Ubuntu Manpage: scrot - command line screen capture utility

NAME

       scrot - command line screen capture utility

SYNOPSIS

       scrot [-bcfhimopuvz] [-a X,Y,W,H] [-C NAME] [-D DISPLAY] [-d SEC] [-e CMD]
             [-k OPT] [-l STYLE] [-M NUM] [-n OPTS] [-q NUM] [-s OPTS] [-t % | WxH]
             [-w NUM] [[-F] 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-feh 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 [b]SEC
Wait SEC seconds before taking a shot. When given the `b` prefix, e.g `-d b8`, the
delay will be applied before selection.

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

-F, --file FILE
Specify the output file. If FILE is "-", scrot will output the image to stdout. The
filename is expanded according to the format specified in SPECIAL STRINGS. The
output file may be specified through the -F option, or as a non-option argument.

-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 for it to work correctly. OPT is 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, --monitor NUM
Capture Xinerama monitor number NUM.

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

-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 within [1, 100]. A higher value represents better quality image and a
lower value represents worse quality image. Effect of this flag depends on the file
format, see COMPRESSION QUALITY section. Default: 75.

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

-t, --thumb % | WxH
Also generate a thumbnail. The argument represents the thumbnail's resolution: if
the argument is a single number, it is a percentage of the full size screenshot's
resolution; if it is 2 numbers separated by an "x" character, it is a resolution.
If one of the resolution's dimensions is 0, it is replaced by a number that
maintains the full size screenshot's aspect ratio. Examples: 10, 25, 320x240,
500x200, 100x0, 0x480. -u, --focused, --focussed Use the currently focused window.

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

-w, --window WID
Window identifier to capture. WID must be a valid identifier (see xwininfo(1)).

-Z, --compression LVL
Compression level to use, LVL must be within [0, 9]. Higher level compression
provides lower file size at the cost of slower encoding/saving speed. Effect of
this flag depends on the file format, see COMPRESSION QUALITY section. Default: 7.

-z, --silent
Prevent beeping.

--format FMT
Specify the output file format. E.g "--format png". If no format is specified,
scrot will use the file extension to determine the format. If filename does not
have an extension either, then PNG will be used as fallback.

--list-options[=OPT]
List all program options. If argument is "tsv" it outputs a TAB separated list
intended for scripts. Default is "human". Note that the tsv format is not stable
and may change in the future.

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(3). 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 output file format.
           $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.
           $W   The name of the window (only for --select, --focused and --window).
           \n   A literal newline (ignored when used in the filename).

       Example:

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

       This would create a PNG file with a name similar to 2000-10-30_2560x1024.png and show  the
       disk-usage with du(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 must be within [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 within [1, 8].

           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 within [0, 255]. 255 means 100% opaque, 0 means
                           100% transparent. For the opacity of the line, this is only
                           effective if the compositor supports _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY.

           mode=MODE       MODE can be "auto", "edge" or "classic" without quotes.
                           edge is the new selection, classic uses the old one.
                           "auto" uses "edge" if no compositor is running, "classic"
                           otherwise. "edge" ignores the style specifier and the -f flag,
                           "classic" ignores the opacity specifier.

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

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

       Example:

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

COMPRESSION QUALITY

       For  lossless  formats  (e.g PNG), the quality options is ignored. For lossy formats where
       the quality and compression are tied together (e.g JPEG), compression will be ignored. And
       for  image formats where quality and compression can be independently set (e.g WebP, JXL),
       both flags are respected.

EXAMPLES

       Following are a couple examples of using scrot with other utilities.

       Copying screenshot to clipboard using xclip(1):

         $ scrot - | xclip -selection clipboard -target image/png

       Taking a screenshot and optimizing its size with optipng(1):

         $ scrot -e 'optipng -o4 $f'

       Selecting a window by PID with xdo(1):

         $ scrot -w $(xdo id -p PID)

       Taking a screenshot and annotating it with ImageMagick(1):

         $ scrot - | convert -pointsize 64 -gravity North -annotate '+16+16' 'hello, world!' - out.png

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