i3wm Screenshot Shortcuts

Have excellent screenshot shortcuts in your i3wm.

Feature	Shortcut
Full Screen	PrtScrn
Selection	Shift + PrtScrn
Active Window	Super + PrtScrn
Clipboard Full Screen	Ctrl + PrtScrn
Clipboard Selection	Ctrl + Shift + PrtScrn
Clipboard Active Window	Ctrl + Super + PrtScrn

All the screenshots are saved on ~/Pictures/CURRENT_DATE.
The key super refers to the modifier key (window/command or alt by default depending on config).

Requirements

• maim
• xclip
• xdotool

Set-up

Set this on your i3 config file ~/.i3/config.

## Screenshots
bindsym Print exec --no-startup-id maim "/home/$USER/Pictures/$(date)"
bindsym $mod+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --window $(xdotool getactivewindow) "/home/$USER/Pictures/$(date)"
bindsym Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --select "/home/$USER/Pictures/$(date)"

## Clipboard Screenshots
bindsym Ctrl+Print exec --no-startup-id maim | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png
bindsym Ctrl+$mod+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --window $(xdotool getactivewindow) | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png
bindsym Ctrl+Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --select | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png

You may want to remove the default or any other screenshot shortcuts to prevent errors.
Don't forget to reload your window manager super+ shift+ c.

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The source of this information is from my gist My i3 shortcuts to take screenshots.

Comments

[Crosson David]

I made some changes, and I had to provide explicitly the format to use in order for the clipboard cases to work.

# For screenshots install :
# apt-get install maim xclip copyq

##  Screenshots in files
bindsym Print exec --no-startup-id maim --format=png "/home/$USER/Pictures/screenshot-$(date -u +'%Y%m%d-%H%M%SZ')-all.png"
bindsym $mod+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --format=png --window $(xdotool getactivewindow) "/home/$USER/Pictures/screenshot-$(date -u +'%Y%m%d-%H%M%SZ')-current.png"
bindsym Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --format=png --select "/home/$USER/Pictures/screenshot-$(date -u +'%Y%m%d-%H%M%SZ')-selected.png"

## Screenshots in clipboards
bindsym Ctrl+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --format=png | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png
bindsym Ctrl+$mod+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --format=png --window $(xdotool getactivewindow) | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png
bindsym Ctrl+Shift+Print exec --no-startup-id maim --format=png --select | xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png

[Crosson David]

thanks for sharing :)

[Artemis]

Hello, thanks for the script ! Really useful
However I like to have my screenshots both saved to a specific directory and copied to clipboard, it seems it's one or the other, is there a way to do both ?
Thanks !

[Diego Juliao]

The key bindings are designed to have both.
When you use the Ctrl key, it will store your screenshot on your clipboard.

[Yuhang "Eric" Wei]

Thanks for sharing! I would like to add

apt install xdotool 

for your script to work.

[Victor Licht]

Thanks for that

[the hengker]

thank you alot, this work for me too. you save my pain brooooo