Take a screenshot via a Python script on Linux

Question

I want to take a screenshot via a python script and unobtrusively save it   I m only interested in the Linux solution  and should support any X based environment

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I couldn t take screenshot in Linux with pyscreenshot or scrot because output of pyscreenshot was just a black screen png image file   but thank god there was another very easy way for taking screenshot in Linux without installing anything  just put below code in your directory and run with python demo py  import os os system  gnome-screenshot --file this directory png     also there is many available options for gnome-screenshot --help  Application Options    -c  --clipboard                Send the grab directly to the clipboard   -w  --window                   Grab a window instead of the entire screen   -a  --area                     Grab an area of the screen instead of the entire screen   -b  --include-border           Include the window border with the screenshot   -B  --remove-border            Remove the window border from the screenshot   -p  --include-pointer          Include the pointer with the screenshot   -d  --delay seconds            Take screenshot after specified delay  in seconds    -e  --border-effect effect     Effect to add to the border  shadow  border  vintage or none    -i  --interactive              Interactively set options   -f  --file filename            Save screenshot directly to this file   --version                      Print version information and exit   --display DISPLAY              X display to use

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Cross platform solution using wxPython   import wx wx App      Need to create an App instance before doing anything screen   wx ScreenDC   size   screen GetSize   bmp   wx EmptyBitmap size 0   size 1   mem   wx MemoryDC bmp  mem Blit 0  0  size 0   size 1   screen  0  0  del mem    Release bitmap bmp SaveFile  screenshot png   wx BITMAP TYPE PNG

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Try it      usr bin python  import gtk gdk import time import random import socket import fcntl import struct import getpass import os import paramiko       while 1        generate a random time between 120 and 300 sec     random time   random randrange 20 25        wait between 120 and 300 seconds  or between 2 and 5 minutes        print  Next picture in    2f minutes     float random time    60       time sleep random time      w   gtk gdk get default root window          sz   w get size       print  The size of the window is  d x  d    sz     pb   gtk gdk Pixbuf gtk gdk COLORSPACE RGB False 8 sz 0  sz 1       pb   pb get from drawable w w get colormap   0 0 0 0 sz 0  sz 1       ts   time asctime  time localtime time time          date   time strftime   d- m- Y       timer   time strftime   I  M  S p       filename   timer     filename      png       if  pb    None           username   getpass getuser    Get username         newpath   r screenshots   username     date  screenshot save path         if not os path exists newpath   os makedirs newpath          saveas   os path join newpath filename          print saveas         pb save saveas  png       else          print  Unable to get the screenshot

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for ubuntu this work for me  you can take a screenshot of select window with this  import gi gi require version  Gtk    3 0   from gi repository import Gdk from gi repository import GdkPixbuf import numpy as np from Xlib display import Display   define the window name window name    Spotify    define xid of your select  window  def locate window stack window       disp   Display       NET WM NAME   disp intern atom   NET WM NAME       WM NAME   disp intern atom  WM NAME        name         for i  w in enumerate stack           win id  w get xid           window obj   disp create resource object  window   win id          for atom in  NET WM NAME  WM NAME               window name window obj get full property atom  0              name append window name value      for l in range len stack            if name 2 l   window               return stack l   window   Gdk get default root window   screen   window get screen   stack   screen get window stack   myselectwindow   locate window stack window name  img pixbuf   Gdk pixbuf get from window myselectwindow  myselectwindow get geometry      to transform pixbuf into array def pixbuf to array p       w h c r  p get width    p get height    p get n channels    p get rowstride        assert p get colorspace      GdkPixbuf Colorspace RGB     assert p get bits per sample      8     if  p get has alpha            assert c    4     else          assert c    3     assert r  gt   w   c     a np frombuffer p get pixels   dtype np uint8      if a shape 0     w c h          return a reshape   h  w  c        else          b np zeros  h w c   uint8           for j in range h               b j    a r j r j w c          return b reshape   h  w  c     beauty print   pixbuf to array img pixbuf

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From this thread    import os  os system  import -window root temp png

