How to Take a Screenshot in Ubuntu: Shortcuts, Terminal, Wayland, and Automation

Need to capture the full screen, grab a single window, or select a region — Ubuntu has several tools for each task. Some are built in and work immediately, others offer more control: timers, annotations, cloud auto-save. Here is the complete picture.

Keyboard Shortcuts: Fast and No Setup

Ubuntu with GNOME supports screenshots out of the box — nothing needs to be installed.

Starting with Ubuntu 22.04, pressing Print Screen opens the built-in Screenshot tool with mode selection — full screen, window, or region. Screenshots save to ~/Pictures/Screenshots/.

On laptops where Print Screen shares a key, try Fn + Print Screen.

GNOME Screenshot Tool

Open via Activities search → "Screenshot". The interface lets you choose mode and set a delay — useful for opening a menu before the capture.

Via terminal with the same capabilities:

gnome-screenshot

Active window only:

gnome-screenshot -w

Select region with mouse:

gnome-screenshot -a

Capture with 5-second delay (to open a menu or tooltip first):

gnome-screenshot -d 5

Save to a specific file:

gnome-screenshot -f /home/user/screen.png

Copy to clipboard without saving a file:

gnome-screenshot -c

Region with delay, save to file:

gnome-screenshot -a -d 3 -f ~/Desktop/selection.png

scrot: Lightweight Tool for Scripts and Servers

scrot runs without a GUI and is well suited for automation:

sudo apt install scrot

Capture full screen with date in filename:

scrot ~/Pictures/screenshot_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.png

With 3-second delay:

scrot -d 3 screenshot.png

Select region with mouse (crosshair cursor):

scrot -s screenshot.png

Capture window under cursor:

scrot -u screenshot.png

Run a command after capture (e.g., open the file):

scrot screenshot.png -e 'eog $f'

$f is substituted with the filename of the created screenshot.

flameshot: Annotations and On-the-Spot Editing

Flameshot is a full-featured screenshot tool with drawing, arrows, blur, and crop available immediately after capture. Popular among developers and anyone who regularly creates documentation screenshots.

Install:

sudo apt install flameshot

Launch interactive mode:

flameshot gui

After selecting a region, a toolbar appears: rectangle, arrow, text, blur, color picker. Save or copy to clipboard directly from there.

Capture full screen silently:

flameshot full -p ~/Pictures/

Capture with 2-second delay:

flameshot gui -d 2000

import (ImageMagick): Screenshot from the Command Line

import is part of the ImageMagick package:

sudo apt install imagemagick

Capture full screen:

import -window root screenshot.png

Click to select window or region:

import screenshot.png

Resize during save:

import -window root -resize 50% screenshot.png

Screenshots on Wayland

Ubuntu 22.04+ uses Wayland by default. Most tools are adapted, but there are nuances.

Works on Wayland: GNOME keyboard shortcuts, gnome-screenshot, flameshot (version 12+).

Does not work: older scrot and import — they are built for Xorg and capture a black screen on Wayland.

Check current session:

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

If output is wayland — use gnome-screenshot or grim for CLI tools.

Install grim — a native Wayland screenshot tool:

sudo apt install grim

Capture screen:

grim screenshot.png

Select region via slurp:

sudo apt install slurp
grim -g "$(slurp)" screenshot.png

Copy to clipboard:

grim - | wl-copy

Automatic Screenshots on a Schedule

Useful for monitoring or demonstrations:

while true; do
    scrot ~/Pictures/auto/screenshot_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.png
    sleep 30
done

Via cron every 5 minutes:

crontab -e

*/5 * * * * DISPLAY=:0 scrot /home/user/Pictures/auto/screenshot_\%Y\%m\%d_\%H\%M\%S.png

DISPLAY=:0 is required — cron runs without a graphical environment.

Screenshots on Ubuntu Server (No GUI)

Ubuntu Server has no desktop — but to capture a virtual terminal framebuffer:

sudo apt install fbgrab
fbgrab screenshot.png

fbgrab captures the framebuffer. Works only on a physical display, not in an SSH session.

To capture terminal output in SSH — use tmux capture-pane:

tmux capture-pane -p > terminal_output.txt

If Screenshots Are Not Working

Print Screen does nothing — the shortcut may be reassigned. Check: Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → System.

Black file saved on Wayland — scrot and older import do not support Wayland. Use gnome-screenshot or grim.

Screenshots folder not created — create it manually:

mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots

flameshot does not open on Wayland — verify version 12+ is installed:

flameshot --version

Quick Reference