DOKK / manpages / debian 11 / scrot / scrot.1.en
scrot(1) command line screen capture utility scrot(1)

scrot - command line screen capture utility 

scrot [options] [file]

scrot (SCReenshOT) is a simple command line screen capture utility that uses imlib2 to grab and save images. Multiple image formats are supported through imlib2's dynamic saver modules.

Some features of the scrot:

  • support to multiple image formats (JPG, PNG, GIF, etc.).
  • optimization of the screen shots image quality.
  • capture a specific window or a rectangular area on the screen with the help of switch.

scrot also can be used to monitor a desktop PC in admin absent and register unwanted activities.

Display help output and exit.
Output version information and exit.
Specify the display to use; see X(7).
Non-interactively choose a rectangle of x,y,w,h.
When selecting a window, grab wm border too.
Display a countdown when used with delay.
Wait NUM seconds before taking a shot.
Exec APP on the saved image.
Image quality (1-100) high value means high size, low compression. Default: 75. (Effect differs depending on file format chosen).
For multiple heads, grab shot from each and join them together.
Interactively select a window or rectangle with the mouse. See -l and -f options.
Indicates the style of the line when the -s option is used. See SELECTION STYLE.
Freeze the screen when the -s option is used.
Use the currently focused window.
Generate thumbnail too. NUM is the percentage of the original size for the thumbnail to be. Alternatively, a GEOMetry can be specified, example: 300x200.
Prevent beeping.
Capture the mouse pointer.
By default scrot does not overwrite the files, use this option to allow it.
Draw a text note. See NOTE FORMAT.
Capture stack/overlapped windows and join them together. A running Composite Manager is needed.
Window class name. Associative with options: -k.

Both the --exec and filename parameters can take format specifiers that are expanded by scrot when encountered. There are two types of format specifier. Characters preceded by a '%' are interpreted by strftime(2). See man strftime for examples. These options may be used to refer to the current date and time. The second kind are internal to scrot and are prefixed by '$' The following specifiers are recognised:



    $a  hostname


    $f  image path/filename (ignored when used in the filename)


    $m  thumb image path/filename (ignored when used in the filename)


    $n  image name (ignored when used in the filename)


    $s  image size (bytes) (ignored when used in the filename)


    $p  image pixel size


    $w  image width


    $h  image height


    $t  image format (ignored when used in the filename)


    $$  print a literal '$'


    \n  print a newline (ignored when used in the filename)
Example: 



    $ scrot '%Y-%m-%d_$wx$h.png' -e 'mv $f ~/shots/'
This would create a file called something like 2000-10-30_2560x1024.png and move it to your shots directory.

When using --select you can indicate the style of the line with --line.

The following specifiers are recognised:



    style=(solid,dash),width=(range 1 to 8),color="value",


    opacity=(range 10 to 100),mode=(edge,classic)
The default style is: 



    mode=classic,style=solid,width=1,opacity=100
Mode 'edge' ignore: style, --freeze

Mode 'classic' ignore: opacity

The 'opacity' specifier is only effective if a Composite Manager is running.

For the color you can use a name or a hexadecimal value.



    color="red" or color="#ff0000"
Example: 



    $ scrot --line style=dash,width=3,color="red" --select

The following specifiers are recognised for the option --note:



    -f 'FontName/size'


    -t 'text'


    -x position (optional)


    -y position (optional)


    -c color(RGBA) (optional)


    -a angle (optional)
Example: 



    $ scrot --note "-f '/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSans-Bold/40' -x 10 -y 20 -c 255,0,0,255 -t 'Hi'"

scrot was originally developed by Tom Gilbert under MIT-advertising license and is maintained by some people.

Currently, source code and newer versions are available at https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/scrot

04 Feb 2021 scrot-1.5