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Just for completeness  Xlib - But it s somewhat slow when capturing the whole screen  from Xlib import display  X import Image  PIL  W H   200 200 dsp   display Display   try      root   dsp screen   root     raw   root get image 0  0  W H  X ZPixmap  0xffffffff      image   Image fromstring  quot RGB quot    W  H   raw data   quot raw quot    quot BGRX quot       image show   finally      dsp close    One could try to trow some types in the bottleneck-files in PyXlib  and then compile it using Cython  That could increase the speed a bit   Edit  We can write the core of the function in C  and then use it in python from ctypes  here is something I hacked together   include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt X11 X h gt   include  lt X11 Xlib h gt    Compile hint  gcc -shared -O3 -lX11 -fPIC -Wl -soname prtscn -o prtscn so prtscn c  void getScreen const int  const int  const int  const int  unsigned char     void getScreen const int xx const int yy const int W  const int H    out   unsigned char   data        Display  display   XOpenDisplay NULL      Window root   DefaultRootWindow display       XImage  image   XGetImage display root  xx yy  W H  AllPlanes  ZPixmap       unsigned long red mask     image- gt red mask     unsigned long green mask   image- gt green mask     unsigned long blue mask    image- gt blue mask     int x  y     int ii   0     for  y   0  y  lt  H  y             for  x   0  x  lt  W  x               unsigned long pixel   XGetPixel image x y            unsigned char blue     pixel  amp  blue mask            unsigned char green    pixel  amp  green mask   gt  gt  8           unsigned char red      pixel  amp  red mask   gt  gt  16            data ii   2    blue           data ii   1    green           data ii   0    red           ii    3                  XDestroyImage image      XDestroyWindow display  root      XCloseDisplay display      And then the python-file  import ctypes import os from PIL import Image  LibName    prtscn so  AbsLibPath   os path dirname os path abspath   file       os path sep   LibName grab   ctypes CDLL AbsLibPath   def grab screen x1 y1 x2 y2       w  h   x2-x1  y2-y1     size   w   h     objlength   size   3      grab getScreen argtypes          result    ctypes c ubyte objlength         grab getScreen x1 y1  w  h  result      return Image frombuffer  RGB    w  h   result   raw    RGB   0  1       if   name         main       im   grab screen 0 0 1440 900    im show

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Compile all answers in one class  Outputs PIL image      usr bin env python   encoding  utf-8     screengrab py  Created by Alex Snet on 2011-10-10  Copyright  c  2011 CodeTeam  All rights reserved       import sys import os  import Image   class screengrab      def   init   self           try              import gtk         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByGtk          try              import PyQt4         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByQt          try              import wx         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByWx          try              import ImageGrab         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByPIL       def getScreenByGtk self           import gtk gdk               w   gtk gdk get default root window           sz   w get size           pb   gtk gdk Pixbuf gtk gdk COLORSPACE RGB False 8 sz 0  sz 1           pb   pb get from drawable w w get colormap   0 0 0 0 sz 0  sz 1           if pb is None              return False         else              width height   pb get width   pb get height               return Image fromstring  RGB   width height  pb get pixels          def getScreenByQt self           from PyQt4 QtGui import QPixmap  QApplication         from PyQt4 Qt import QBuffer  QIODevice         import StringIO         app   QApplication sys argv          buffer   QBuffer           buffer open QIODevice ReadWrite          QPixmap grabWindow QApplication desktop   winId    save buffer   png           strio   StringIO StringIO           strio write buffer data            buffer close           del app         strio seek 0          return Image open strio       def getScreenByPIL self           import ImageGrab         img   ImageGrab grab           return img      def getScreenByWx self           import wx         wx App      Need to create an App instance before doing anything         screen   wx ScreenDC           size   screen GetSize           bmp   wx EmptyBitmap size 0   size 1           mem   wx MemoryDC bmp          mem Blit 0  0  size 0   size 1   screen  0  0          del mem    Release bitmap          bmp SaveFile  screenshot png   wx BITMAP TYPE PNG          myWxImage   wx ImageFromBitmap  myBitmap           PilImage   Image new   RGB    myWxImage GetWidth    myWxImage GetHeight              PilImage fromstring  myWxImage GetData             return PilImage  if   name         main         s   screengrab       screen   s screen       screen show

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Compile all answers in one class  Outputs PIL image      usr bin env python   encoding  utf-8     screengrab py  Created by Alex Snet on 2011-10-10  Copyright  c  2011 CodeTeam  All rights reserved       import sys import os  import Image   class screengrab      def   init   self           try              import gtk         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByGtk          try              import PyQt4         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByQt          try              import wx         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByWx          try              import ImageGrab         except ImportError              pass         else              self screen   self getScreenByPIL       def getScreenByGtk self           import gtk gdk               w   gtk gdk get default root window           sz   w get size           pb   gtk gdk Pixbuf gtk gdk COLORSPACE RGB False 8 sz 0  sz 1           pb   pb get from drawable w w get colormap   0 0 0 0 sz 0  sz 1           if pb is None              return False         else              width height   pb get width   pb get height               return Image fromstring  RGB   width height  pb get pixels          def getScreenByQt self           from PyQt4 QtGui import QPixmap  QApplication         from PyQt4 Qt import QBuffer  QIODevice         import StringIO         app   QApplication sys argv          buffer   QBuffer           buffer open QIODevice ReadWrite          QPixmap grabWindow QApplication desktop   winId    save buffer   png           strio   StringIO StringIO           strio write buffer data            buffer close           del app         strio seek 0          return Image open strio       def getScreenByPIL self           import ImageGrab         img   ImageGrab grab           return img      def getScreenByWx self           import wx         wx App      Need to create an App instance before doing anything         screen   wx ScreenDC           size   screen GetSize           bmp   wx EmptyBitmap size 0   size 1           mem   wx MemoryDC bmp          mem Blit 0  0  size 0   size 1   screen  0  0          del mem    Release bitmap          bmp SaveFile  screenshot png   wx BITMAP TYPE PNG          myWxImage   wx ImageFromBitmap  myBitmap           PilImage   Image new   RGB    myWxImage GetWidth    myWxImage GetHeight              PilImage fromstring  myWxImage GetData             return PilImage  if   name         main         s   screengrab       screen   s screen       screen show

User · Answer

Try it      usr bin python  import gtk gdk import time import random import socket import fcntl import struct import getpass import os import paramiko       while 1        generate a random time between 120 and 300 sec     random time   random randrange 20 25        wait between 120 and 300 seconds  or between 2 and 5 minutes        print  Next picture in    2f minutes     float random time    60       time sleep random time      w   gtk gdk get default root window          sz   w get size       print  The size of the window is  d x  d    sz     pb   gtk gdk Pixbuf gtk gdk COLORSPACE RGB False 8 sz 0  sz 1       pb   pb get from drawable w w get colormap   0 0 0 0 sz 0  sz 1       ts   time asctime  time localtime time time          date   time strftime   d- m- Y       timer   time strftime   I  M  S p       filename   timer     filename      png       if  pb    None           username   getpass getuser    Get username         newpath   r screenshots   username     date  screenshot save path         if not os path exists newpath   os makedirs newpath          saveas   os path join newpath filename          print saveas         pb save saveas  png       else          print  Unable to get the screenshot

User · Answer

import ImageGrab img   ImageGrab grab   img save  test jpg   JPEG     this requires Python Imaging Library

User · Answer

I couldn t take screenshot in Linux with pyscreenshot or scrot because output of pyscreenshot was just a black screen png image file   but thank god there was another very easy way for taking screenshot in Linux without installing anything  just put below code in your directory and run with python demo py  import os os system  gnome-screenshot --file this directory png     also there is many available options for gnome-screenshot --help  Application Options    -c  --clipboard                Send the grab directly to the clipboard   -w  --window                   Grab a window instead of the entire screen   -a  --area                     Grab an area of the screen instead of the entire screen   -b  --include-border           Include the window border with the screenshot   -B  --remove-border            Remove the window border from the screenshot   -p  --include-pointer          Include the pointer with the screenshot   -d  --delay seconds            Take screenshot after specified delay  in seconds    -e  --border-effect effect     Effect to add to the border  shadow  border  vintage or none    -i  --interactive              Interactively set options   -f  --file filename            Save screenshot directly to this file   --version                      Print version information and exit   --display DISPLAY              X display to use

User · Answer

import ImageGrab img   ImageGrab grab   img save  test jpg   JPEG     this requires Python Imaging Library

