How to capture a drop-down menu?

Question

I need to capture a drop-down menu of a program. If I open the menu and then press PrntScr (print screen button), it first closes the menu and then captures the screen. I tried Ctrl+PrntScr, Shift+PrntScr, Alt+PrntScr but no success. I am using Ubuntu 14.04.

score 41 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 21 '21 at 09:54

41

Run the Screenshot program (gnome-screenshot, or search for Screenshot in the Dash). Set a timeout (or delay):

And then get the menu and wait for the timeout to expire.

This only works with a whole-screen screenshot. So you'll have to manually crop later:

edited Dec 21 '21 at 09:54

Lorenz Keel

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answered Feb 12 '15 at 17:27

muru

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Running `gnome-screenshot` just takes a screenshot. Is there any way to launch that graphical interface from the terminal? (Just mildly curious.) – TRiG Jun 19 '15 at 11:24
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@TRiG `gnome-screenshot -i`, though you can set the delay directly (`-d 5`). – muru Jun 19 '15 at 11:25
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Thanks. And `--help` shows that, of course. If I had more sense, I'd've found it myself. – TRiG Jun 19 '15 at 11:41
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This doesn't work in Ubuntu 18.04. – carbocation Jan 07 '19 at 04:13
1

In Ubuntu 20.04 the GUI seems to have been removed as well (or still), but as mentioned above, not a problem: Just run "gnome-screenshot -help" to see all options. Also as mentioned above "gnome-screenshot --delay=SECONDS" (or just -d) does the job. – Prof.Chaos Mar 10 '21 at 04:00
@Prof.Chaos I don't use Ubuntu for a desktop anymore, but on Arch, which should have a newer version of gnome-screenshot (40, where 20.04 uses 3.36), the GUI's still there: https://i.stack.imgur.com/8XcCr.png – muru Mar 23 '21 at 07:37
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@Prof.Chaos In 20.04 the GUI is still there. You can access it either via searching for "screenshot" in the dash or by running `gnome-screenshot -i` as suggested in [muru's comment](https://askubuntu.com/questions/584778/how-to-capture-a-drop-down-menu#comment912522_584779). – BeastOfCaerbannog Dec 21 '21 at 08:59

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 18 '17 at 03:32

5

This is really simple using shutter and the best thing about using shutter is that you don't get to crop your menu later. It just captures the menu specified.

Install and launch shutter
```
sudo apt-get install shutter
```
Using the shutter window, click on the 'menu' icon. See screenshot below:
You will then be prompted to choose and click on which menu you want captured. Let's take for example Firefox - my browser. See screenshot below:

edited Jun 18 '17 at 03:32

muru

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answered Feb 12 '15 at 18:45

Parto

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Indeed, shutter should be the default. – muru Feb 13 '15 at 07:22
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I disagree. I just tried this and the real problem is that it grabs *only* the menu. I frequently need context. I think the first answer is better, but there should be an easier way to do a timeout on a selection of the screen. – tudor -Reinstate Monica- Aug 09 '17 at 23:30
how hard is it to caputure a menu in a screen shot, wow – Bersan May 29 '21 at 16:10
For me, shutter on Ubuntu Unity grabs the wrong rectangles. – PJ_Finnegan Oct 05 '21 at 10:25

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 29 '20 at 13:34

Install the imagemagick package, then issue the following command on a terminal:

$ sleep 10; import -window root /tmp/screenshot.png

In the next 10 seconds change your active window, open the dropdown menu and wait. You will likely need to crop your screenshot afterwards.

Hani Shams · Answer 4 · 2022-02-18T08:11:59.260

2

Use Flameshot, it also has an option to capture a rectangular area so you won't have to manually crop it.

Create a shortcut to these commands for easy access:

flameshot launcher

and

flameshot gui

Sample output:

edited Feb 18 '22 at 08:11

answered Dec 21 '21 at 08:29

Hani Shams

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This is the only answer that worked for me (Ubuntu 20.04, Flameshot 0.6.0). I do not see a Delay option in the GUI, but I can use `flameshot gui -d 5000` from the command line to get a 5s delay. – benjifisher Feb 18 '22 at 02:59

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 25 '22 at 11:10

I like flameshot too, but another useful program is peek, it lets you capture animated gifs.

Install with the command: sudo apt install peek

Place the Window over the area you want to capture, press record and do the normal actions you want to show. Pressing stop recording will show a prompt where to save the file. The output file size is minimal.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 12 '15 at 17:32

0

Open screencapture program using the "ubuntu button" then type "screen"
There is a number field called "with a delay" add aproximately 4 seconds
click on take screencapture
open drop down menu
wait until your screenshot is made

answered Feb 12 '15 at 17:32

kees broeksma

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How to capture a drop-down menu?

6 Answers6

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