122

I'm not really sure since I'm still new to Linux distros in general

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10 Answers 10

Reset to default
98

Just press the Print Screen key.

enter image description here

You may find the Pictures in your Home Picture folder, this will normally work with any operative system.

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  • 5
    I tried that but nothing happened. What am I doing wrong?
    – fukanchik
    Sep 6, 2016 at 0:03
  • 1
    You need to go to ~/Pictures/ using the Files program and look for a file named Screenshot from 2020-02-14 12-09-09.png
    – 42-
    Feb 15, 2020 at 16:48
  • 1
    What about for Mac's? All of these suggestions assume a Print or Prnt Scrn key.
    – Prof Huster
    Feb 20, 2020 at 14:21
  • @fukanchik in Lubuntu, the image is saved in /home/yourusername as something like 2020-03-29-122645_1366x768_scrot.png
    – rdtsc
    Mar 29, 2020 at 18:01
  • 1
    What if you do not have a Print Screen button? Many keyboards these days omit those
    – user5359531
    Mar 23, 2021 at 15:17
79

Shift + Prnt Scrn allows you to print a selection of the screen.

Print Screen alone will take a screenshot.

Only GNOME 2.x: Hold Super (The Windows Icon on your keyboard) to display all key shortcuts. Here on GNOME Shell.

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  • 5
    Oh I didn't know about the windows key!
    – khatchad
    Mar 25, 2015 at 14:43
  • 2
    holding the windows key doesn't work for me (Ubuntu 20.04)
    – stochastic
    Mar 8, 2021 at 15:33
  • I think holding SUPER/WIN to display shortcuts is actually Unity desktop feature, not MATE/Gnome 2 or Gnome 3.
    – Mikko Rantalainen
    Jul 16, 2021 at 6:30
  • Doesn't work on Ubuntu 22.04
    – AliN11
    May 10, 2022 at 7:14
36

View the available short-cuts under

On GNOME Shell (17.10+): Settings -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Screenshots

screenshot

or on Unity (before 17.10): Settings -> Devices -> Keyboard

enter image description here

If you have less options view Create custom short-cuts

If you would like to use a tool you may want to use Gimp, Shutter, etc. View more in This thread

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  • 1
    As of Ubunutu 14.04 "screenshot of window" only takes the part in the current workspace. For example if your window spans more than one visible workspace, because it is longer or wider, then only the picture is cropped to the current workspace.
    – Tino
    Feb 23, 2016 at 17:51
  • 1
    thanks also worked for me, new ubuntu upgrade just changed a bit the layout: imgur.com/a/KWt19
    – CommonSenseCode
    Nov 2, 2017 at 9:35
  • 1
    Great tip! FYI, on Ubuntu 18.04 (and maybe earlier, too) this is Settings -> Devices -> Keyboard
    – matb
    Jul 12, 2018 at 1:42
18

Open Dash (upper icon on the launcher) and search screenshot.

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  • 4
    Thanks. I'm running Linux in a VM under OSX and my keyboard does not have a Prt Scr key..
    – Anders Hansson
    Feb 26, 2014 at 10:06
17

Update: Shutter got removed from Debian/*Ubuntu repos because it uses deprecated Perl modules.

You can use "shutter" for taking a snapshot of a selected area. You need to do

sudo apt-get install shutter
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  • I've moved to this due to gnome-screenshot adding an orange tint to the background of selections on Ubuntu 16.04
    – M1ke
    Jan 13, 2017 at 10:01
  • For a selected area in Ubuntu: ctrl+shift+print. No need to install extra stuff anymore
    – Guilherme Taffarel Bergamin
    Feb 20, 2022 at 19:56
  • It will be back in Debian Bookworm and Ubuntu Jammy.
    – Photon
    Mar 3, 2022 at 12:55
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Taking it and saving it to ~/Pictures

  • Print - Take a screenshot
  • Alt + Print - Take a screenshot of a window
  • Shift + Print - Take a screenshot of an area

Taking it and copying it to clipboard

(just add Ctrl to the shortkeys above)

  • Ctrl + Print - Take a screenshot
  • Ctrl + Alt + Print - Take a screenshot of a window
  • Ctrl + Shift + Print - Take a screenshot of an area
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  • Thanks for that. I'm going to swap those shortcuts right now. I don't want it saving the screenshots in files unless I tell it to do so
    – Guilherme Taffarel Bergamin
    Feb 20, 2022 at 19:49
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Use GIMP. Launch GIMP and go to “File”->”Create”->”Screenshot”. Choose to capture a single window (with/without window border), the entire screen (with/without mouse pointer) or a specific region of the screen. Click on the “Snap” button to start capturing.

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  • 2
    This is rather heavyweight for the task..
    – Quelklef
    Jul 2, 2018 at 12:36
5

You can refer this from Ubuntu documentation on taking screenshots:

Take a screenshot

  1. Open Screenshot from the Activities overview.
  2. In the Screenshot window, select whether to grab the whole screen, the current window, or an area of the screen. Set a delay if you need to select a window or otherwise set up your desktop for the screenshot. Then choose any effects you want.
  3. Click Take Screenshot.
  4. If you selected Select area to grab, the pointer changes into a crosshair. Click and drag the area you want for the screenshot.
  5. In the Save Screenshot window, enter a file name and choose a folder, then click Save. Alternatively, import the screenshot directly into an image-editing application without saving it first. Click Copy to Clipboard then paste the image in the other application, or drag the screenshot thumbnail to the application.

Keyboard shortcuts

Quickly take a screenshot of the desktop, a window, or an area at any time using these global keyboard shortcuts:

  • Prt Scrn to take a screenshot of the desktop.

  • Alt+Prt Scrn to take a screenshot of a window.

  • Shift+Prt Scrn to take a screenshot of an area you select.

When you use a keyboard shortcut, the image is automatically saved in your Pictures folder in your home folder with a file name that begins with Screenshot and includes the date and time it was taken.

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0

Install Kazam Screencaster by:

sudo apt install kazam

Then run the app from the Activities.

Kazam Screenshot

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0

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Flameshot yet

Install:

sudo apt install flameshot

Launching

After install create shortcut for

/usr/bin/flameshot gui

Usage

After launching the /usr/bin/flameshot gui, press the Share button:

share button flameshot cropped

It also supports various types of annotations, etc:

flameshot example annotate

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