2. Set Preferences -> Keyboard to Capture with Selection.

When you press your shortcut key the screen will freeze and the default selection will be made. You can either press Enter to accept the screenshot, Esc to cancel or adjust the selection manually.

You can save different default selections as profiles. It has other nice features, such as basic editing and configurable filenames too.