How do I make my screenshot ask me what to do next every time?

I take screenshots a lot. I usually take screenshot of an area, I then recheck if I have the desired area and then copy it to clipboard.

I want to change this behaviour so that immediately upon pressing Shift+PrntScr the screen capture application allows me to select an area, and immediately afterwards it provides me with the option to save to a particular location or clipboard.

I want Shift+PrntScr to bring up a pop-up screen like this:

gnome-screenshot


Try this answer first to get something identical to the old behaviour.


You may create a new keyboard shortcut for the command

gnome-screenshot --interactive

as an alternative.

To do that follow the steps.

  1. Open Settings > Devices > Keyboard and scroll down to the bottom.
  2. Click on the + symbol. A dialogue should pop up.
  3. Enter any name you like in the Name box.
  4. Enter gnome-screenshot --interactive in the Command box.
  5. Click on the Set Shortcut... button and set any keyboard combination which doesn't cause any conflict, for example Super+Print.
  6. Log out and log in again.

Now whenever you press Super+Print a window offering various screenshot options (whole screen/current window/selected area) should appear. Once you take the screenshot it will offer you to choose the location to save the screenshot as in the image in your question.

For convenience you may first change the shortcut for "Save a screenshot to Pictures" in the keyboard shortcut list to something else like Super+Print and assign Print to the custom shortcut you just created.


Also you might want to try using

gnome-screenshot -a -c

This command lets you straight away capture an area and copy the image to the clipboard.


Refer to this answer for an ugly workaround to replicate the old behaviour that lets you choose the folder to save the screenshot after capturing.


Here is one ugly workaround to replicate the old behaviour that lets you choose the folder to save the screenshot after capturing.

Step one

You'll need zenity. If it's not installed, install it first by running

sudo apt install zenity

Then create a script, say text file named prtscr-chooser.sh somewhere, say in your home directory. Add the following lines to the file:

#!/bin/bash
gnome-screenshot -f ~/temporary-screenshot &&
SCREENSHOT=$(zenity --file-selection --save --confirm-overwrite)
mv ~/temporary-screenshot "$SCREENSHOT" ||
rm ~/temporary-screenshot

(Put gnome-screenshot -a in place of gnome-screenshot in the second line to capture an area instead of the whole desktop)

Finally make the script executable (refer to this).

Step two

Assign the script to Print Screen:

  1. Open Settings > Devices > Keyboard.
  2. Unbind Print Screen, i.e. change or remove the shortcut for 'Save a screenshot to Pictures'.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom.
  4. Click the '+' symbol. A dialogue should pop up.
  5. Enter any name you like in the 'Name' box.
  6. Enter full path to the script in the 'Command' box, i.e. in this case enter
    /home/YOUR-USERNAME/prtscr-chooser.sh (your actual username in place of YOUR-USERNAME).
  7. Click the 'Set Shortcut...' button and press Print Screen.
  8. Log out and log in again.

(You can follow the same method to assign the script the some other keyboard combination, e.g. Shift+Print Screen)

Now you should be getting a 'save as' dialogue which will let you choose the folder and name for the screenshot.