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scrot(1) command line screen capture utility scrot(1)

NAME

scrot - command line screen capture utility

SYNOPSIS

scrot [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION

scrot (SCReenshOT) is a simple command line screen capture utility that uses imlib2 to grab and save images. Multiple image formats are supported through imlib2's dynamic saver modules.

Some features of the scrot:

  • support to multiple image formats (JPG, PNG, GIF, etc.).
  • optimization of the screen shots image quality.
  • capture a specific window or a rectangular area on the screen with the help of switch.

scrot also can be used to monitor a desktop PC in admin absent and register unwanted activities.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
Display help output and exit.
-v, --version
Output version information and exit.
-D, --display
Specify the display to use; see X(7).
-a, --autoselect
Non-interactively choose a rectangle of x,y,w,h.
-b, --border
When selecting a window, grab wm border too.
-c, --count
Display a countdown when used with delay.
-d, --delay NUM
Wait NUM seconds before taking a shot.
-e, --exec APP
Exec APP on the saved image.
-q, --quality NUM
Image quality (1-100) high value means high size, low compression. Default: 75. (Effect differs depending on file format chosen).
-m, --multidisp
For multiple heads, grab shot from each and join them together.
-s, --select
Interactively select a window or rectangle with the mouse. See -l and -f options.
-l, --line
Indicates the style of the line when the -s option is used. See SELECTION STYLE.
-f, --freeze
Freeze the screen when the -s option is used.
-u, --focused
Use the currently focused window.
-t, --thumb NUM|GEOM
Generate thumbnail too. NUM is the percentage of the original size for the thumbnail to be. Alternatively, a GEOMetry can be specified, example: 300x200
-z, --silent
Prevent beeping.
-p, --pointer
Capture the mouse pointer.
-o, --overwrite
By default scrot does not overwrite the files, use this option to allow it.
-n, --note
Draw a text note. See NOTE FORMAT.
-k, --stack
Capture stack/overlapped windows and join them together. A running Composite Manager is needed.

SPECIAL STRINGS

Both the --exec and filename parameters can take format specifiers that are expanded by scrot when encountered. There are two types of format specifier. Characters preceded by a '%' are interpreted by strftime(2). See man strftime for examples. These options may be used to refer to the current date and time. The second kind are internal to scrot and are prefixed by '$' The following specifiers are recognised: 

    $a  hostname
    $f  image path/filename (ignored when used in the filename)
    $m  thumb image path/filename (ignored when used in the filename)
    $n  image name (ignored when used in the filename)
    $s  image size (bytes) (ignored when used in the filename)
    $p  image pixel size
    $w  image width
    $h  image height
    $t  image format (ignored when used in the filename)
    $$  print a literal '$'
    \n  print a newline (ignored when used in the filename)
Example: 

    $ scrot '%Y-%m-%d_$wx$h.png' -e 'mv $f ~/shots/'
This would create a file called something like 2000-10-30_2560x1024.png and move it to your shots directory.

SELECTION STYLE

When using --select you can indicate the style of the line with --line.

The following specifiers are recognised:

    style=(solid,dash),width=(range 1 to 8),color="value"
The default style is: 

    style=solid,width=1
For the color you can use a name or a hexadecimal value. 

    color="red" or color="#ff0000"
Example: 

    $ scrot --line style=dash,width=3,color="red" --select

NOTE FORMAT

The following specifiers are recognised for the option --note: 

    -f 'FontName/size'
    -t 'text'
    -x position (optional)
    -y position (optional)
    -c color(RGBA) (optional)
    -a angle (optional)
Example: 

    $ scrot --note "-f '/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSans-Bold/40' -x 10 -y 20 -c 255,0,0,255 -t 'Hi'"

AUTHOR

scrot was originally developed by Tom Gilbert under MIT-advertising license and is maintained by some people.

Currently, source code and newer versions are available at https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/scrot

18 July 2020 scrot-1.4