Ksnip 1.6.0 Screenshot Software Released With System Tray Icon, Global Hotkeys, Watermarks And More
A new major version of Ksnip screenshot tool was released yesterday with numerous improvements like global hotkeys for taking a screenshot on Linux (X11) and Windows, a system tray icon and the ability to start Ksnip minimized to the tray, the ability to add watermarks to screenshots, and more.
Ksnip is a free and open source Qt5 screenshot tool that runs on Linux (X11, and experimental KDE and GNOME Wayland support), Windows and macOS.
The tool is quite similar to Shutter, a popular Linux screenshot tool that's no longer in the repositories on most Linux distributions. After taking a screenshot of the active windows, a rectangular area, current screen or all screens, Ksnip offers tools that allow users to annotate the screenshots. You can draw with a pen, add arrows, rectangles, text, numbers and more, with configurable colors and size. Optionally, the screenshots can then be uploaded to Imgur.
As a side note, I still maintain a Shutter Ubuntu PPA for those wanting to use Shutter in Ubuntu, but it still uses Gtk2 with Perl Gtk2 bindings which makes it harder and harder to package for newer Ubuntu versions, so it will go away at some point unless it's ported to Gtk3.
Major improvements in Ksnip 1.6.0 include:
If you're a GNOME Shell user and want to use the new Ksnip system tray feature, make sure you have the KStatusNotifierItem / AppIndicator Support extension installed or else you won't have any tray icons. There's no need to install anything on Ubuntu, as this is installed by default.
With this release, Ksnip becomes one of the most competent screenshot tools for Linux, and a great replacement for Shutter. The application is even distributed in multiple binary formats on Linux (DEB, RPM, AppImage) to make it easy to install. It's not available on Flathub or the Snap Store though.
While for my use case there's nothing else I'd need in an application for taking screenshots, there are still some features that some users might want, like uploading images to more services (currently only Imgur is supported), and the ability to take full website screenshots. But even without those, this is one of the best screenshot tools for Linux available right now.
The Ksnip releases page has binaries for Windows, macOS and Linux (DEB, RPM and AppImage). There's also an unofficial Arch Linux / Manjaro AUR package.
To easily integrate AppImage binaries with your Linux desktop, check out AppImageLauncher.
Ksnip is a free and open source Qt5 screenshot tool that runs on Linux (X11, and experimental KDE and GNOME Wayland support), Windows and macOS.
The tool is quite similar to Shutter, a popular Linux screenshot tool that's no longer in the repositories on most Linux distributions. After taking a screenshot of the active windows, a rectangular area, current screen or all screens, Ksnip offers tools that allow users to annotate the screenshots. You can draw with a pen, add arrows, rectangles, text, numbers and more, with configurable colors and size. Optionally, the screenshots can then be uploaded to Imgur.
As a side note, I still maintain a Shutter Ubuntu PPA for those wanting to use Shutter in Ubuntu, but it still uses Gtk2 with Perl Gtk2 bindings which makes it harder and harder to package for newer Ubuntu versions, so it will go away at some point unless it's ported to Gtk3.
Major improvements in Ksnip 1.6.0 include:
- Added global hotkeys for taking screenshots on Linux / X11 only and Windows. There are hotkeys for taking a fullscreen screenshot, grab a screenshot of the active window, a rectangle area, etc., and all hotkeys are configurable
- Added a system tray icon and the ability to run Ksnip minimized to tray (useful for adding Ksnip to your startup applications and have its window hidden, with only the tray icon visible). The tray menu lacks the ability to select the type of screenshot to take though, at least in this release
- Make captured cursor an item which can be moved and deleted. This way after taking a screenshot, the user can move the cursor to any position, and delete it if it's not needed.
- Added the ability to add watermarks to screenshots
- Added option to capture previous capture area, basically allowing to re-take a screenshot
- Added the ability to edit text box contents
- Added undo/redo and crop buttons on the toolbar (these were only available in the Edit menu previously)
- Added support for Open With (from the file manager right click menu) to open existing images for annotation
If you're a GNOME Shell user and want to use the new Ksnip system tray feature, make sure you have the KStatusNotifierItem / AppIndicator Support extension installed or else you won't have any tray icons. There's no need to install anything on Ubuntu, as this is installed by default.
With this release, Ksnip becomes one of the most competent screenshot tools for Linux, and a great replacement for Shutter. The application is even distributed in multiple binary formats on Linux (DEB, RPM, AppImage) to make it easy to install. It's not available on Flathub or the Snap Store though.
While for my use case there's nothing else I'd need in an application for taking screenshots, there are still some features that some users might want, like uploading images to more services (currently only Imgur is supported), and the ability to take full website screenshots. But even without those, this is one of the best screenshot tools for Linux available right now.
Download Ksnip screenshot software
The Ksnip releases page has binaries for Windows, macOS and Linux (DEB, RPM and AppImage). There's also an unofficial Arch Linux / Manjaro AUR package.
To easily integrate AppImage binaries with your Linux desktop, check out AppImageLauncher.
