# The &ksnapshot; Handbook

Richard
J.
Moore

    &Richard.J.Moore.mail;

Robert
L.
McCormick

    &Robert.L.McCormick.mail;

Brad
Hards

    &Brad.Hards.mail;

Lauri
Watts

    &Lauri.Watts.mail;

Reviewer
Richard
J
Moore

    &Richard.J.Moore.mail;

Developer
Matthias
Ettrich

    &Matthias.Ettrich.mail;

Developer
1997-2000
&Richard.J.Moore;
2000
&Matthias.Ettrich;
&FDLNotice;
2010-08-26
0.8.1 (&kde; 4.5)

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

KDE
KSnapshot
kdegraphics
screen capture
screen grab

## Introduction

&ksnapshot; is a simple applet for taking screenshots. It is capable of capturing images of the whole desktop, a single window, a section of a window or a selected 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 ApplicationsGraphics 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 in the upper left 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 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 New Snapshot button.

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

Similarly, to take a snapshot of a region, select the Region combo box entry and set the Snapshot delay to No delay, and then click on the 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.

To take a new snapshot of a section of a window, select the Section of Window combo box entry and then click on the 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.

### 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 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.

#### Open a Snapshot

When you want to view or modify your snapshot, just click Open With and select an application from the drop down box to open and edit your snapshot.

#### Copy to Clipboard

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

#### Buttons

There are two further 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;.

Quit

  Quits the &ksnapshot; application.

## &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:

- &percnt; `qdbus` will display all services available.

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

- &percnt; `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;