Shutter is a free screenshot capture tool for GNU/Linux. It has almost all the features of professional screenshot tools such as SnagIT. Shutter was formerly named GScrot (Not to be mistaken with scrot ). Using Shutter, you can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website – apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window.

Shutter Main Interface

The following image is the main window of Shutter which you see when you start the program. I have spruced up the image to provide some visual cues.

This is the main window of Shutter.

The numbered buttons shown in the image above denote the following:

1. The screenshot I took.
2. Shutter names each screenshot sequentially as shown here. You can easily rename any screenshot by pressing the F2 function key.
3. Shows the location where the screenshot is saved.
4. Displays the file size of the screenshot.
5. Mime type indicates the file format in which image is saved. In this case, the screenshot is saved as a PNG file.
6. Actual dimensions of the screenshot.
7. Clicking on the “Selection” button allows you to take the screenshot of a region.
8. Capture the full screen by clicking on the “Full Screen” button.
9. Shutter has tab support. All the images you capture are displayed in separate tabs.
10. Capture a screenshot of a window.
11. Capture a section of a window or application. For example, you can use this option to capture just the menu.
12. Capture a whole web page. You can fix the time out interval between 0 and 120 seconds.
13. While your screenshot tab is activated, if you press the Edit button, Shutter will open the screenshot in an image editor of its own for further embellishing (More on that later).
14. Upload / Export your captured screenshots to public image hosting sites such as ubuntu-pics.de, imageshack.us, imagebanana.com; Upload the screenshot via FTP to a remote location; or save it in a different directory in your own computer.

Shutter Drawing Tool

Shutter Drawing tool (Image Editor)

If you click on the “Edit” button in Shutter, the screenshot is opened in the Shutter drawing tool as shown in the image above. The Shutter drawing tool (Image editor) provides a number of tools which allow you to further embellish your screenshot. For instance, you can

• Sensor portions of your image
• Use text of different fonts and sizes
• Use numbered buttons for cues
• Use image icons provided by Shutter or from your system
• Graphics like arrows, lines, rectangles, and ellipses
• Highlight portions of the image
• Crop the image to desired size, and
• Plain doodle using the pencil tool.

After you have finished, you save the changes you made, which are then reflected in the original screenshot in the Shutter interface.

Shutter Plug-ins

Shutter comes bundled with 19 different plugins which allow you to apply special effects on your screenshot with the click of a button. The 19 plugins include those for creating shadow, inserting watermarks, torn paper effect, creating a reflection, resizing image to desired size, creating a Polaroid  and more. To execute any plugin, just right click on the screenshot in Shutter and click on “Execute a Plugin…” menu. You can also use the shortcut key [Ctrl+Shift+P] for the same.

How to Install Shutter in Linux

Shutter is available in the repositories of Fedora, Arch Linux, OpenSuSE, Gentoo, Frugalware Linux, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva and so on. In Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope, you have to include the ppc repository, to install Shutter using apt-get. But the upcoming Ubuntu Karmic Koala has Shutter added to the repository by default. More details on installing Shutter can be found on the Shutter official website.

Shutter is no doubt a fine screenshot capture tool rivaling (I dare say) even SnagIT in the features it sports. And it is available at an unbeatable price – Free.