User · Answer

You can use this  import os os system  import -window root screen shot png

User · Answer

You can use this  import os os system  import -window root screen shot png

User · Answer

for ubuntu this work for me  you can take a screenshot of select window with this  import gi gi require version  Gtk    3 0   from gi repository import Gdk from gi repository import GdkPixbuf import numpy as np from Xlib display import Display   define the window name window name    Spotify    define xid of your select  window  def locate window stack window       disp   Display       NET WM NAME   disp intern atom   NET WM NAME       WM NAME   disp intern atom  WM NAME        name         for i  w in enumerate stack           win id  w get xid           window obj   disp create resource object  window   win id          for atom in  NET WM NAME  WM NAME               window name window obj get full property atom  0              name append window name value      for l in range len stack            if name 2 l   window               return stack l   window   Gdk get default root window   screen   window get screen   stack   screen get window stack   myselectwindow   locate window stack window name  img pixbuf   Gdk pixbuf get from window myselectwindow  myselectwindow get geometry      to transform pixbuf into array def pixbuf to array p       w h c r  p get width    p get height    p get n channels    p get rowstride        assert p get colorspace      GdkPixbuf Colorspace RGB     assert p get bits per sample      8     if  p get has alpha            assert c    4     else          assert c    3     assert r  gt   w   c     a np frombuffer p get pixels   dtype np uint8      if a shape 0     w c h          return a reshape   h  w  c        else          b np zeros  h w c   uint8           for j in range h               b j    a r j r j w c          return b reshape   h  w  c     beauty print   pixbuf to array img pixbuf

User · Answer

Just for completeness  Xlib - But it s somewhat slow when capturing the whole screen  from Xlib import display  X import Image  PIL  W H   200 200 dsp   display Display   try      root   dsp screen   root     raw   root get image 0  0  W H  X ZPixmap  0xffffffff      image   Image fromstring  quot RGB quot    W  H   raw data   quot raw quot    quot BGRX quot       image show   finally      dsp close    One could try to trow some types in the bottleneck-files in PyXlib  and then compile it using Cython  That could increase the speed a bit   Edit  We can write the core of the function in C  and then use it in python from ctypes  here is something I hacked together   include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt X11 X h gt   include  lt X11 Xlib h gt    Compile hint  gcc -shared -O3 -lX11 -fPIC -Wl -soname prtscn -o prtscn so prtscn c  void getScreen const int  const int  const int  const int  unsigned char     void getScreen const int xx const int yy const int W  const int H    out   unsigned char   data        Display  display   XOpenDisplay NULL      Window root   DefaultRootWindow display       XImage  image   XGetImage display root  xx yy  W H  AllPlanes  ZPixmap       unsigned long red mask     image- gt red mask     unsigned long green mask   image- gt green mask     unsigned long blue mask    image- gt blue mask     int x  y     int ii   0     for  y   0  y  lt  H  y             for  x   0  x  lt  W  x               unsigned long pixel   XGetPixel image x y            unsigned char blue     pixel  amp  blue mask            unsigned char green    pixel  amp  green mask   gt  gt  8           unsigned char red      pixel  amp  red mask   gt  gt  16            data ii   2    blue           data ii   1    green           data ii   0    red           ii    3                  XDestroyImage image      XDestroyWindow display  root      XCloseDisplay display      And then the python-file  import ctypes import os from PIL import Image  LibName    prtscn so  AbsLibPath   os path dirname os path abspath   file       os path sep   LibName grab   ctypes CDLL AbsLibPath   def grab screen x1 y1 x2 y2       w  h   x2-x1  y2-y1     size   w   h     objlength   size   3      grab getScreen argtypes          result    ctypes c ubyte objlength         grab getScreen x1 y1  w  h  result      return Image frombuffer  RGB    w  h   result   raw    RGB   0  1       if   name         main       im   grab screen 0 0 1440 900    im show

User · Answer

From this thread    import os  os system  import -window root temp png

User · Answer

There is a python package for this Autopy  The bitmap module can to screen grabbing  bitmap capture screen  It is multiplateform  Windows  Linux  Osx

User · Answer

This one works on X11  and perhaps on Windows too  someone  please check   Needs PyQt4   import sys from PyQt4 QtGui import QPixmap  QApplication app   QApplication sys argv  QPixmap grabWindow QApplication desktop   winId    save  test png    png

