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How to Take a ScreenShot?

How to Take a Screenshot on Ubuntu?

Detailed Ubuntu screenshot guide for GNOME capture, save location, Wayland and troubleshooting.

How to Take a Screenshot on Ubuntu visual guide

Current Ubuntu desktop releases commonly use GNOME, so the built in GNOME screenshot overlay is the first method to try. Older Ubuntu versions or alternate desktop flavors can behave differently.

How to take a screenshot in Ubuntu?

  1. Press Print Screen.
  2. Choose Selection, Screen or Window in the capture overlay.
  3. Select the area/window if needed.
  4. Capture the image and use the saved file or clipboard copy.

Where screenshots are saved?

On current GNOME workflow, screenshots are stored in Pictures/Screenshots and copied to the clipboard. Ubuntu flavors with another desktop can use another location.

Selected area, one window and full screen

Prefer the desktop’s built in capture modes because they integrate correctly with the current compositor/session. This is especially important on Wayland, where old X11-style tools may not have unrestricted access to the screen.

Clipboard behavior

Some desktop screenshot workflows both save a file and copy the image to the clipboard; others do one or the other depending on the shortcut. If no file appears, try pasting into an image editor before assuming the capture failed.

Wayland and X11

If a third party screenshot tool works on X11 but fails on Wayland, verify that the installed version supports the desktop portal/compositor rather than weakening the system configuration just to accommodate an outdated capture method.

Troubleshooting

  • Open the screenshot utility from the application launcher to separate an app problem from a shortcut problem.
  • Check the desktop keyboard shortcut settings for a remapped Print key.
  • Test a simple desktop capture before troubleshooting one protected or sandboxed app.
  • Confirm the save folder and clipboard behavior.
  • Update the screenshot utility from the distribution’s trusted package source if your desktop release expects a newer version.

Additional details

Ubuntu can run GNOME on Wayland by default, so prefer the built in screenshot portal before relying on older utilities written for unrestricted X11 capture.