Ubuntu Manpage: scrot - command line screen capture utility

NAME

       scrot - command line screen capture utility

SYNOPSIS

       scrot [-bcfhikmopsuvz] [-a X,Y,W,H] [-C NAME] [-D DISPLAY] [-d SEC] [-e CMD]
             [-F FILE] [-l STYLE] [-n OPTS] [-q NUM] [-S CMD] [-t NUM | GEOM] [FILE]

DESCRIPTION

       scrot (SCReenshOT) is a simple command line screen capture utility, it uses imlib2 to grab
       and save images.

       scrot has many useful features:

              •  Support for multiple image formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, and others.

              •  The screenshot's quality is configurable.

              •  It is possible to capture a specific window or a rectangular area on the screen.

       Because scrot is a command line utility, it can easily be scripted and put to novel  uses.
       For instance, scrot can be used to monitor an X server in absence.

       scrot is free software under the MIT-advertising license.

OPTIONS

-a, --autoselect X,Y,W,H
Non-interactively choose a rectangle starting at position X,Y and of W by H
resolution.

-b, --border
When selecting a window, grab the WM's border too. Use with -s to raise the focus
of the window.

-C, --class NAME
NAME is a window class name. Associative with -k.

-c, --count
Display a countdown when used with -d.

-D, --display DISPLAY
DISPLAY is the display to use; see X(7).

-d, --delay SEC
Wait SEC seconds before taking a shot.

-e, --exec CMD
Execute CMD on the saved image.

-F, --file
File name. See SPECIAL STRINGS.

-f, --freeze
Freeze the screen when -s is used.

-h, --help
Display help and exit.

-i, --ignorekeyboard
Don't exit for keyboard input. ESC still exits.

-k, --stack OPT
Capture stack/overlapped windows and join them. A running Composite Manager is
needed. OPT it's optional join letter: v/h (vertical/horizontal). Default: h

-l, --line STYLE
STYLE indicates the style of the line when the -s option is used; see SELECTION
STYLE.

-m, --multidisp
For multiple heads, screenshot all of them in order.

-n, --note OPTS
OPTS is a collection of options which specify notes to bake into the image. See
NOTE FORMAT.

-o, --overwrite
By default scrot does not overwrite the output FILE, use this option to enable it.

-p, --pointer
Capture the mouse pointer.

-q, --quality NUM
NUM must be between 1 and 100. For lossless output formats, a higher value
represents better but slower compression. For lossy output formats, a higher value
represents higher quality and larger file size. Default: 75.

-S, --script CMD
CMD is an imlib2 script.

-s, --select OPT
Interactively select a window or rectangle with the mouse, use the arrow keys to
resize. See the -l and -f options. OPT it's optional; see SELECTION MODE

-t, --thumb NUM | GEOM
Also generate a thumbnail. The argument is the resolution of the thumbnail, it may
be a percentage NUM or a resolution GEOM. Examples: 10, 25, 320x240, 500x200.

-u, --focused
Use the currently focused window.

-v, --version
Output version information and exit.

-z, --silent
Prevent beeping.

- Redirection to standard output. The output image format is PNG.

SPECIAL STRINGS

       -e, -F and FILE parameters can take format specifiers that  are  expanded  by  scrot  when
       encountered.  There  are  two  types of format specifier: Characters preceded by a '%' are
       interpreted by strftime(2). The second kind are internal to scrot and are prefixed by '$'.
       The following specifiers are recognised by scrot:

           $$   A literal '$'.
           $a   The system's hostname.
           $f   The image's full path (ignored when used in the filename).
           $h   The image's height.
           $m   The thumbnail's full path (ignored when used in the filename).
           $n   The image's basename (ignored when used in the filename).
           $p   The image's pixel size.
           $s   The image's size in bytes (ignored when used in the filename).
           $t   The image's file format (ignored when used in the filename).
           $w   The image's width.
           \n   A literal newline (ignored when used in the filename).

       Example:

           $ scrot '%Y-%m-%d_$wx$h.png' -e 'optipng $f'

       This  would create a PNG file with a name similar to 2000-10-30_2560x1024.png and optimize
       it with optipng(1).

SELECTION MODE

       When using -s, optionally you can indicate the action to perform with the selection  area.
       Some actions allow optional parameters too.

           capture             Capture the selection area, this action is by default and
                               does not need to be specified.

           hole                Highlight the selected area overshadowing the rest of the capture.

           hide,IMAGE          Hide the selection area by drawing an area of color (or image) over it.
                               Optionally indicate name of the image to use as cover.
                               Image has priority over color.

           blur,AMOUNT         Blurs the selection area.
                               Optionally you can specify the amount of blur.
                               Amount,range: 1..30,  default: 18

       In  modes  'hole' and 'hide' the color of the area is indicated by 'color' property of the
       line style and the opacity of the color (or image) is  indicated  by  property  'opacity',
       SELECTION STYLE

       If  the  'hide'  mode  uses  an  image  that  does  not have an alpha channel, the opacity
       parameter will be ignored and it will be drawn fully opaque.

       Examples:

           $ scrot --select=hide
           $ scrot -shole --line color="Dark Salmon",opacity=200
           $ scrot -sblur,10
           $ scrot -shide,stamp.png --line opacity=120

SELECTION STYLE

       When using -s, you can indicate the style of the line with -l.

       -l takes a comma-separated list of specifiers as argument:

           style=STYLE     STYLE is either "solid" or "dash" without quotes.

           width=NUM       NUM is a pixel count between 1 and 8 inclusive.

           color="COLOR"   Color is a hexadecimal HTML color code or the name of
                           a color. HTML color codes are composed of a pound
                           sign '#' followed by a sequence of 3 2-digit
                           hexadecimal numbers which represent red, green, and
                           blue respectively. Examples: #FF0000 (red), #E0FFFF
                           (light cyan), #000000 (black).

           opacity=NUM     NUM is between 0 and 255 inclusive. 255 means
                           100% opaque, 0 means 100% transparent. For the
                           opacity of the line this is only effective if a
                           Composite Manager is running.

           mode=MODE       MODE is either "edge" or "classic" without quotes.
                           edge is the new selection, classic uses the old one.
                           "edge" ignores the style specifier and the -f flag,
                           "classic" ignores the opacity specifier.

       Without the -l option, a default style is used:

           mode=classic,style=solid,width=1,opacity=100

       Example:

           $ scrot -l style=dash,width=3,color="red" -s

NOTE FORMAT

       The -n option's argument is more arguments:

           -f  'FontName/size'
           -t  'text'
           -x  position (optional)
           -y  position (optional)
           -c  color(RGBA, range 0..255) (optional)
           -a  angle (optional)

       Example:

           $ scrot -n "-f '/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSans-Bold/40' -x 10
                   -y 20 -c 255,0,0,255 -t 'Hi'"

AUTHOR

       scrot was originally developed by Tom Gilbert.

       Currently, source code is maintained  by  volunteers.  Newer  versions  are  available  at
       https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/scrot