User · Answer

There is a python package for this Autopy  The bitmap module can to screen grabbing  bitmap capture screen  It is multiplateform  Windows  Linux  Osx

User · Answer

It s an old question  I would like to answer it using new tools   Works with python 3  should work with python 2  but I haven t test it  and PyQt5   Minimal working example  Copy it to the python shell and get the result   from PyQt5 QtWidgets import QApplication app   QApplication     screen   app primaryScreen   screenshot   screen grabWindow QApplication desktop   winId    screenshot save   tmp screenshot png

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This works without having to use scrot or ImageMagick   import gtk gdk  w   gtk gdk get default root window   sz   w get size   print  The size of the window is  d x  d    sz pb   gtk gdk Pixbuf gtk gdk COLORSPACE RGB False 8 sz 0  sz 1   pb   pb get from drawable w w get colormap   0 0 0 0 sz 0  sz 1   if  pb    None       pb save  screenshot png   png       print  Screenshot saved to screenshot png   else      print  Unable to get the screenshot     Borrowed from http   ubuntuforums org showpost php p 2681009 amp postcount 5

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I have a wrapper project  pyscreenshot  for scrot  imagemagick  pyqt  wx and pygtk  If you have one of them  you can use it  All solutions are included from this discussion   Install   easy install pyscreenshot   Example   import pyscreenshot as ImageGrab    fullscreen im ImageGrab grab   im show      part of the screen im ImageGrab grab bbox  10 10 500 500   im show      to file ImageGrab grab to file  im png

User · Answer

bit late but nevermind easy one is  import autopy import time time sleep 2  b   autopy bitmap capture screen   b save  C  Users mak Desktop m png

User · Answer

I have a wrapper project  pyscreenshot  for scrot  imagemagick  pyqt  wx and pygtk  If you have one of them  you can use it  All solutions are included from this discussion   Install   easy install pyscreenshot   Example   import pyscreenshot as ImageGrab    fullscreen im ImageGrab grab   im show      part of the screen im ImageGrab grab bbox  10 10 500 500   im show      to file ImageGrab grab to file  im png

User · Answer

This one works on X11  and perhaps on Windows too  someone  please check   Needs PyQt4   import sys from PyQt4 QtGui import QPixmap  QApplication app   QApplication sys argv  QPixmap grabWindow QApplication desktop   winId    save  test png    png

User · Answer

bit late but nevermind easy one is  import autopy import time time sleep 2  b   autopy bitmap capture screen   b save  C  Users mak Desktop m png

User · Answer

It s an old question  I would like to answer it using new tools   Works with python 3  should work with python 2  but I haven t test it  and PyQt5   Minimal working example  Copy it to the python shell and get the result   from PyQt5 QtWidgets import QApplication app   QApplication     screen   app primaryScreen   screenshot   screen grabWindow QApplication desktop   winId    screenshot save   tmp screenshot png

User · Answer

Cross platform solution using wxPython   import wx wx App      Need to create an App instance before doing anything screen   wx ScreenDC   size   screen GetSize   bmp   wx EmptyBitmap size 0   size 1   mem   wx MemoryDC bmp  mem Blit 0  0  size 0   size 1   screen  0  0  del mem    Release bitmap bmp SaveFile  screenshot png   wx BITMAP TYPE PNG

User · Answer

import ImageGrab img   ImageGrab grab   img save  test jpg   JPEG     this requires Python Imaging Library

User · Answer

This works without having to use scrot or ImageMagick   import gtk gdk  w   gtk gdk get default root window   sz   w get size   print  The size of the window is  d x  d    sz pb   gtk gdk Pixbuf gtk gdk COLORSPACE RGB False 8 sz 0  sz 1   pb   pb get from drawable w w get colormap   0 0 0 0 sz 0  sz 1   if  pb    None       pb save  screenshot png   png       print  Screenshot saved to screenshot png   else      print  Unable to get the screenshot     Borrowed from http   ubuntuforums org showpost php p 2681009 amp postcount 5

User · Answer

import ImageGrab img   ImageGrab grab   img save  test jpg   JPEG     this requires Python Imaging Library

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