# The &ksnapshot; Handbook

## Introduction

&ksnapshot; is a simple application for taking screenshots. It is capable of capturing images of the whole desktop, a single window, a section of a window, a selected rectangular region or a freehand region. The images can then be saved in a variety of formats.

Please report any problems or feature requests to the &kde; Bug Tracking System.

## Using &ksnapshot;

This chapter describes the use of &ksnapshot; for capturing screen images.

### Starting &ksnapshot;

&ksnapshot; may be started by one of several ways as described below.

- You may start &ksnapshot; by selecting it from the application launcher menu Applications Graphics Screen Capture Program &ksnapshot;.

- You may start &ksnapshot; by entering the following at the command prompt:

      % ksnapshot &

- The mini command line &krunner; (invoked with &Alt;F2) may also be used to start &ksnapshot;.

Once &ksnapshot; starts, you will see a window like the following: &ksnapshot; Preview Window

### Taking A Snapshot

&ksnapshot; grabs an image of your entire desktop immediately after it is started, but before it displays itself on screen. This allows you to quickly create full-desktop screenshot images.

The snapshot taken by &ksnapshot; is displayed in the preview window, which is located on top of the &ksnapshot; application window. Below is an example of the preview window from &ksnapshot;. Your preview will differ depending on what you have displayed on the desktop.

&ksnapshot; Preview Window

The snapshot can be saved by clicking on the Save As... (&Ctrl;S) button. This opens the standard &kde; save dialog, where you can choose the filename, the folder location, and the format that your snapshot will be saved in. If multiple snapshots are taken, the filename is automatically incremented to prevent you from overwriting previous snapshots. You may however edit the filename to anything you wish, including the name of a previously saved snapshot.

To take a snapshot of a single window, select the Window Under Cursor combo box entry (next to the Capture mode label), and then click on the Take a New Snapshot (&Ctrl;N) button.

Depending on your Snapshot delay settings you get either a cross as the mouse pointer (for No delay), or a standard mouse cursor which you can use to work with a program until the delay is over and a snapshot is taken.

With No delay, the snapshot is taken immediately when you click into a window.

&ksnapshot; will display the new snapshot in the preview area, at which time you can choose to save the new image (by pressing Save As...) or to grab a new one, by pressing the Take a New Snapshot button.

To take a new snapshot of the entire desktop, select the Full Screen combo box entry and then click on the Take a New Snapshot button. &ksnapshot; will now capture the entire desktop if you press Take a New Snapshot.

Similarly, to take a snapshot of a rectangular region, select the Rectangular Region combo box entry and set the Snapshot delay to No delay, and then click on the Take a New Snapshot button. The mouse cursor will then change into a cross, and you can then use the mouse to select the region you want to capture. To take the snapshot press the &Enter; key or double click. Press &Esc; to quit.

You might want to take a snapshot of a non rectangular region. You can do so by selecting the Freehand Region combo box entry and set the Snapshot delay to No delay, and then click on the Take a New Snapshot button. The mouse cursor will then change into a cross, and you can then use the mouse to draw the region you want to capture. To take the snapshot press the &Enter; key or double click. Press &Esc; to quit.

To take a new snapshot of a section of a window, select the Section of Window combo box entry and then click on the Take a New Snapshot button. With No delay you get a cross as the mouse pointer and you have to click once with the &LMB; into the window. The section of the window under the mouse cursor is now highlighted with a red border. Move the mouse to the wanted section and click the &LMB; to capture the screenshot.

If you have multiple screens, Current Screen captures the screen containing the mouse cursor when the screenshot is taken.

When keeping &ksnapshot; open to take several snapshots using Rectangular Region or Freehand Region, the subsequent snapshots will be initialized with the last shape used with this function (since you launched &ksnapshot;). You have then the possibility to adjust the handles of the rectangular shape, to move the freehand region, or to completely replace the shape by starting to draw a new one at a different place of the screen.

### Additional Features

#### Snapshot Delay

The Snapshot delay box allows you to enter an arbitrary time delay, in seconds, between the time that you press the Take a New Snapshot button and the time that the snapshot is taken.

When a delay time has been set, you do not have to click the mouse button to capture a screenshot. This enables you to open a drop down menu, and take a picture of it.

#### Exclude Window decorations

Include window decorations is enabled by default in Window Under Cursor mode.

When you only want to capture the application itself without the surrounding window decoration, disable this option and take a new snapshot.

#### Include mouse pointer

Include mouse pointer is disabled by default. This setting is not available in Rectangular Region and Freehand Region modes.

When you want to include the mouse pointer in your snapshot, enable this option and take a new snapshot.

#### Buttons

There are four buttons located at the bottom of the &ksnapshot; window. Their function is described below.

Help

- Gives you a menu where you can open the &ksnapshot; Handbook, report a bug, switch the language for &ksnapshot; or get some more information About &ksnapshot; and About &kde;.

Send To...

- This will allow to directly open the snapshot with all programs that are associated with your PNG (Portable Network Graphics) MIME type. Depending on what programs are installed, you will be able to open and edit the snapshot in your graphics applications or viewers.

  Furthermore, if you have the KIPI plugins installed you will be able to print your snapshots, e-mail them and export directly to some social networks and websites, as shown on the screenshot below.

  &ksnapshot; Send To... menu with kipi-plugins installed

Copy

- When you want to edit your snapshot in a graphics application without saving the snapshot, just click Copy (&Ctrl;C) and insert the image into a viewer or graphics application.

Save As...

- Saves the screenshot to a file in the selected format.

#### Drag and Drop

A captured image can be dragged to another application or document. If the application is able to handle images, a copy of the full image is inserted there.

If you drag a screenshot into a file manager window, a dialog pops up where you can edit the filename and select the image format and the file will be inserted into the actual folder.

If you drag the screenshot to a text box, the path to the temporary saved file is inserted. This is useful for example to upload a screenshot through web forms or to attach screenshots into bug reports on the &kde; bugtracker.

This works with all clients that do not pick up the image data, but only look for a &URL; in the dragged mimedata.

## &DBus; Interface

&ksnapshot; can be scripted using its &DBus; interface.

There are two ways to use the &DBus; interface: &Qt;'s &GUI; qdbusviewer and the command line qdbus.

Examples:

- `%` `qdbus` will display all services available.

- `%` `qdbus` `org.kde.ksnapshot-`pidof -s ksnapshot`` will display the &DBus; interface for &ksnapshot;.

- `%` `qdbus` `org.kde.ksnapshot-`pidof -s ksnapshot` /KSnapshot` will display methods for controlling &ksnapshot;.

For more information, please visit &DBus; tutorial.

## Credits and License

Program copyright

- 1997-2000 &Richard.J.Moore; &Richard.J.Moore.mail;

- 2000 &Matthias.Ettrich; &Matthias.Ettrich.mail;

Documentation based on the original, copyright 1997-2000 &Richard.J.Moore; &Richard.J.Moore.mail;

&underFDL; &underGPL;
&documentation.index;