How to take Program Screenshot in Ubuntu Linux

After completing your programs, you need to take screenshots of it to upload them with your assignments. In this article I will show you how to take Program Screenshots in Ubuntu Linux in two ways.

Using GUI tool Screenshot

In the first method we will use GUI application Screenshot to take screenshots in Ubuntu Linux‘.

Starting Screenshot application

Start Screenshot application by searching in applications list. Click on Activities tab on top left corner on the screen or hit the Super key (also called Window key) and type Screenshot in search box and then click on the Screenshot application icon to open it.

After you opened the Screenshot application, you will see interface as shown below

Screenshot modes

Here you will get three options to take program screenshot in Ubuntu Linux as below

• Grab the whole screen – This will capture whole screen of your desktop
• Grab current window – This will only capture the active window of the open application, so bring the your application window in front if many applications window are open such as files, calculator, browser etc.
• Select area to grab – This option will give you a choice to select area you want for taking screenshot . After clicking the Take screenshot button, hold your left mouse button and move mouse to select the required area. This will give a rectangular screenshot.

Also you will get a option Grab after a delay of – – seconds, it will be useful when you want to a take screenshot of a window which will disappear on mouse click or keyboard key pressing.

And finally you can select effects options like Include pointer, Include the window border to your screenshot, this option is available for Grab current window selection only.

Saving the screenshot image

After the screenshot is taken, you are prompted to save the screenshot. By default it is saved in Pictures folder with the name as Screenshot with date and time taken and with PNG image extension. You can change the default location, filename and image extension here.

Taking screenshots using shortcut keys

Here you will yo will take program screenshot in Ubuntu Linux using keyboard shortcut keys only. No need to open the Screenshot application.

• Grab the whole screen – use Print Scrn button
• Grab current window – use Alt + Print Scrn buttons simultaneously
• Select area to grab – use Shift + Print Scrn buttons simultaneously

Now all the screenshots taken will be saved directly in your Pictures folder with name as Screenshot with date and time taken on. If there is no Pictures folder then it will be saved to your Home folder.

In the second method, using keyboard shortcut keys, it will not prompt for the location where to save the screenshots and it will not prompt to change file names of the screenshots.

But if you don’t want the screenshot to be saved in your Pictures folder then you can press Ctrl key with above mentioned shortcut keys to save the screenshot to clipboard, from where you can paste that screenshot to other applications like any document file or image editing application etc.

You will find the second method fast and handy but you will miss the delay timer setting and effects settings with this method.

Simple screen recording in Ubuntu linux

With screenshot application you also get a simple screen-cast application in Ubuntu linux system where you can make videos in webm format.

To start recording you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R, you will see a small orange circle in top most right corner on the screen while recording is going on.

To stop recording again press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R, you will notice that the small orange circle has gone now, means recording is stopped.

Your video is saved in Videos folder and if you don’t have Videos folder then it will be saved in your Home folder.

Pros of Screencast application

No need to install addition application for video recording on your desktop.

Cons of Screencast application

only saves video in webm format

don’t record audio with video

only records full screen desktop, does not support for window or selected area for recording

Conclusion

This way you have seen how to take Program Screenshots in Ubuntu Linux with it’s built in Screenshot application, in three ways, whole screen, window area and selected screen area screenshots.

Learnt to take screenshots using keyboard shortcut keys. And how to use simple screen-cast recording on Ubuntu linux systems.