How to Screenshot

How to take a screenshot on Linux

Full Screen

Most graphical interfaces for Linux distributions allow you to take screenshots. These key combinations are the default on the most common distributions, and are usually remappable.

1

Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard.

2

Your screenshot can be found in the ~/Pictures folder, or in your home directory if that folder does not exist.

Screenshot.png ~/Pictures

Extra: Key Modifiers

There are other key combinations for taking other types of screenshot:

Alt + Print Screen: Take a screenshot of the current window.

Shift + Print Screen: Select an area to capture.

Control + Another Combination: Copy the image data to the clipboard.

Alternative Screenshot Tools

You may be in a situation where you don't have Print Screen, or your graphical interface doesn't have a built-in screenshot function. In that case, there are screenshot utilities you can install, with the easiest being GNOME Screenshot.

1

Open GNOME Screenshot.

2

Select "Screen" to take a screenshot of all connected displays, "Window" to select a window to screenshot, and "Selection" to draw a region.

3

GNOME Screenshot will either save to ~/Pictures or open a dialog window, depending on your desktop environment.