Is there a snip equivalent on Raspbian?

Question

I use snip all the time on windows for taking screenshots.

Is there something similar in raspbian?

Note: I wish to take screenshots in the raspbian desktop environment, (LXDE).

My desktop details are as follows:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ dpkg --get-selections | grep desktop
desktop-base                                    install
desktop-file-utils                              install
gir1.2-freedesktop:armhf                        install
gnome-desktop3-data                             install
gsettings-desktop-schemas                       install
libgnome-desktop-3-10                           install

The linux standard base is as follows:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsb_release -a
    No LSB modules are available.
    Distributor ID: Raspbian
    Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 8.0 (jessie)
    Release:        8.0
    Codename:       jessie

Answer 1

"The raspbian desktop environment" is actually LXDE, so you might want to investigate that way.

If nothing turns up, as a last resort GIMP will take screenshots and should be available via apt. It is a bit of a sledgehammer in this context:

• Open it on a separate desktop (I think having multiple desktops is unfamiliar to most MS Windows users?).

• Select File->Create->Screenshot, there are further self-explanatory options there.

• Switch back to the desktop you want a snap of and click the mouse.

• To save the image, use File->Export As; GIMP's native format is viewable only in GIMP.

GIMP is fairly versatile and, as the homepage says, now in its 20th year, so if you look around there may be a way to do this via a command or script you could associate with a hotkey in LXDE.

---

ImageMagick provides a simpler method (apt install imagemagick first), e.g.:

import -window root screenshot.jpg

Again, this could be associated with a hotkey or something. You can do it from another desktop terminal by using a brief pause:

sleep 3; import -window root screenshot.jpg

Then switch over to wherever.

Answer 2

To add a screenshot tool as a hotkey, these instructions detail how to:

1. set up a tool (personally, I recommend scrot, as you can get it to set the file name to include the date and time)

2. edit ~/.config/openbox/lxde-pi-rc.xml (NB: different for a Raspberry Pi than the instructions) to include something like this in the <keyboard> section:

   <keybind key="Print">
    <action name="Execute">
     <command>scrot 'screenshot-%F_%T.png'</command>
    </action>
   </keybind>
   

3. Reload your preferences with openbox --reconfigure

This should save a screen shot if you hit PrintScreen.