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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.
-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.
-u, --focused
Use the currently focused window.
-t, --thumb NUM
Generate thumbnail too. NUM is the percentage of the original size for the thumbnail to be.
-z, --silent
Prevent beeping.

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:

    $f  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
    $$  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.

AUTHOR

scrot was originally developed by Tom Gilbert under MIT-advertising license.

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

12 Feb. 2019 scrot-0.9