Those of us who have a Raspberry Pi know its limitations. We are not looking at a computer like any other, but we can do practically the same thing. One of the best operating systems that we can install is Raspbian, the proposal of the same company, but it is not as simple or as intuitive as in other operating systems. Sometimes it is, but it is also likely that we are using components that do not include all the necessary options, such as the ImpPt key that in the raspberry system should invoke the tool scrotum.
Like most operating systems, now I can not think of any that do not have this option, Raspbian includes a tool to take screenshots. The bad thing is that today it does not include a GUI, so we will have to run it from the terminal or create a launcher. There are also other options, but we already have to install extra software. Next we show you how to take screenshots in Raspbian.
How to take a screenshot with Scrot
The tool that Raspbian includes allows us to do practically the same thing as in any other screenshot app. To capture a scene, just press the ImpPt key o Print Screen (or PrtScr), at which time the image will be saved in our personal folder. Things get complicated if we have a keyboard that we use as a remote control because we have our Raspberry Pi as a multimedia center, for example. If we do not have available the key designed to take a screenshot, we can make one by typing "scrot" without the quotation marks. And from here come the options.
The command is "scrot [options] [file name]". The first thing to know is that the capture will be saved in the directory where we write the command, so if in the terminal we write cd / home / Pablinux / Captures and then "scrot", the capture will be saved in that path. The next thing to keep in mind is that the capture is done instantly, so if we do it with the simple command, we will also capture the terminal. To avoid this, we can use one of the following options:
Capture with delay
We can take a screenshot after a certain time, in which case we will write the following (changing TIME for time in seconds):
scrot -d TIEMPO
If after TIME we add the -c option we will also see the countdown.
Capture a window
scrot also allows us to do windows screenshots, in which case we'll use the -s option:
scrot -s
The command will not be completed until we choose the window we want to capture. If we want the window to have borders, we must also use the b (-sb). But be careful, if we have something above the window, it will also capture it.
In all the previous cases, we can save the capture in any folder if we add the name of the file behind it with the path included.
Add a shortcut from Scrot to Whisker
But if the only thing we are interested in is taking screenshots and, as we have indicated, we do not have the key to do so, we can add a launcher to Whisker from where we will make the captures. I recommend adding a command to make them with a delay that gives us time for the scene to be exactly as we want, which can be 3 or 5 seconds. We will do it as follows:
- We go to the main menu / Preferences / Main menu editor.
- We select the submenu where we want the launcher to appear.
- We click on New element.
- We fill in the fields:
- In «Name» we put the name that will appear.
- In "Command" we add the command. For example, scrot -d 5.
- We can leave the comment empty, but we can also add an explanation that will appear when we hover over the launcher in Whisker.
- We click on the image and add an icon to it. We can download what we want from the internet.
- Finally, we click OK.
Installing the GNOME tool
Surely many of you are wondering if you can use another app for screenshots and not the option which includes by default. Yes you can and the one that works best in Raspbian is GNOME-Screenshot. All we have to do to use it is open a terminal and write:
sudo apt install gnome-screenshot
The application will be waiting for us in the Whisker Accessories section. I hope this little guide has been useful to you.
