I want to take a screenshot. In Windows, that’s a simple Graphics::CopyFromScreen call.

In Linux, I feel a little confused on how to do this. It seems there is a principal and stark distinction between X11 and Wayland, so I have to include both code paths. For either, it seems there is quite a lot of boilerplate code, often tagged as ‘may break depending on your configuration, good luck’.

Effectively, what I found is recommended most often is to call ffmpeg to let it handle that. I’m sure that works, but I find it rather unpalatable.

I find this strange. Taking a screenshot is, in my mind at least, supposed to be a straightforward part of a standard library. Perhaps it is, and I just completely missed it? If not, is there a good library that works out-of-the-box on most variants of linux?


Update: Thank you all for the input. I eventually went with calling ImageMagick. It is fast, easy to use, well documented, and supports capturing arbitrary displays with little effort.

  • LeFantome@programming.dev
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    14 days ago

    I think ffmpeg is overkill. I would use ImageMagick or Scrot. That said, it makes sense to call a utility to do it.

    If you are using Uno Platform, there is a TakeScreenshot class. I have not used it. Uno Platform targets Linux so that may work.

    There is a Screenshot class in MAUI but MAUI does not target Linux. You could try the unofficial port but I have no experience with it: https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux