Spectacle/Tutorials/Invoking Spectacle with custom shortcuts

The default way to capture your screen to a file is to press the PrintScreen key. The program ksnapshot will pop up. It allows you to capture

• the complete screen
• single windows
• a rectangular region on the screen

However many people want their screenshots to be stored without any further interaction. This can be useful during documentation work when you want to do a lot of screenshots without interrupting work. One solution is to set up Shift_PrintScreen to trigger a screenshot. To do this

• install the import command, e.g. for SUSE Linux:

yast -i ImageMagick

• start systemsettings, navigate to Shortcuts and Gestures -> Custom Shortcuts -> Edit -> New -> Global Shortcut -> Command/URL
• enter a name for your action, for example Screenshot_batch
• click on Trigger -> Shortcut and press Shift_Printscreen. Shift+Print appears in the button:

Setting up Shift_PrintScreen as global shortcut

• click on "Action" and enter the command

import -window root "snapshot-$(date --rfc-3339=seconds).jpg"

• click on "Apply"

Now whenever you press Shift_PrintScreen your screen will be saved to your home folder with a timestamp in its name, e.g. snapshot-2014-08-05 10:06:09+02:00.jpg