krystiand / screentool

Blazingly fast way to make screenshots with annotations support (arrows, freehand, eraser) - written in Go, made for Linux.

screentool

A tool to make screenshots in a blazingly fast way (with annotations support).

Compilation

1. Install required libraries

apt-get install libgtk-3-dev

2. Build the tool

make

Above command will also download and compile dependencies. It may take long time due to gotk3 build process.

Run with ./screentool.

Demo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PFXvkRdBNw

Basic usage

Use your favorite hotkey to start screentool

1. Select screenshot area

• Select a range by dragging mouse over area of interest - to make a screenshot of a range
  OR
• Click a window - to make screenshot of a window
  OR
• Click desktop or the edge of the screen - to make screenshot of the whole desktop

2. Release mouse button. Your screenshot is now saved to your clipboard. You can paste it somewhere, e.g. into Gimp, Hangouts or a Skype conversation.

Advanced usage

Annotations

Select screenshot range with one of above ways, press and hold Shift key and release Left Mouse Button. The tool will enter Annotation mode.

In Annotation mode, current tool can be changed with Space.

The following tools are implemented:

• Arrow - drag mouse to create an arrow
• Freehand - drag mouse to create a freehand line
• Line - draw mouse to create a horizontal or vertical line
• Eraser - drag mouse to create a filled rectangle

Release Shift to save the screenshot to the clipboard.

Use Right Mouse Button to undo last action (creating an annotation or selecting screenshot area).

Freezing screen

Add --freeze parameter to take capture of the whole screen right after starting the tool, still allowing you to select region or window of interest.

Saving screenshot

In addition to saving the screenshot to the clipboard, screentool will also save each captured screenshot in $HOME/screenshots directory if such directory is present in the filesystem.

Known limitations

Due to the nature of Go static linking, Go apps grow quickly in size. As a result, if screentool is dropped out of filesystem cache, a noticeable lag may occur when starting the tool.

screentool's Issues

window's capture doesn't work when fractional scale is enabled (ubuntu 20.10)

screen should be freezed when taking the screenshot

Imagine you want to take a screenshot of a live video that can't be paused. It would be nice to "pause" everything on the screen when you are taking the screen.

how to install?