Install flameshot screenshot on Ubuntu/Debian/Arch/Fedora

Flameshot is a powerful yet simple to use screenshot software for Linux. It can run on Ubuntu/Debian/Arch/Fedora Linux distributions. In this guide, we will see how you can install and use Flameshot on these Linux distributions.

Features of Flameshot

• Customizable appearance.
• Easy to use.
• In-app screenshot edition.
• DBus interface.
• Upload to Imgur.

Install flameshot screenshot on Ubuntu / Debian

Flameshot is installed on Ubuntu / Debian from apt repository by running the following command:

sudo apt install flameshot

Building from source

You can also build from source, but you need to install build tools prior to packaging flameshot:

sudo apt install g++ cmake extra-cmake-modules build-essential qt5-default qttools5-dev-tools qttools5-dev libqt5dbus5 libqt5network5 libqt5core5a libqt5widgets5 libqt5gui5 libqt5svg5-dev
git clone https://github.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot.git
cd flameshot
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local ../
make
sudo make install

The preferred method is installation from the apt repository as it is easy to update package to the latest release.

Install Flameshot App on Arch Linux / Manjaro

For Arch Linux and its derivatives like Manjaro, Antergos e.t.c. The package is available from the upstream repository.

sudo pacman -S flameshot

Development versions can also be installed from AUR. If you don’t have AUR, check yay – Best AUR Helper for Arch Linux / Manjaro:

yay -S --noconfirm --needed flameshot-git

Building from source

sudo pacman -S cmake base-devel git qt5-base qt5-tools
git clone https://github.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot.git
cd flameshot
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local ../
make
sudo make install

How to Install Flameshot on Fedora

Use dnf package manager on Fedora to install flameshot

sudo dnf install flameshot

Building from source

sudo dnf install gcc-c++ cmake qt5-devel qt5-qtbase-devel qt5-linguist
sudo dnf install git openssl ca-certificates
git clone https://github.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot.git
cd flameshot
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local ../
make
sudo make install

How to use Flameshot to take screenshots

Start a capture with GUI:

flameshot gui

Start a capture with GUI with and save on a custom save path:

flameshot gui -p /path-to-captures

Open GUI with a delay of 5 seconds:

flameshot gui -d 5000

Fullscreen capture with custom save path (no GUI) and delayed:

flameshot full -p /path-to-captures -d 5000

Fullscreen capture with custom save path copying to clipboard:

flameshot full -c -p ~/myStuff/captures

Capture the screen containing the mouse and print the image (bytes) in PNG format:

flameshot screen -r

Capture the screen number 1 and copy it to the clipboard:

flameshot screen -n 1 -c

CLI configuration

You can use the graphical menu to configure Flameshot, but alternatively, you can use your terminal or scripts to do so.

• Open the configuration menu: flameshot config
• Show the initial help message in the capture mode: flameshot config –showhelp true
• For more information about the available options use the help flag: flameshot config -h

For more usage examples, refer to Flameshot documentation.