SuperShot

A native GTK4/Libadwaita screenshot tool for GNOME desktops, written in Rust.

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SuperShot provides a minimal, focused interface for taking screenshots with a configurable delay timer. It delegates capture to the GNOME Screenshot portal, which handles area selection, window capture, and full-screen modes natively. Screenshots are automatically saved and copied to the clipboard.

Features

Capture

• Configurable delay -- None, 3, 5, or 10 seconds with a visual countdown displayed inside the capture button.
• Format selection -- Save as PNG (lossless) or JPEG (quality 90).
• Preview and crop -- Optional post-capture preview window with drag-to-select crop region. The watermark is rendered as a live overlay in the preview, showing exactly how the final image will appear.
• Duplicate prevention -- The portal's original file is automatically removed after processing, preventing duplicate screenshots in the system default folder.

Watermark

• Customizable watermark -- Optional text overlay rendered via Cairo with configurable date format, custom text, corner position, and color.
• 5 date format presets -- YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM, Mon DD, YYYY HH:MM, YYYY-MM-DD (date only), HH:MM:SS (time only).
• Custom text -- Prepend a brand name or label to the date stamp (e.g., MyBrand | 2026-02-16 14:30:25).
• 4 corner positions -- Bottom-right, bottom-left, top-right, top-left.
• Color selection -- White text with dark shadow (default) or black text with light shadow, for optimal legibility on any background.

Output

• Custom save directory -- Choose where screenshots are saved via folder picker. Defaults to ~/Pictures/Screenshots/.
• Open screenshots folder -- One-click access to the save directory in the file manager.
• Automatic clipboard copy -- The captured image is copied to the system clipboard immediately after saving.
• Desktop notifications -- Posts a GNOME notification with the file path after each successful capture. Clicking the notification opens the screenshot in the default image viewer.

General

• Tabbed interface -- Clean two-tab layout: Shot (capture controls) and Settings (watermark, format, output configuration).
• Settings persistence -- All preferences stored via GSettings and restored on launch.
• CLI headless mode -- Capture screenshots from the command line without displaying the GUI, suitable for scripting and automation.
• 14 languages -- Translations via GNU gettext for the most widely spoken languages.

Requirements

Runtime

Dependency	Minimum version
GTK 4	4.14
Libadwaita	1.5
xdg-desktop-portal-gnome	--
glib-compile-schemas	--

Build

Tool	Version
Rust toolchain	1.70+ (edition 2021)
pkg-config	--
GTK 4 development headers	libgtk-4-dev
Libadwaita development headers	libadwaita-1-dev

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev pkg-config

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/axpnet/supershot.git
cd supershot/SuperShot
cargo build --release

The release binary is produced at target/release/supershot.

During development builds, the build.rs script automatically installs the GSettings XML schema into ~/.local/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ and compiles it, so cargo run works without a system-wide installation step.

Installation

From Snap Store (recommended)

sudo snap install supershot

From .deb package

Download the latest .deb from the Releases page:

sudo dpkg -i supershot_1.1.0_amd64.deb

The package installs the binary to /usr/bin/supershot, the GSettings schema, the .desktop launcher, the AppStream metadata, and the application icon. Post-installation scripts compile the GSettings schema and update the icon cache automatically.

Manual installation

sudo install -Dm755 target/release/supershot /usr/bin/supershot
sudo install -Dm644 data/com.github.axpnet.SuperShot.desktop /usr/share/applications/
sudo install -Dm644 data/com.github.axpnet.SuperShot.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
sudo install -Dm644 data/com.github.axpnet.SuperShot.metainfo.xml /usr/share/metainfo/
sudo install -Dm644 data/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/com.github.axpnet.SuperShot.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

Usage

GUI mode

supershot

Opens the main application window with two tabs:

• Shot -- Configure delay and preview toggle, then press the circular capture button. The GNOME Screenshot portal opens, allowing you to select an area, window, or full screen.
• Settings -- Configure watermark (enable, date format, custom text, position, color), output format (PNG/JPEG), and save directory.

CLI headless mode

supershot --now --delay 5

Opens the portal screenshot UI after a 5-second delay without displaying the SuperShot window.

Flag	Description	Default
--delay	Seconds before capture	0
--now	Headless mode (no GUI)	false

Translations

SuperShot ships with 14 language translations via GNU gettext. The interface defaults to English; translations are activated automatically when the system locale matches a supported language.

Language	Code	Status
English	en	Source language
Italian	it	Complete
French	fr	Complete
German	de	Complete
Spanish	es	Complete
Portuguese	pt	Complete
Russian	ru	Complete
Polish	pl	Complete
Turkish	tr	Complete
Japanese	ja	Complete
Korean	ko	Complete
Chinese (Simplified)	zh_CN	Complete
Chinese (Traditional)	zh_TW	Complete
Hindi	hi	Complete
Indonesian	id	Complete

New translations are welcome. See docs/CONTRIBUTING.md for the translation workflow.

Architecture

SuperShot is structured as a standard GLib/GTK4 application using the object-subclassing pattern with inline composite templates:

src/
  main.rs      Entry point, CLI argument parsing (clap), dispatch
  app.rs       AdwApplication subclass, lifecycle and action management
  config.rs    Application constants (APP_ID, gettext domain)
  i18n.rs      GNU gettext initialization
  window.rs    Main window with tabbed UI (AdwViewStack), GSettings bindings
  capture.rs   Capture pipeline: countdown, portal, watermark, crop, save, clipboard, notify
  preview.rs   Preview/crop window with Cairo rendering and live watermark overlay
  sound.rs     Shutter sound playback via canberra-gtk-play

Screenshot capture is performed through the XDG Desktop Portal (ashpd crate), which communicates with the compositor via D-Bus. The portal's interactive UI handles area, window, and full-screen selection natively. Post-capture processing (watermark, crop, format conversion) uses Cairo and GdkPixbuf.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss proposed changes before submitting a pull request. See docs/CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow and translation guide.

Support

If you find SuperShot useful, consider supporting its development:

• GitHub Sponsors: github.com/sponsors/axpnet
• Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/axpnet

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. See the LICENSE file for details.

Author

axpnet -- github.com/axpnet

Repository: https://github.com/axpnet/supershot