Flameshot comes in as an exception here. It’s a free and open-source screenshot app that manages to strike the right balance between features and performance. So if you’re on the lookout for a screenshot app for your Linux desktop, Flameshot makes for the perfect choice.

Keep reading as we check out Flameshot and the instructions to install and use it on Linux.

What Is Flameshot?

Flameshot is an open-source screenshot software for Linux. It features a simple and intuitive interface that makes taking screenshots quick and easy.

One of Flameshot’s notable highlights is its highly customizable interface that allows you to modify some of its visual elements to your preference. Likewise, the app also has a built-in editor, which is a handy feature that simplifies editing and annotating screenshots, so you don’t have to rely on other image editing software.

Besides, Flameshot comes with support for CLI operations, too. So, if you’re a fan of command-line interfaces, you can use Flameshot from the terminal and even bind it to scripts to automate screen capturing.

How to Install Flameshot on Linux

Flameshot is pretty easy to install and available for all major Linux distros. Use the instructions below, depending on your Linux distribution, to get Flameshot on your computer.

On Debian/Ubuntu, open the terminal and run the following command:

To install Flameshot on Fedora, CentOS, or RHEL, use:

Arch Linux users can install Flameshot using:

On openSUSE, run:

If you’re using any other Linux distro, you can install Flameshot using Snap or Flathub. For either of these methods, though, you need to have the appropriate package manager installed on your computer.

To verify if your system has Snap, run:

If this returns a version number, it indicates Snap is present on your system. If not, follow the instructions in our detailed Snap Store guide to install the package manager first.

Similarly, you can install Flatpak using our guide on installing Flatpak.

Then, once you’ve got Snap or Flatpak on your computer, use the instructions below to install Flameshot.

To install Flameshot via Snap, open the terminal and run:

For installing Flameshot via Flatpak, use:

Flameshot First Run and Configuration

With Flameshot installed, bring up the Applications menu, search for Flameshot, and launch it. Once it’s up and running, right-click on the icon in the system tray and select Configuration.

Here, you’ll see four different tabs, each of which allows you to customize different aspects of Flameshot.

Interface: It includes options that allow you to change the appearance of the app itself. Flameshot is set to use the purple color by default, but you can use the hue wheel to pick the main color and the contrasting color as per your preference. Similarly, here you can also adjust the opacity of the area outside the capture selection window using the opacity slider. Another option in the Interface tab is Button Selection, which lets you show/hide buttons in the screen capture window. To show/hide a button, select/deselect the checkbox beside it. Filename Editor: It lets you choose a naming scheme for your screenshots. On this tab, you’ll see various naming formats, each with a preview right below it. You can tap on a format to select it and modify it from the Edit field. General: It lets you configure basic Flameshot options. From here, you can enable desktop notifications for screen capture, make Flameshot launch at startup, and import Flameshot configuration files, among other things. Similarly, you can also choose the path where you want to store the captured screenshots from this tab. Shortcuts: It shows a table of all the Flameshot keyboard shortcuts for various Flameshot operations.

While you’re at it, one more thing we’d like you to do is create a shortcut for bringing up the Flameshot screen capture window. This is because Flameshot doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut that lets you do this directly.

As a result, the default way to bring up the capture window, which involves clicking on its icon in the system tray and selecting Take Screenshot from the menu options, can become tedious very quickly.

To do this, open Keyboard Shortcuts from the Applications menu. Click on the plus (+) icon or the Add button to create a new shortcut.

In this window, add Flameshot to the Name field and flameshot gui to the Command field. Finally, click Apply or Done to save the custom shortcut.

Now, click on the empty/shortcut field next to the shortcut you just created and press the key or key combination you want to use to bring up the Flameshot capture window. Hit Enter. And that’s it, you now have a shortcut for quickly accessing the Flameshot capture window.

How to Use Flameshot to Take Screenshots on Linux

Flameshot lets you capture screenshots using both GUI and CLI. Below are the instructions on how to use each one of them.

Capture Screenshots Using Flameshot GUI

To take a screenshot, press the Flameshot capture window shortcut you just created, and when it brings up the selection window, use the mouse/trackpad to select the area you want to capture on the screen.

Once done, you can move the selection window around to adjust the capture area. If you want to fine-tune your selection, use the arrow keys instead, which move the selection by 1px.

To save the captured screenshot, click on the Save icon in the capture window or hit the Ctrl + S shortcut. Similarly, if you want to copy it to your clipboard, use the Ctrl + C keyboard shortcut.

Besides saving and copying the capture, Flameshot also offers several other useful options in the capture window. These include:

Pin: To pin the captured screenshot to the desktop Open: To open the screenshot in your app of choice Save: To save the screenshot on your computer Upload: To upload the screenshot to Imgur Annotation: To annotate the captured image. Available options include pen, marker, and text Shapes: To draw attention to an element on the screenshot. Available options include line, arrow, rectangle, and circle Size: To view the dimensions of the captured screenshot Selection: To move the selection area Pixelate: To pixelate (or blur out) sensitive information in an image

Capture Screenshots Using Flameshot CLI

Flameshot’s GUI is pretty intuitive and works well, but if you want a faster way to capture screenshots, you can use its CLI instead, which offers various commands and options for taking screenshots and other related actions.

Here’s what the Flameshot command syntax looks like:

Using this syntax, you can use commands like the following:

flameshot gui: To bring up the Flameshot GUI and use it to capture the screenshot flameshot gui -p path_to_save_screenshot: To save the captured screenshot to your preferred location flameshot full -p path_to_save_screenshot: To capture the entire screen and save it to the desired location on your computer flameshot full -c: To copy the captured screenshot to the clipboard flameshot full –upload: To upload the captured screenshot to Imgur

Improve Your Workflow on Linux With Flameshot

If your work involves taking lots of screenshots and editing them, a good screenshot app is essential on your computer. Although there are various screenshot apps out there that can help you capture screenshots on Linux, we find Flameshot to be one of the better ones of the lot, mostly because it’s fast and comes with essential editing features.

We hope this guide helps you get started with Flameshot on your Linux computer, so you can make better use of it to take high-quality screenshots and improve your workflow.

With that said, if you use Ubuntu and would like to explore more options, we’ve got you covered in our guide to the best screenshot apps for Ubuntu.