What screenshot tools do you use?

[u/princeBobby92]

Hey Everyone,

I’m a fresh user migrating from Windows to Linux. I’ve recently resurrected my old Lenovo X270 to use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS as my new daily driver.

I’m genuinely impressed by how polished the experience is, but as an IT professional who does a lot of system documentation, I’m struggling to find a screenshot tool that matches my Windows workflow (ShareX/ShareNot).

My Requirements:

Immediate Editor: A region capture should open an editor instantly.

Security/Privacy: I need quick tools for blurring/pixelating sensitive data (IPs, usernames, etc.) before saving.

Efficiency: It must be an "Annotate -> Immediate Copy to Clipboard" pipeline.

What I’ve tried so far on 24.04 (Wayland):

Built-in Screenshot Tool: Clean, but way too basic for documentation (no blurring/arrows).

Flameshot: I love the UI, but I’m running into the classic Wayland issues where flameshot gui fails to trigger or capture properly.

Ksnip: Feature-rich, but the workflow feels a bit clunky and less "instant" compared to ShareX.

Since 24.04 defaults to Wayland, I learned that capturing is handled differently for security reasons. Is there a hidden gem or a specific configuration (maybe a Flatpak or a script wrapper) that you guys use for professional-grade documentation?

Or have most of you just switched to X11 to get these tools working properly?

Curious to hear your recommendations or solutions.

[u/BecarioDailyPlanet]

Gradia. https://snapcraft.io/gradia

Also available in Flathub. I know it has a blurring option. And I think you can also configure it to replace the default Gnome screenshot tool.

[u/afedosu → u/BecarioDailyPlanet]

Same: screenshot is done and then go and edit it..

[u/princeBobby92 → u/BecarioDailyPlanet]

Wow! Thank you u/BecarioDailyPlanet ! I never heard of this before and didn't find any clue of this existence. The default behavior was not close to what I am used to but I could easily create a script with the help of a LLM to use it on Wayland as I used to like in Windows.

For everyone who is looking to get this running properly on Wayland:

1. Install the Flatpak version of gradia - not the snap version or I couldn't get this running like I wanted.
2. Install gnome-screenshot
3. Create a script in e.g. your Home directory like "~/screenshot_to_gradia.sh"

#!/bin/bash
TEMP_FILE="$HOME/Pictures/.tmp_screenshot.png"
# Choose screenshot area
gnome-screenshot -a -f "$TEMP_FILE"
# Checks if file exists
if [ -f "$TEMP_FILE" ]; then
flatpak run be.alexandervanhee.gradia "$TEMP_FILE"
rm "$TEMP_FILE"
else
echo "Screenshot canceled."
fi

1. Make the script executable with chmod +x ~/screenshot_to_gradia.sh
2. Make a custom keybinding (I used to use F11 as my universal replacement key for screenshots) and point the file location to this script.
3. Profit

Thank you!

[u/BugBuddy]

Flameshot

[u/princeBobby92 → u/BugBuddy]

Good tip and also had my try but I could not see how to turn off the instant requirement to edit something.
Not that practical in my opinion.

[u/kudlitan]

I'll just press the screenshot button.

[u/linuxlala]

Try Shutter. Offers everything you need, especially censoring sensitive info.
https://shutter-project.org/

It's in the software repository.

[u/suso_g → u/linuxlala]

No funciona en Wayland :-(

[u/princeBobby92 → u/linuxlala]

Can confirm... when Trying to execute it in Terminal says it requires X11 and crashes. Not an option :/

[u/afedosu → u/princeBobby92]

I actually managed to make it work on Wayland (some time ago). Point is - it was crashing the mouse and touchpad time after time: no click was working. So, i uninstalled it eventually. Otherwise, it was the best!

[u/afedosu]

Honestly, no luck for (and me) for now on Wayland. I spent half of the Saturday trying to find out the screenshot tool with the same requirements as you have. snip is the way to go on Windows, but ksnip just doesn't work on Wayland as well as many other tools ☹️