Most Linux distribution comes with a screen capture program, usually the default for each desktop environment. Such programs are Spectacle for KDE and shutter for GNOME. The default screen capture programs would integrate nicely with the desktop environment, utilizing keyboard keys and shortcuts.

If you're working from the command line, such as within an SSH session, you will need a command-line tool to capture your screen. Some dedicated tool for command-line screen capture such as scrot exists, but ImageMagick's import tool is a better option. ImageMagick is simply a swiss-knife tool for command-line image processing and is a good one at that too.

Steps to take screenshot from command line in Linux:

  1. Launch your preferred terminal application.
  2. Install imagemagick for your Linux distribution.

    $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes imagemagick #Ubuntu and Debian

  3. Use ImageMagick's import tool to capture screen from the terminal.

    $ import -window root -pause 3 Screenshot-$(date --iso-8601=seconds).png

    Capture options:

    • -window root: capture the entire screen
    • -pause 3: add a 3 seconds delay before creating screen shot, perhaps to close unnecessary application etc.
    • Screenshot-$(date –iso-8601=seconds).png: target file name to save the screenshot to, using date command to produce a timestamped filename.

    More options for import:

    $ import --help Version: ImageMagick 7.0.8-53 Q16 x86_64 2019-07-09 https://imagemagick.org Copyright: © 1999-2019 ImageMagick Studio LLC License: https://imagemagick.org/script/license.php Features: Cipher DPC HDRI Modules OpenMP(3.1) Delegates (built-in): bzlib freetype heic jng jp2 jpeg lcms ltdl lzma openexr png tiff webp xml zlib Usage: import [options ...] [ file ]  Image Settings:   -adjoin              join images into a single multi-image file   -border              include window border in the output image   -channel type        apply option to select image channels   -colorspace type     alternate image colorspace   -comment string      annotate image with comment   -compress type       type of pixel compression when writing the image   -define format:option                        define one or more image format options   -density geometry    horizontal and vertical density of the image   -depth value         image depth   -descend             obtain image by descending window hierarchy   -display server      X server to contact   -dispose method      layer disposal method   -dither method       apply error diffusion to image   -delay value         display the next image after pausing   -encipher filename   convert plain pixels to cipher pixels   -endian type         endianness (MSB or LSB) of the image   -encoding type       text encoding type   -filter type         use this filter when resizing an image   -format "string"     output formatted image characteristics   -frame               include window manager frame   -gravity direction   which direction to gravitate towards   -identify            identify the format and characteristics of the image   -interlace type      None, Line, Plane, or Partition   -interpolate method  pixel color interpolation method   -label string        assign a label to an image   -limit type value    Area, Disk, Map, or Memory resource limit   -monitor             monitor progress   -page geometry       size and location of an image canvas   -pause seconds       seconds delay between snapshots   -pointsize value     font point size   -quality value       JPEG/MIFF/PNG compression level   -quiet               suppress all warning messages   -regard-warnings     pay attention to warning messages   -repage geometry     size and location of an image canvas   -respect-parentheses settings remain in effect until parenthesis boundary   -sampling-factor geometry                        horizontal and vertical sampling factor   -scene value         image scene number   -screen              select image from root window   -seed value          seed a new sequence of pseudo-random numbers   -set property value  set an image property   -silent              operate silently, i.e. don't ring any bells   -snaps value         number of screen snapshots   -support factor      resize support: > 1.0 is blurry, < 1.0 is sharp   -synchronize         synchronize image to storage device   -taint               declare the image as modified   -transparent-color color                        transparent color   -treedepth value     color tree depth   -verbose             print detailed information about the image   -virtual-pixel method                        Constant, Edge, Mirror, or Tile   -window id           select window with this id or name                        root selects whole screen  Image Operators:   -annotate geometry text                        annotate the image with text   -colors value        preferred number of colors in the image   -crop geometry       preferred size and location of the cropped image   -encipher filename   convert plain pixels to cipher pixels   -geometry geometry   preferred size or location of the image   -help                print program options   -monochrome          transform image to black and white   -negate              replace every pixel with its complementary color   -quantize colorspace reduce colors in this colorspace   -resize geometry     resize the image   -rotate degrees      apply Paeth rotation to the image   -strip               strip image of all profiles and comments   -thumbnail geometry  create a thumbnail of the image   -transparent color   make this color transparent within the image   -trim                trim image edges   -type type           image type  Miscellaneous Options:   -debug events        display copious debugging information   -help                print program options   -list type           print a list of supported option arguments   -log format          format of debugging information   -version             print version information  By default, 'file' is written in the MIFF image format.  To specify a particular image format, precede the filename with an image format name and a colon (i.e. ps:image) or specify the image type as the filename suffix (i.e. image.ps).  Specify 'file' as '-' for standard input or output.

  4. Check output file to check if screenshot is properly captured.

    $ file Screenshot-*.png Screenshot-2019-07-22T13:59:02+08:00.png: PNG image data, 800 x 610, 8-bit/color RGB, non-interlaced

  5. Use other ImageMagick tools to further process saved screenshot (optional).