Cross-Platform Screenshot Tool Ksnip Sees New Major Release

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Ksnip screenshot tool

Ksnip, a feature-packed cross-platform screenshot tool, has been updated to version 1.8.0, receiving new image annotation / manipulation tools, the ability to pin screenshots in a frameless window, and more.

Ksnip is a free and open source Qt5 screenshot tool that runs on Linux (X11, Plasma Wayland, GNOME Wayland and with this release, xdg-desktop-portal Wayland), Windows and macOS.

The tool allows taking a rectangular area, full-screen, current screen and active window screenshots, with support for annotations. It comes with tools such as line, rectangle, elipse, arrow, pen, marker (rectangle, ellipse, pen), text, text with arrow, auto numbers, and stickers, as well as the ability to scale or crop the screenshot after it has been taken. Optionally, the screenshots can then be uploaded to Imgur or a different image upload website with the help of the Ksnip built-in script uploader support.

The latest Ksnip 1.8.0 adds a new image effects button, along with 3 effects: drop shadow, grayscale and border: 

Ksnip effects drop shadow

You can preview this effect in real time; simply choose one of these effects, and it will be applied to your screenshot. Choose No effect to undo this.

There's also a new Pixelate area tool, which allows you to obfuscate parts of screenshots (e.g. sensitive or personal information). The new pixelate option shares a button with the already existing Blur tool, it supports setting the obfuscation factor, and it can be activated using the X key.

Also new is the ability to pin a screenshot as a frameless window that stays in the foreground, like Flameshot screenshot tool can do:

Ksnip pin screenshot window

To use this, take a screenshot and choose Options -> Pin (or Shift + P). Move the pinned window using Alt / Super + drag using the mouse left button (this depends on the window manager you're using). Close it by right-clicking the frameless window and choosing Close.

It's now also possible to modify the selected rectangle before taking a screenshot:

Ksnip resize rectangle

To do this, hold down the Ctrl key while drawing the rectangle, and Ksnip will now let you resize the area to capture. When you're done adjusting the rectangle, press the Enter key to take the screenshot.

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More changes in Ksnip 1.8.0:

  • Allow setting image quality when saving images
  • Add support for cross-platform Wayland screenshots using xdg-desktop-portal
  • More annotations: numeric pointer with arrow, text pointer, and text pointer with arrow
  • Show all screenshot options in system tray and in the desktop file (so you can now right click the file or the tray icon and choose to take a screenshot of a rectangular area, redo screenshot, full-screen, current screen or the currently active window)
  • Add support for loading image from stdin
  • Allow deleting and renaming existing images
  • Open several files at once in tabs
  • Edit Text box with double click in annotator
  • Resize elements while keeping aspect ratio in annotator
  • Follow pattern for monochromatic systray icon (this didn't work for me on Gnome)
  • Add Zoom in and out in annotator
  • Even more

Download Ksnip



Ksnip is available for Linux, Windows and macOS. On Linux, using the download button above you'll find DEB (for Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Linux Mint, Zorin OS, etc.) and RPM (for Fedora, openSUSE, etc.) native binaries, as well as a generic AppImage that should work on any Linux distribution.

Ksnip is also available on the Snap Store and on Flathub.

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