scrot(1) command line screen capture utility scrot(1)
NAME
scrot - command line screen capture utility
SYNOPSIS
scrot [-bcfhimopuvz] [-a X,Y,W,H] [-C NAME] [-D DISPLAY] [-d SEC] [-e CMD]
[-F FILE] [-k OPT] [-l STYLE] [-M NUM] [-n OPTS] [-q NUM] [-S CMD] [-s OPTS]
[-t NUM | GEOM] [FILE]
DESCRIPTION
scrot (SCReenshOT) is a simple command line screen capture utility, it
uses imlib2 to grab and save images.
scrot has many useful features:
• Support for multiple image formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, and oth-
ers.
• The screenshot's quality is configurable.
• It is possible to capture a specific window or a rectangular
area on the screen.
Because scrot is a command line utility, it can easily be scripted and
put to novel uses. For instance, scrot can be used to monitor an X
server in absence.
scrot is free software under the MIT-advertising license.
OPTIONS
-a, --autoselect X,Y,W,H
Non-interactively choose a rectangle starting at position X,Y
and of W by H resolution.
-b, --border
When selecting a window, grab the WM's border too. Use with -s
to raise the focus of the window.
-C, --class NAME
NAME is a window class name. Associative with -k.
-c, --count
Display a countdown when used with -d.
-D, --display DISPLAY
DISPLAY is the display to use; see X(7).
-d, --delay SEC
Wait SEC seconds before taking a shot.
-e, --exec CMD
Execute CMD on the saved image.
-F, --file
File name. See SPECIAL STRINGS.
-f, --freeze
Freeze the screen when -s is used.
-h, --help
Display help and exit.
-i, --ignorekeyboard
Don't exit for keyboard input. ESC still exits.
-k, --stack OPT
Capture stack/overlapped windows and join them. A running Com-
posite Manager is needed. OPT it's optional join letter: v/h
(vertical/horizontal). Default: h
-l, --line STYLE
STYLE indicates the style of the line when the -s option is
used; see SELECTION STYLE.
-M, --monitor NUM
Capture Xinerama monitor number NUM.
-m, --multidisp
For multiple heads, screenshot all of them in order.
-n, --note OPTS
OPTS is a collection of options which specify notes to bake into
the image. See NOTE FORMAT.
-o, --overwrite
By default scrot does not overwrite the output FILE, use this
option to enable it.
-p, --pointer
Capture the mouse pointer.
-q, --quality NUM
NUM must be between 1 and 100. For lossless output formats, a
higher value represents better but slower compression. For lossy
output formats, a higher value represents higher quality and
larger file size. Default: 75.
-S, --script CMD
CMD is an imlib2 script.
-s, --select OPTS
Interactively select a window or rectangle with the mouse, use
the arrow keys to resize. See the -l and -f options. OPTS it's
optional; see SELECTION MODE
-t, --thumb NUM | GEOM
Also generate a thumbnail. The argument is the resolution of the
thumbnail, it may be a percentage NUM or a resolution GEOM. Ex-
amples: 10, 25, 320x240, 500x200.
-u, --focused
Use the currently focused window.
-v, --version
Output version information and exit.
-z, --silent
Prevent beeping.
- Redirection to standard output. The output image format is PNG.
SPECIAL STRINGS
-e, -F and FILE 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). The second
kind are internal to scrot and are prefixed by '$'. The following spec-
ifiers are recognised by scrot:
$$ A literal '$'.
$a The system's hostname.
$f The image's full path (ignored when used in the filename).
$h The image's height.
$m The thumbnail's full path (ignored when used in the filename).
$n The image's basename (ignored when used in the filename).
$p The image's pixel size.
$s The image's size in bytes (ignored when used in the filename).
$t The image's file format (ignored when used in the filename).
$w The image's width.
$W The name of the window (only for --select and --focused).
\n A literal newline (ignored when used in the filename).
Example:
$ scrot '%Y-%m-%d_$wx$h.png' -e 'optipng $f'
This would create a PNG file with a name similar to
2000-10-30_2560x1024.png and optimize it with optipng(1).
SELECTION MODE
When using -s, optionally you can indicate the action to perform with
the selection area. Some actions allow optional parameters too.
capture Capture the selection area, this action is by default and
does not need to be specified.
hole Highlight the selected area overshadowing the rest of the capture.
hide,IMAGE Hide the selection area by drawing an area of color (or image) over it.
Optionally indicate name of the image to use as cover.
Image has priority over color.
blur,AMOUNT Blurs the selection area.
Optionally you can specify the amount of blur.
Amount,range: 1..30, default: 18
In modes 'hole' and 'hide' the color of the area is indicated by
'color' property of the line style and the opacity of the color (or im-
age) is indicated by property 'opacity', SELECTION STYLE
If the 'hide' mode uses an image that does not have an alpha channel,
the opacity parameter will be ignored and it will be drawn fully
opaque.
Examples:
$ scrot --select=hide
$ scrot -shole --line color="Dark Salmon",opacity=200
$ scrot -sblur,10
$ scrot -shide,stamp.png --line opacity=120
SELECTION STYLE
When using -s, you can indicate the style of the line with -l.
-l takes a comma-separated list of specifiers as argument:
style=STYLE STYLE is either "solid" or "dash" without quotes.
width=NUM NUM is a pixel count between 1 and 8 inclusive.
color="COLOR" Color is a hexadecimal HTML color code or the name of
a color. HTML color codes are composed of a pound
sign '#' followed by a sequence of 3 2-digit
hexadecimal numbers which represent red, green, and
blue respectively. Examples: #FF0000 (red), #E0FFFF
(light cyan), #000000 (black).
opacity=NUM NUM is between 0 and 255 inclusive. 255 means
100% opaque, 0 means 100% transparent. For the
opacity of the line this is only effective if a
Composite Manager is running.
mode=MODE MODE is either "edge" or "classic" without quotes.
edge is the new selection, classic uses the old one.
"edge" ignores the style specifier and the -f flag,
"classic" ignores the opacity specifier.
Without the -l option, a default style is used:
mode=classic,style=solid,width=1,opacity=100
Example:
$ scrot -l style=dash,width=3,color="red" -s
NOTE FORMAT
The -n option's argument is more arguments:
-f 'FontName/size'
-t 'text'
-x position (optional)
-y position (optional)
-c color(RGBA, range 0..255) (optional)
-a angle (optional)
Example:
$ scrot -n "-f '/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSans-Bold/40' -x 10
-y 20 -c 255,0,0,255 -t 'Hi'"
SEE ALSO
optipng(1)
AUTHOR
scrot was originally developed by Tom Gilbert.
Currently, source code is maintained by volunteers. Newer versions are
available at https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/scrot
scrot-1.8.1 20 Jan 2023 scrot(1)
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