sc

X11 screenshot tool for tiling window managers

Dependencies

• Raylib
• Raygui (included in repo)
• Xlib
• Cmake
• picom (should be running in background)

How to build

cd sc_source/
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -S .. -B
make

About picom

My WM is Qtile. Without picom it’s impossible to create transparent window.

It’s required by program logic to be able to create window with blank background color.

My Qtile config snippet

The following snippet shows the way to run picom in the background in case of Qtile.

@hook.subscribe.startup_once
def start_picom():
    os.system("picom &")

About tiling managers

Before I made this program, my way to take screenshots was not obvious and simple.

I used shotgun to take screenshots, but it’s CLI. So I used to take screenshot of entire screen, then crop what I need with cropper.

It’s too ridiculos, so I deicided to write my own tool.

sc provides keyboard-driven controls, but you can use mouse if you wish. That’s why it fits into environment controlled by tiling window manager.

sc workflow

When you execute program, first thing you see is initial menu.

You have 3 buttons. Each button is associated with a key.

[F]ullscreen

press button or press F to create fullscreen screenshot.

[R]ectangle

press button or press R to start choosing rectangular area.

[C]config menu

opens config menu.

Fullscreen

Nothing special. Press F and screenshot is saved as png image in specified directory.

Rectangle

This is mode that provides ability to take screenshot of rectangular area, represented by rectangle with magenta color.

Keybindings

WASD/ARROWS

move rectangle around.

Q

increment rectangle’s step.

R

decrement rectangle’s step.

Z

increase rectangle’s width by step.

X

increase rectangle’s height by step.

C

decrease rectangle’s width by step.

V

decrease rectangle’s height by step.

SPACE

hide/show rectangle’s border.

ENTER

take screenshot of area within rectangle.

Mouse

Left Mouse Button

set rectangle’s top-left vertex position.

Right Mouse Button

set rectangle’s right-bottom vertex position.

Notes

• hit SPACE before pressing ENTER, unless you want to see rectangle’s border on screenshot picture.
• rectangle’s step equals to 1 by default.

Config menu

Available options to configure

width

determines width of rectangle

height

determines height of rectangle

step

determines rectangle’s step

save

determines directory where screenshots are saved

Note

Press B to get back to start menu. Or click button.