Screen Shots

You can use software to take a picture of the screen and store it in a graphics file. You can use Ksnapshot for this. From KDE, open Ksnapshot from the main menu in Graphics or Utilities. Ksnapshot may be on the GNOME main menu. If not, you can select Run from the main menu and type Ksnapshot. Ksnapshot opens with the window shown in Figure 13-3.

Figure 13-3. Ksnapshot window.

When Ksnapshot opens, it takes a picture of the screen, displaying the snapshot in the Current Snapshot section. The current snapshot in the figure shows a Linux desktop. You can print or save the snapshot. The snapshots are saved in .png format.

You can change the settings and take another snapshot. You can set a delay, so you have time to display some software on the screen that you want in the shot. You can set it to grab only the window containing the pointer, rather than the complete screen. When you have the settings changed, click New Snapshot. Ksnapshot closes its window. Click the window you want to take a picture of. Ksnapshot reopens with the new snapshot previewed.

If you're going to edit the screenshot, you can take a screenshot directly in GIMP. When GIMP is running, click File and select Acquire->Screen Shot. Check "Single Window" or "Whole Screen." Click OK. The screen image opens in GIMP, where you can edit and/ or save it.