flameshot

Flameshot

Powerful yet simple to use screenshot software.

Usage Preview

Index

• Features
• Contribute
• Usage
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Considerations
• Installation
• Compilation
  • Debian
  • Fedora
  • Arch
  • Install
• Packaging
• License
• Donations

Features

• Customizable appearance.
• Easy to use.
• In-app screenshot edition.
• DBus interface.
• Upload to Imgur.

Contribute

If you want to contribute check the CONTRIBUTING.md

Usage

Example commands:

• capture with GUI:

flameshot gui

• capture with GUI with custom save path:

flameshot gui -p ~/myStuff/captures

• open GUI with a delay of 2 seconds:

flameshot gui -d 2000

• fullscreen capture with custom save path (no GUI) and delayed:

flameshot full -p ~/myStuff/captures -d 5000

• fullscreen capture with custom save path copying to clipboard:

flameshot full -c -p ~/myStuff/captures

• capture the screen containing the mouse and print the image (bytes) in PNG format:

flameshot screen -r

• capture the screen number 1 and copy it to the clipboard:

flameshot screen -n 1 -c

In case of doubt choose the first or the second command as shortcut in your favorite desktop environment.

A systray icon will be in your system's panel while Flameshot is running. Do a right click on the tray icon and you'll see some menu items to open the configuration window and the information window. Check out the information window to see all the available shortcuts in the graphical capture mode.

CLI configuration

You can use the graphical menu to configure Flameshot, but alternatively you can use your terminal or scripts to do so.

• open the configuration menu:

flameshot config

• show the initial help message in the capture mode:

flameshot config --showhelp true

• for more information about the available options use the help flag:

flameshot config -h

Keyboard shortcuts

Local

These shortcuts are available in GUI mode:

Keys	Description
←, ↓, ↑, →	Move selection 1px
Shift + ←, ↓, ↑, →	Resize selection 1px
Esc	Quit capture
Ctrl + C	Copy to clipboard
Ctrl + S	Save selection as a file
Ctrl + Z	Undo the last modification
Right Click	Show color picker
Mouse Wheel	Change the tool's thickness

Shift + drag a handler of the selection area: mirror redimension in the opposite handler.

Global

If you want use Flameshot as a default screenshot utility, chances are you want to launch it using the Prt Sc key. Flameshot doesn't yet offer a fully-automated option to do so, but you can configure your system to do so.

On KDE Plasma desktop

To make configuration easier, there's a file in the repository that more or less automates this process. This file will assign the following keys to the following actions by default:

Keys	Description
Prt Sc	Start the Flameshot screenshot tool and take a screenshot
Ctrl + Prt Sc	Wait for 3 seconds, then start the Flameshot screenshot tool and take a screenshot
Shift + Prt Sc	Take a full-screen (all monitors) screenshot and save it
Ctrl + Shift + Prt Sc	Take a full-screen (all monitors) screenshot and copy it to the clipboard

If you don't like the defaults, you can change them manually later.

Steps for using the configuration:

1. The configuration file configures shortcuts so that Flameshot automatically saves (without opening the save dialog) screenshots to ~/Pictures/Screenshots folder. Make sure you have that folder by running the following command:

   mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots
   

   (If you don't like the default location, you can skip this step and configure your preferred directory later.)

2. Download the configuration file:

   cd ~/Desktop; wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot/master/docs/shortcuts-config/flameshot-shortcuts-kde
   

3. Go to System Settings → Shortcuts → Custom Shortcuts.

4. If there's one, you'll need to disable an entry for Spectacle, the default KDE screenshot utility first because its shortcuts might collide with Flameshot's ones; so, just uncheck the Spectacle entry.

5. Click Edit → Import..., navigate to the Desktop folder (or wherever you saved the configuration file) and open the configuration file.

6. Now the Flameshot entry should appear in the list. Click Apply to apply the changes.

7. If you want to change the defaults, you can expand the entry, select the appropriate action and modify it as you wish; the process is pretty mush self-explanatory.

Considerations

• Experimental Gnome Wayland and Plasma Wayland support.

• If you are using Gnome you need to install the TopIcons extension in order to see the systemtray icon.

• In order to speed up the first launch of Flameshot (DBus init of the app can be slow), consider starting the application automatically on boot.

• Press Enter or Ctrl + C when you are in a capture mode and you don't have an active selection and the whole desktop will be copied to your clipboard! Pressing Ctrl + S will save your capture in a file! Check the Shortcuts for more information.

• Execute the command flameshot without parameters or use the "Launch Flameshot" desktop entry to launch a running instance of the program without taking actions.

Installation

There are packages available for a few distros:

• Arch
  • Snapshot also available via AUR: flameshot-git.
• Debian 10+: apt install flameshot
  • Package for Debian 9 ("Stretch") also available via stretch-backports.
• Ubuntu 18.04+: apt install flameshot
• openSUSE
• Void Linux (xbps-install flameshot)
• Docker
• Fedora: dnf install flameshot

Compilation

The compilation requires Qt version 5.3 or higher and GCC 4.9.2 or higher.

Debian

Compilation Dependencies:

apt install git g++ build-essential qt5-qmake qt5-default qttools5-dev-tools libqt5svg5-dev

Compilation: run qmake && make in the main directory.

Fedora

Compilation Dependencies:

dnf install qt5-devel gcc-c++ git qt5-qtbase-devel qt5-linguist qt5-qtsvg-devel

Compilation: run qmake-qt5 && make in the main directory.

Arch

Compilation Dependencies:

pacman -S base-devel git qt5-base qt5-tools qt5-svg

Compilation: run qmake && make in the main directory.

Install

Simply use make install with privileges.

Packaging

Having git installed is required if you want to have precise app version information inside Flameshot after the generation of the makefile with qmake.

In order to generate the makefile installing in /usr instead of in /usr/local you can use the packaging option to generate the proper makefile (qmake CONFIG+=packaging instead of just qmake).

If you want to install in a custom directory you can use the INSTALL_ROOT variable.

Example: You want to install Flameshot in ~/myBuilds/test. You would execute the following to do so: qmake CONFIG+=packaging && make INSTALL_ROOT=~/myBuilds/test install

Runtime Dependencies

Debian:

libqt5dbus5, libqt5network5, libqt5core5a, libqt5widgets5, libqt5gui5

Optional:

openssl, ca-certificates

Fedora:

qt5-qtbase

Optional:

openssl, ca-certificates

Arch:

qt5-base

Optional:

openssl, ca-certificates

License

• The main code is licensed under GPLv3
• The logo of Flameshot is licensed under Free Art License v1.3
• The button icons are licensed under Apache License 2.0. See: https://github.com/google/material-design-icons
• The code at capture/capturewidget.cpp is based on https://github.com/ckaiser/Lightscreen/blob/master/dialogs/areadialog.cpp (GPLv2)
• The code at capture/capturewidget.h is based on https://github.com/ckaiser/Lightscreen/blob/master/dialogs/areadialog.h (GPLv2)
• I copied a few lines of code from KSnapshot regiongrabber.cpp revision 796531 (LGPL)
• Qt-Color-Widgets taken and modified from https://github.com/mbasaglia/Qt-Color-Widgets (see their license and exceptions in the project) (LGPL/GPL)

Info: If I take code from your project and that implies a relicense to GPLv3, you can reuse my changes with the original previous license of your project applied.

Donations

I improve Flameshot in my free time because I want to create something good for everyone to use. If you want you can donate some bucks here.

Acknowledgment

I really appreciate those who have shown interest in the early development process:

• Cosmo
• XerTheSquirrel
• The members of Sugus GNU/Linux
• ismatori