1scrot(1) command line screen capture utility scrot(1)
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6 scrot - command line screen capture utility
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9 scrot [-bcfhikmopsuvz] [-a X,Y,W,H] [-C NAME] [-D DISPLAY] [-d SEC] [-e CMD]
10 [-F FILE] [-l STYLE] [-n OPTS] [-q NUM] [-S CMD] [-t NUM | GEOM] [FILE]
11
14 scrot (SCReenshOT) is a simple command line screen capture utility, it
15 uses imlib2 to grab and save images.
16 scrot has many useful features:
18 • Support for multiple image formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, and oth‐
20 ers.
21 • The screenshot's quality is configurable.
23 • It is possible to capture a specific window or a rectangular
25 area on the screen.
26 Because scrot is a command line utility, it can easily be scripted and
28 put to novel uses. For instance, scrot can be used to monitor an X
29 server in absence.
30 scrot is free software under the MIT-advertising license.
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34 -a, --autoselect X,Y,W,H
35 Non-interactively choose a rectangle starting at position X,Y
36 and of W by H resolution.
37 -b, --border
39 When selecting a window, grab the WM's border too. Use with -s
40 to raise the focus of the window.
41 -C, --class NAME
43 NAME is a window class name. Associative with -k.
44 -c, --count
46 Display a countdown when used with -d.
47 -D, --display DISPLAY
49 DISPLAY is the display to use; see X(7).
50 -d, --delay SEC
52 Wait SEC seconds before taking a shot.
53 -e, --exec CMD
55 Execute CMD on the saved image.
56 -F, --file
58 File name. See SPECIAL STRINGS.
59 -f, --freeze
61 Freeze the screen when -s is used.
62 -h, --help
64 Display help and exit.
65 -i, --ignorekeyboard
67 Don't exit for keyboard input. ESC still exits.
68 -k, --stack OPT
70 Capture stack/overlapped windows and join them. A running Com‐
71 posite Manager is needed. OPT it's optional join letter: v/h
72 (vertical/horizontal). Default: h
73 -l, --line STYLE
75 STYLE indicates the style of the line when the -s option is
76 used; see SELECTION STYLE.
77 -m, --multidisp
79 For multiple heads, screenshot all of them in order.
80 -n, --note OPTS
82 OPTS is a collection of options which specify notes to bake into
83 the image. See NOTE FORMAT.
84 -o, --overwrite
86 By default scrot does not overwrite the output FILE, use this
87 option to enable it.
88 -p, --pointer
90 Capture the mouse pointer.
91 -q, --quality NUM
93 NUM must be between 1 and 100. For lossless output formats, a
94 higher value represents better but slower compression. For lossy
95 output formats, a higher value represents higher quality and
96 larger file size. Default: 75.
97 -S, --script CMD
99 CMD is an imlib2 script.
100 -s, --select OPT
102 Interactively select a window or rectangle with the mouse, use
103 the arrow keys to resize. See the -l and -f options. OPT it's
104 optional; see SELECTION MODE
105 -t, --thumb NUM | GEOM
107 Also generate a thumbnail. The argument is the resolution of the
108 thumbnail, it may be a percentage NUM or a resolution GEOM. Ex‐
109 amples: 10, 25, 320x240, 500x200.
110 -u, --focused
112 Use the currently focused window.
113 -v, --version
115 Output version information and exit.
116 -z, --silent
118 Prevent beeping.
119 - Redirection to standard output. The output image format is PNG.
121
123 -e, -F and FILE parameters can take format specifiers that are expanded
124 by scrot when encountered. There are two types of format specifier:
125 Characters preceded by a '%' are interpreted by strftime(2). The second
126 kind are internal to scrot and are prefixed by '$'. The following spec‐
127 ifiers are recognised by scrot:
128 $$ A literal '$'.
130 $a The system's hostname.
131 $f The image's full path (ignored when used in the filename).
132 $h The image's height.
133 $m The thumbnail's full path (ignored when used in the filename).
134 $n The image's basename (ignored when used in the filename).
135 $p The image's pixel size.
136 $s The image's size in bytes (ignored when used in the filename).
137 $t The image's file format (ignored when used in the filename).
138 $w The image's width.
139 \n A literal newline (ignored when used in the filename).
140 Example:
142 $ scrot '%Y-%m-%d_$wx$h.png' -e 'optipng $f'
144 This would create a PNG file with a name similar to
146 2000-10-30_2560x1024.png and optimize it with optipng(1).
147
149 When using -s, optionally you can indicate the action to perform with
150 the selection area. Some actions allow optional parameters too.
151 capture Capture the selection area, this action is by default and
153 does not need to be specified.
154 hole Highlight the selected area overshadowing the rest of the capture.
156 hide,IMAGE Hide the selection area by drawing an area of color (or image) over it.
158 Optionally indicate name of the image to use as cover.
159 Image has priority over color.
160 blur,AMOUNT Blurs the selection area.
162 Optionally you can specify the amount of blur.
163 Amount,range: 1..30, default: 18
164 In modes 'hole' and 'hide' the color of the area is indicated by
166 'color' property of the line style and the opacity of the color (or im‐
167 age) is indicated by property 'opacity', SELECTION STYLE
168 If the 'hide' mode uses an image that does not have an alpha channel,
170 the opacity parameter will be ignored and it will be drawn fully
171 opaque.
172 Examples:
174 $ scrot --select=hide
176 $ scrot -shole --line color="Dark Salmon",opacity=200
177 $ scrot -sblur,10
178 $ scrot -shide,stamp.png --line opacity=120
179
182 When using -s, you can indicate the style of the line with -l.
183 -l takes a comma-separated list of specifiers as argument:
185 style=STYLE STYLE is either "solid" or "dash" without quotes.
187 width=NUM NUM is a pixel count between 1 and 8 inclusive.
189 color="COLOR" Color is a hexadecimal HTML color code or the name of
191 a color. HTML color codes are composed of a pound
192 sign '#' followed by a sequence of 3 2-digit
193 hexadecimal numbers which represent red, green, and
194 blue respectively. Examples: #FF0000 (red), #E0FFFF
195 (light cyan), #000000 (black).
196 opacity=NUM NUM is between 0 and 255 inclusive. 255 means
198 100% opaque, 0 means 100% transparent. For the
199 opacity of the line this is only effective if a
200 Composite Manager is running.
201 mode=MODE MODE is either "edge" or "classic" without quotes.
203 edge is the new selection, classic uses the old one.
204 "edge" ignores the style specifier and the -f flag,
205 "classic" ignores the opacity specifier.
206 Without the -l option, a default style is used:
208 mode=classic,style=solid,width=1,opacity=100
210 Example:
212 $ scrot -l style=dash,width=3,color="red" -s
214
217 The -n option's argument is more arguments:
218 -f 'FontName/size'
220 -t 'text'
221 -x position (optional)
222 -y position (optional)
223 -c color(RGBA, range 0..255) (optional)
224 -a angle (optional)
225 Example:
227 $ scrot -n "-f '/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSans-Bold/40' -x 10
229 -y 20 -c 255,0,0,255 -t 'Hi'"
230
233 scrot was originally developed by Tom Gilbert.
234 Currently, source code is maintained by volunteers. Newer versions are
236 available at https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/scrot
237scrot-1.7 09 Nov 2021 scrot(1)