Tip of the Day: Take a Screenshot in Command-Line

In this short tutorial I'll show how to take a screenshot in Linux using the command-line utility import.

import is a tool included in the ImageMagick suite, which you can install in Ubuntu by typing sudo apt-get install imagemagick in a terminal. import lets you take a snapshot of your entire screen, a single window or a region of the screen.

For example, to take a screenshot of a single window, you would type in a terminal:

import filename.png

And then move the mouse cursor and click the desired window. This will not include the window borders, so in order to take a snapshot of a window including its border, use:

import -border filename.png

You can use various extensions for your output image by specifying them in the output file parameter (e.g. import output_file.jpg or import output_file.bmp).

To take a screenshot of the entire screen or a region, type:

import filename.png

And then select with your mouse the region which you want to save.

For arguments which can be passed to import, read man import or the help on the official website.