(Last Updated On: September 16, 2018)

Flameshot is a powerful yet simple to use screenshot software for Linux. It can run on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04 / Debian 9 / Debian 8 / Arch Linux and Fedora Linux distributions. In this guide, we will see how you can install and use Flameshot on these Linux distributions.

Features of Flameshot

  • Customizable appearance.
  • Easy to use.
  • In-app screenshot edition.
  • DBus interface.
  • Upload to Imgur.

How to Install Flameshot on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04

Flameshot is installed on Ubuntu 18.04 from apt repository by running the following command

sudo apt install flameshot

You can also build from source, but you need to install build tools prior to packaging flameshot.

sudo apt install g++ build-essential qt5-default qt5-qmake qttools5-dev-tools
sudo apt install libqt5dbus5 libqt5network5 libqt5core5a libqt5widgets5 libqt5gui5 libqt5svg5-dev
sudo apt install git openssl ca-certificates
git clone https://github.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot.git
cd flameshot
mkdir build
cd build
qmake ../
sudo make
sudo make install

The preferred method is installation from the apt repository as it is easy to update package to the latest release.

How to Install Flameshot on Debian 10 / Debian 9 / Debian 8

For Debian 10+, the package can be installed from official apt upstream.

sudo apt install  flameshot

Package for Debian 9 (“Stretch”) is available via stretch-backports. Backports have recompiled packages from testing. Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main

Save the file, update apt db and install flameshot

sudo apt update
apt-get -t stretch-backports install flameshot

For Debian 8, add

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main

Then install flameshot

sudo apt update
apt-get -t jessie-backports install flameshot

How to Install Flameshot on Arch Linux / Manjaro

For Arch Linux and its derivatives like Manjaro, Antergos e.t.c. The package is available from the upstream repository.

sudo pacman -S flameshot

Development versions can also be installed from AUR. If you don’t have AUR, check yay – Best AUR Helper for Arch Linux / Manjaro

yay -S --noconfirm --needed flameshot-git

Building from source

sudo pacman -S base-devel git qt5-base qt5-tools
sudo pacman -S qt5-svg
sudo pacman -S openssl ca-certificates
git clone https://github.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot.git
cd flameshot
mkdir build
cd build
qmake ../
sudo make
sudo make install

How to Install Flameshot on Fedora

Use dnf package manager on Fedora to install flameshot

sudo dnf install flameshot

Building from source

sudo dnf install gcc-c++ qt5-devel qt5-qtbase-devel qt5-linguist
sudo dnf install qt5-qtbase qt5-qtsvg-devel
sudo dnf install git openssl ca-certificates
git clone https://github.com/lupoDharkael/flameshot.git
cd flameshot
mkdir build
cd build
qmake ../
sudo make
sudo make install

How to use Flameshot

Start a capture with GUI:

flameshot gui

Start a capture with GUI with and save on a custom save path:

flameshot gui -p /path-to-captures

Open GUI with a delay of 5 seconds:

flameshot gui -d 5000

Fullscreen capture with custom save path (no GUI) and delayed:

flameshot full -p /path-to-captures -d 5000

Fullscreen capture with custom save path copying to clipboard:

flameshot full -c -p ~/myStuff/captures

Capture the screen containing the mouse and print the image (bytes) in PNG format:

flameshot screen -r

Capture the screen number 1 and copy it to the clipboard:

flameshot screen -n 1 -c

CLI configuration

You can use the graphical menu to configure Flameshot, but alternatively, you can use your terminal or scripts to do so.

  • Open the configuration menu: 
    flameshot config
  • Show the initial help message in the capture mode: 
    flameshot config --showhelp true
  • For more information about the available options use the help flag: 
    flameshot config -h

For more usage examples, refer to Flameshot documentation.