How to Take a Screenshot from Terminal on Ubuntu/Linux Mint

In this tip, we will see how to use the terminal under Ubuntu 12.04 or Linux Mint 13 to take screenshots. There are many applications with GUI available for Debian-based systems for taking screenshots, and the list keeps growing. However, in this tutorial we will try to use the CLI mode for taking screenshots.

Method 1

Open the terminal under Ubuntu and take a screenshot with this command:

gnome-screenshot

To take a screenshot after xx seconds, you can use this command:

gnome-screenshot -d 3

or

sleep 3; gnome-screenshot

For Linux Mint, you can use this command:

mate-screenshot

To delay it, use this command:

mate-screenshot -d 3

or

sleep 3; mate-screenshot

Method 2

You can also use imagemagick to take screenshots under Ubuntu/Linux Mint. You can install it with this command:

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Then take a screenshot with this command:

import screenshot.png

Method 3

Scrot can also be used to take screenshots. Install it with this command:

sudo apt-get install scrot

Use now this command:

scrot screenshot.png

Method 4

This command also allows to take screenshots under Ubuntu or Linux Mint:

DISPLAY=:0.0 import -window root screenshot.png

If you have something to add, please do using the comment form below.