FAQ & Help

  1. I want Shutter to be the default tool to take screenshots with. How do I do that?
    Shutter provides a built-in functionality to setup the global shortcuts if you are using GNOME. A detailed description and solutions for other desktop environments are avaiable here.
  2. I want to open my screenshot in an external application but the ‘Open with’ menu entry is empty. Why are my installed apps not listed here?
    You don’t seem to have any mimeinfo.cache files. Try running the update-desktop-database command. If you  don’t have this command you should install the desktop-file-utils package.
  3. Are there any plans to develop Shutter for Window, Mac OS or any other platform that is not GNU/Linux (or related)?
    I totally agree that supporting as many platforms as possible should be a target for most software projects nowadays, but there are some good – in my opinion – reasons against this in some special cases.
    One of the most important things is that Shutter depends on software components that are only available on Linux and comparable platforms (e.g. some gnome libraries and especially a fully working X-Server). Shutter is using xlib calls in many cases to perform the various tasks of taking screenshots. Most parts of the application had to be rewritten when multi-platform would be a future goal. Currently this project is a two men project and it is just impossible to “implement new features and improving the app” AND “spending months in writing several backends to support more platforms”.
    Another reason that comes to my mind is that there are already a lot screenshot taking applications for windows (freeware and professional software). I am unsure if the huge amount of work would be worth it. The fact that there was no dedicated screenshot application for Linux was one of the main reasons for starting Shutter and I am still convinced that it is useful for a lot of people who need some more features than offered by standard tools.

    Nevertheless, this is an open-source project and anyone could start a port of Shutter at any time…to any platforms possible. I am always willing to assist where I can.

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122 Comments

  1. Badcam

    Awesome program!

    Could you please advise:

    Is it possible to start the Shutter Drawing Tool programme on it’s own? What’s its name?
    I’d like to make it my default photo editor as it contains everything I need for altering pictures. Is this possible?

    Thanks.

  2. Romario

    Dee :

    When I try to do that, the Screenshot->Edit is greyed out so I cannot do it. Also, I don’t see any buttons on the left. Am I missing something? Thanks!

    You have to install the following package:
    libgoo-canvas-perl

    If you are using Ubuntu (via terminal):
    sudo apt-get install libgoo-canvas-perl

  3. Vadim :
    You can already do that! Try Screenshot ▸ Edit. To add highlights, use the buttons on the left, and to add arrows, see and insert image button on the bottom-right.

    When I try to do that, the Screenshot->Edit is greyed out so I cannot do it. Also, I don’t see any buttons on the left. Am I missing something? Thanks!

  4. Romario

    @flubble
    This is not possible yet, but there is already a bug report for this request:
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/shutter/+bug/348161

  5. flubble

    How can you get shutter to not save files automatically? e.g. when you just want to crop a printscreen and then paste into a document?

  6. Romario

    @ad
    Configuring the keybindings in Shutter’s preferences dialog does only work with Gnome. You have to configure the keybindings manually for your desktop environment.

    You might want to check this page to get an idea about it (especially the KDE section):
    /faq-help/set-shutter-as-the-default-screenshot-tool/

    I don’t know how keybindings work with openbox or dwm, but you might want to try xbindkeys:
    http://www.nongnu.org/xbindkeys/xbindkeys.html

  7. i am using gentoo linux as windows mamanger dwm and openbox. i allread teted gnome-keybinding with keys like or or in the Preferences, but nothing work.

    what wrong? its a bug that ouside of gnome shutter dont works corectly with keybinding?

  8. Romario :
    @Tim

    Tim :
    I get allways this error gtk-message:

    failed to retrieve porperty `GtkTreeView::odd-row-color’ of type `GdkColor# from rc file value ”((GString*) 0×973e340)” of type ‘ GString’
    Load timed out; consider using -force or increaseing the timeout (use 0 for no timeout)

    The first message is not an error caused by Shutter – looks like a problem with your current theme. But this has nothing to do with the web-capture.
    Shutter uses gnome-web-photo (a command line utility) to capture webpages. In newer versions there seem to be some problems with sites that are using JavaScript (nearly every site does this nowadays).

    Thank you Romario,
    I saw that Shutter uses gnome-web-photo and tried to compile but stuck.
    The first error above, I get only with Shutter/gnome-web-photo. Have to look its compiz&theme&gnome&whatever Thanks

  9. Romario

    @Tim

    Tim :
    I get allways this error gtk-message:

    failed to retrieve porperty `GtkTreeView::odd-row-color’ of type `GdkColor# from rc file value ”((GString*) 0×973e340)” of type ‘ GString’
    Load timed out; consider using -force or increaseing the timeout (use 0 for no timeout)

    The first message is not an error caused by Shutter – looks like a problem with your current theme. But this has nothing to do with the web-capture.
    Shutter uses gnome-web-photo (a command line utility) to capture webpages. In newer versions there seem to be some problems with sites that are using JavaScript (nearly every site does this nowadays).

    Due to the fact that we are not the developers of gnome-web-photo there is not much we can do here – we have to wait until the bugs in gnome-web-photo get fixed.

  10. Romario

    @Ilya
    If you are using Gnome you should be able to edit the “Open with” list in Nautilus, see:
    http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/50869/screenshots___datei_browser_001_3Cv4f3.png

    But there are still some minor problems related to the “Open with” list:
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/shutter/+bug/519858

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