Raiden's Realm: KDE Screen captures with KSnapshot

KDE Screen captures with KSnapshot (Page 1 of 1)

Written by Doug Bonnell
Posted on: May 04, 2007 at 12:54pm
Section: Tutorials
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The KDE desktop environment for Linux has a handy graphics tool for capturing screenshots called KSnapshot. This utility lets you make screenshots in any of 4 different capture modes and allows you to save
the results as JPEG, PNG or XPM files.

In addition to the 4 capture modes, KSnapshot has options to delay capture and to capture a window without the window decorations such as borders, titlebar, etc. The delay option lets you click on things in the capture area, such as drop down menus.

The first capture mode is Full Screen:

Fig. 1 KSnapshot Fullscreen Mode

The "windows decorations" option doesn't exist for this capture mode since we are going for the entire screen. You can delay the capture, allowing Kmenu to be activated or various tooltip ballons, etc.

Fig. 2 Fullscreen Capture Example

The second capture mode is Window Under Cursor:

Fig. 3 Window Under Cursor Mode

As the name implies, any window under the mouse cursor will be captured. If the windows decoration box is checked, you will get the window borders, titlebar, etc. If a delay time is set, then you can do things such as pull down menus in the window before KSnapshot does the capture.

Fig. 4 Window Under Cursor Capture Example

The third capture mode is Region:

Fig. 5 Region Mode

In this capture mode, you use the mouse cursor to select a retangular region of the desktop for capture. Since this is interactive, there is no delay option available. Window decorations don't matter for this capture as well.

Fig. 6 Region Capture Example

The fourth capture mode is Section of Window:

Fig. 7 Section of Window Mode

GUI application have a number of elements that make up the application's window. There are display areas, lists, lists with scrollbars, etc. This capture mode allows you to select one of these elements or sections for capture.

Fig. 8 Section of Window Capture Example

The Snapshot delay option:

Fig. 9 Snapshot Delay Option

This option allows you to set a timer for KSnapshot. Once you click on the New Snapshot button, you have the designated number of seconds to do things on the desktop, window or window section you are capturing.

This option is active for fullscreen, window under cursor and window section modes.

Fig. 10 Snapshot Delay Option Example

The Include window decorations option:

Fig. 11 Include Window Decorations Option

This option is used with the window under cursor capture mode. If checked, the capture will also include the window borders, titlebar, etc. If it is not checked, the capture will be for just the contents of the window.

Example of Include WIndow Decorations Option

Fig. 12 Unchecked Window Decorations Option Example

KSnapshot is a handy little tool for a wide range of screen captures.About the only thing it can't do is capture the contents of the display windows for some video players. You will need a video capture tool such as xvidcap to get captures from those applications.

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