GNet Solutions » GNU/Linux Administration

Taking screenshots is one of the functions every desktop computer must have; for troubleshooting, taking game screenshots, or even taking a snapshot of a web blog post before a moderator pulls it. I use Arch with LXDE for my main work desktop, and it lacks a print screen hot key function natively. This is how I added is to my desktop.

• Ensure ImageMagick is installed
  

  sudo pacman -S ImageMagick
  

• Install yaourt

• Install obkey from the AUR using yaourt:
  

  yaourt obkey
  

• Open the LXDE config with obkey:
  

  obkey ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml
  

• Then Insert a New Sibling Keybind

• Select the newly created key, it will prompt New Accelerator...

• Press the key combination to the screenshot, in my case it was Fn + F11

• Associate the new key combo with an action, by going to the action pane and clicking Insert Action -> Execute

• In the command text box add the following:
  

  sh -c "import -window root ~/Pictures/$(date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S').png" 
  

• Click on the Save icon and exit.

Now when the screenshot icon is pressed a timestamped PNG of the current active windows will be saved in the Pictures directory in the home folder.