Keyboard shortcut for taking a screenshot of a selected region/area

[ghost]

MATE has implemented the keyboard shortcuts of GNOME for screenshots; like taking a screenshot of the whole desktop with PRINT key, of the active window with Alt+Print. But another one is missing. Shift+Print for taking a screenshot of a selected region/area. When Shift+Print is pressed, the mouse cursor turned into a plus/cross sign like icon; when an area is covered with it or being selected, a screenshot of that selected area/region is taken. It comes handy. It's in GNOME, it should be in MATE too. Waiting for this feature in the next MATE release.

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[dschwoerer]

can't you add this as custom shortcut with the command "mate-screenshot -a"?

[nickperkins]

@dschwoerer I've tried this and it ignores the parameter and takes a screenshot of the entire screen.

[hk0O7]

@nickperkins Me too. And if I try to wrap it in double or single quotes, like this:

"/usr/bin/mate-screenshot --area"

it gives the following error:

There was an error running '/usr/bin/mate-screenshot --area': Failed to execute child process "/usr/bin/mate-screenshot --area" (No such file or directory)

The same happens without the full path, and if I wrap the executable path only it won't take the parameter. The only way I've found to make it work is with a script, and entering its path there.

[martin-bts]

None of this works for me. With the -a parameter, no matter how or where I put it, nothing happens when I use the shortcut. mate-screenshot -a works flawlessly on the console though.

There is a bug report on this https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-utils/issues/37

[edmunddantes7]

https://github.com/mate-desktop/marco/issues/157#issuecomment-155733112 +1, same issues here

[dschwoerer]

Try putting

#!/bin/sh
sleep .1
mate-screenshot -a

in a file, make that executable, and then assign that file to the shortcut.

I don't quite understand why the delay is needed, depending on your system, a different delay may be required (or none at all)

[seaniedan]

I can confirm that dschwoerer's fix works. To avoid creating an extra file, I tried adding the commands separately to the Shortcut editor: sleep .1&&mate-screenshot -a ...however this did not work. Create the file as dschwoerer suggests, use chmod +x /the/file/you/created to make it executable, add the new shortcut (System->Hardware->Keyboarard Shortcuts) then click on it and assign Shift and Print as the shortcut.

[aparmar]

Confirming that @dschwoerer solution works. In my cases, I didn't have to add the sleep...so just two lines in the file. Depending on where you put the file, you may need to reference the full file path. In my case, I created it in my home (~) folder, and therefore had to add the full path in the keyboard shortcuts command parameter

[hk0O7]

Hi.

I've just tried (with dconf-editor) having both commands as /bin/sh's argument on Linux Mint 19.3 (MATE v.1.22.2) and it works without having to rely on a separate file:

/bin/sh -c 'sleep .1;mate-screenshot -a'

[jeffmcneill]

Confirm that @hk0O7 fix worked. Can add this as a custom keyboard shortcut under control center. I do agree that it should be present as another option instead of just window and full screenshots.

[oz123]

It would be great to have this implemented without a shell wrapper.