DesktopImage

A cross-platform CLI tool to capture desktop screenshots with automatic timestamp naming and multi-monitor support.

Features

• Captures full desktop screenshot
• Captures individual screenshots for each display/monitor
• Selective display capture: Capture specific displays only
• Automatic timestamp-based file naming
• Support for multiple image formats (PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP)
• Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux, WSL)
• Customizable output directory
• Adjustable image quality for JPEG formats

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 14.0.0
• Platform-specific requirements:
  • Linux: imagemagick package (for import command)
  • macOS: Built-in support (uses screencapture)
  • Windows/WSL: Built-in support (uses PowerShell)

Install from source

# Clone or download this repository
cd DesktopImage

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Install globally
npm install -g .

Usage

Basic Usage

Capture desktop and all display screenshots with default settings:

desktopimage

This will create:

• DesktopImage_2024-01-20_14-30-45.png - Full desktop screenshot
• DisplayImage1_2024-01-20_14-30-45.png - First display
• DisplayImage2_2024-01-20_14-30-45.png - Second display (if available)
• etc.

Options

desktopimage [options]

Option	Alias	Description	Default
--display	-d	Display number to capture (e.g., 1 for DisplayImage1 only)	All displays
--output	-o	Output directory for screenshots	Current directory
--format	-f	Image format (png, jpg, jpeg, bmp)	png
--quality	-q	JPEG quality (1-100)	100
--help	-h	Show help message	-

Examples

Capture only Display 1:

desktopimage -d 1

Capture only Display 2 as JPEG:

desktopimage -d 2 -f jpg

Save screenshots to a specific directory:

desktopimage -o ~/Screenshots

Save as JPEG with 85% quality:

desktopimage -f jpg -q 85

Save to custom directory with BMP format:

desktopimage -o /path/to/screenshots -f bmp

Capture Display 1 only and save as JPEG to specific directory:

desktopimage -d 1 -f jpg -q 90 -o ~/Screenshots

File Naming

Screenshots are automatically named with timestamps in the following format:

• Main desktop: DesktopImage_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.{format}
• Individual displays: DisplayImage{N}_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.{format}

Where:

• YYYY - Year (4 digits)
• MM - Month (2 digits, zero-padded)
• DD - Day (2 digits, zero-padded)
• HH - Hours (2 digits, 24-hour format, zero-padded)
• MM - Minutes (2 digits, zero-padded)
• SS - Seconds (2 digits, zero-padded)
• {N} - Display number (1, 2, 3, etc.)
• {format} - File extension (png, jpg, jpeg, bmp)

Platform Notes

Windows / WSL

• Uses PowerShell and .NET Framework for screenshot capture
• Automatically detects all connected monitors
• WSL users can capture Windows desktop screenshots

macOS

• Uses built-in screencapture command
• Supports multiple displays
• No additional dependencies required

Linux

• Requires imagemagick package for the import command
• Uses X11 for screenshot capture
• Install with: sudo apt-get install imagemagick (Debian/Ubuntu) or equivalent

Troubleshooting

Linux: "import: command not found"

Install ImageMagick:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install imagemagick

# Fedora
sudo dnf install ImageMagick

# Arch
sudo pacman -S imagemagick

No screenshots for individual displays

• Ensure your system properly detects multiple monitors
• On Linux, check xrandr --query output
• On Windows, check display settings

License

MIT

Similar Projects

This project is inspired by ClipImageToFile, which saves clipboard images to files.