Monday, January 27, 2020

Mark a Screenshot on Linux

More that than often to explain things quickly, I like to take a screenshot of the (web) application I am talking about, and then circle the corresponding area so that everything is clear. Possibly with a rounded rectangle, as I find it the cutest variant.

This is how I do it on Linux:
Install necessary tools:
apt install gimp scrot                                                                   
Take the screenshot:
# Interactively select a window or rectangle with the mouse                              
scrot --selection screenshot.png                                                                    
Open the screenshot and annotate it with gimp:
gimp screenshot.png                                                                      
Then in gimp:
  • Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select, and mark the area
  • Select -> Rounded Rectangle, and keep the default
  • Change the color to a nice blue shade in the toolbox
  • Edit -> Stroke selection
Maybe gimp is a bit overkill for that. But instead of learning a limited tool, I prefer to learn an advanced one like gimp step by step.