After moving to Linux and KDE Plasma from macOS, I only missed one thing that I used all the time: The Screenshot tool. The Shortcuts on macOS have been engraved in my head after probably thausand of uses so I figured I'd give replicating them a try.
Creating new Shortcuts was surprisingly easy so here is a rundown of it
NOTE: A recent edit of this document now includes a Plasma Native approach using Spectacle. I would recommend using Spectacle as it directly integrates with KWin and the clipboard, will support wayland in the future and is a lot cleaner to work with.
You will need
- A directory to store screenshots in (I use
~/pictures/screenshots) - Spectacle set up to use said screenshot directory
- Spectacle set up to use "Accept on click-and-release" for rectangular regions
As I already said this is surprisingly easy.
Open System Settings, then go to Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts. Here I created a group called "Screenshot" so that its all tidy.
I added the following:
-
Area
Comment: Makes a screenshot of an selected area and saves it to a file
Trigger: Shift + Command + 4
Action:spectacle --background --region -
Area Clipboard
Comment: Makes a screenshot of an selected area and copies it to the clipboard
Trigger: Shift + Control + Command + 4
Action:spectacle --background --region --copy-image -
Full
Comment: Makes a screenshot of all screens and saves it to a file
Trigger: Shift + Command + 3
Action:spectacle --background -
Full Clipboard
Comment: Makes a screenshot of all screens and copies it to the clipboard
Trigger: Shift + Control + Command + 3
Action:spectacle --background --copy-image
You will need
- A directory to store screenshots in (I use
~/pictures/screenshots) - An install of maim
- An install of either xclip or copyq (I will go into this in the next secion)
At first I just used the example from the maim readme to put screenshots into the clipboard, meaning xlip. Sadly this was giving me issues (similar to this) so I decided to switch to copyq.
As I only use copyq for screenshots I set the following config values
autostart true
maxitems 1
I also unchecked every option in Clipboard Manipulation in the config menu and hid its tray icon
If xclip does not have issues on your system it is surely a more lightwight solution, I will include command for both tools down below
As I already said this is surprisingly easy.
Open System Settings, then go to Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts. Here I created a group called "Screenshot" so that its all tidy.
I added the following:
-
Area
Comment: Makes a screenshot of an selected area and saves it to a file
Trigger: Shift + Command + 4
Action:maim -su ~/pictures/screenshots/$(date --iso-8601=seconds).png -
Area Clipboard
Comment: Makes a screenshot of an selected area and copies it to the clipboard
Trigger: Shift + Control + Command + 4
Action:maim -su | copyq write image/png - && copyq select 0ormaim -su | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png -
Full
Comment: Makes a screenshot of all screens and saves it to a file
Trigger: Shift + Command + 3
Action:maim -u ~/pictures/screenshots/$(date --iso-8601=seconds).png -
Full Clipboard
Comment: Makes a screenshot of all screens and copies it to the clipboard
Trigger: Shift + Control + Command + 3
Action:maim -u | copyq write image/png - && copyq select 0ormaim -u | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png
Of course you can also set your own flags for maim, there is a lot to choose from!
I'm just using -u everywhere, which hides the cursor