Read on about the most important changes…

Redo Last Screenshot

Are you tired of selecting the same region of your screen several times until you have the perfect screenshot? Do you want to capture the same window multiple times to create a step-by-step guide?

In this case you will love Shutter’s new ‘Redo last screenshot’ feature. It allows you to redo the last screenshot without doing a selection again.

You can even redo every single screenshot in your session – easy isn’t it?

Pixelize

You want to hide private content from your screenshots? Check out the new Pixelize tool…

New Callout Shapes

We have added some nice callout shapes to the DrawingTool. Due to the fact that these files are in SVG format they can nicely be resized – here are some examples:

PDF + SVG Export

Shutter now uses cairo to render PDF and SVG documents. What does this mean to you? It allows you to export your current drawing to SVG format that can be edited with any vector graphics program, e.g. Inkscape. Additionally  PDF Export is integrated in the main program now and can be launched directly from the File menu.

Copy URL To Clipboard (FTP Upload)

When uploading into a FTP server’s directory that is accessible via HTTP you can now configure the website’s URL. This URL will be copied to clipboard when uploading. You can now use the URL to view your screenshot in your favorite browser or paste it into a web-forum etc..

Built-In Notifications

This version introduces a built-in notification system. Systemwide notification systems like Ubuntu’s Notify-OSD are not primarily designed to be used by in the way we want to use it and do have some limitations, e.g. you can not close the notifications immediately, that are critical in the context of taking screenshots.

The built-in system allows us to use the messages in a more flexible way. There are already some more features planned for future version, e.g. a button to cancel a running countdown. Users with lean desktop configurations where no notification daemon is installed, e.g. pure fluxbox, can now use the built-in system as well.

Please note that you can still use the system’s notification system if you wish. There is a setting in the preferences.

Detailed changelog is available here.

Enjoy the update!

Undo / Redo anywhere

Shutter now supports undo / redo functionality within the main program.

If you don’t like the effect that was applied by one of Shutter’s plugins you can now easily revert to the last version. You file was modified by an external app while opened with Shutter? No problem – Shutter will recognize the changes and you can simply use Shutter’s undo method to go back in time.

Drag and drop pics into Shutter

Tired of using the old-school file dialogs to open your files with Shutter? You can now simply drag any supported file to Shutter’s main window and Shutter will open it. The same goes for the internal Drawing Tool.

If you already have an image in the clipboard you can import it by pressing Shift+Ctrl+v (or use the related menu item unter File → New → Import from clipboard).

Capture menus and tooltips

Shutter now has options for specifically capturing a menu or a tooltip, making it much easier. A video says more than a thousand words here…

Video (menu)

Video (tooltip)

Many UI improvements

To make Shutter even more usable and intuitive we have reworked the UI on many places. When you wan to change the delay quickly, you can now do that by activating it in the statusbar of Shutter’s main window without entering the preferences dialog as in the old days. The same does apply for the cursor setting and switching between profiles.

We’ve also reorganized the preferences dialog to achieve a more consistent look and logical structure. Additionally there are many new options to give you the opportunity to use Shutter the way you want.

Improved Advanced Selection Tool

Shutter does provide two different tools to capture a region of your screen. The Simple Selection Tool and the Advanced Selection Tool. Both have unique features and a different way of usage. One of the features provided exclusively by the Simple Selection Tool was the zoom window. It was not implemented in the other tool because it has its own zooming mechanism.

In this version you’ll be able to use the zoom window in the Advanced Selection Tool as well. Additionally the zoom window should react much faster to the mouse movements now. It hides automatically if it is in the way but you can even activate / deactivate it by hitting the <Space> key on your keyboard.

Video (zoom window)

There is also a new dialog that allows you to enter the width, height, X and Y position of the selection manually.

Video (dialog)

Improved Window Selection

Most parts of the window selection functionality were rewritten in order to make it more comfortable. You’ll see a nice animated effect when hovering with your mouse over the windows on your desktop displaying the window title and geometry of the currently selected window. Convince yourself…You simply have to try it!

Video

Note: You need to activate visual effects to get the animation – the window information (name and geometry) is available for all settings.

Notifications

Shutter is now able to use the system’s notification architecture to display some information, e.g. delay, pre-delay and save messages. The current implementation supports all architectures that implement the

org.freedesktop.Notifications specification (e.g. Ubuntu’s Notify-OSD).

Send screenshots via email or instant messenger

You can now send any of your screenshots by email using your local email client (thx to José Borges Ferreira for sending a patch)…

…or use the ‘nautilus-sendto’ dialog if it is available on your system to send it to various targets (e.g. instant messenger).

Shutter registers itself as an app to open images with

Last but not least -  Shutter registers itself as an application to open images with so you can open images with Shutter directly from the file manager of your choice.

@translators: We have changed a lot of the translatable strings within Shutter which means a lot of work for you guys. Please don’t blame us

As with everything else, bugs were fixed and we’re already planning for the next version, 0.86. We hope you enjoy this release!

Detailed changelog is available here.

Undo / Redo support in the editor

Shutters screenshot editor now features undo capability – making it much more forgiving against accidents, and allowing for easier experimentation. This also makes it a rather complete screenshot-oriented image editor, and as far as we know, the first of its kind on Linux

New tools in the editor

The editor also received several useful tools – arrow shape, highlighter, numbered tags, crop tool, and a resizable canvas.

The arrow is a tool of it’s own now – previously it was an image, which wasn’t convenient to access frequently and had some complications when using. Now it’s available on the left toolbar, and functions similarly to the line too.

The highlighter tool, as it’s name implies, is useful for highlighting. While a pencil tool with a large line width, some transparency and a yellow color does the same job, it was inconvenient to switch the color setup from the standard to the ‘highlighting’ mode and back. Now the highlighter is a tool of it’s own, with a nice cursor, making it easier and faster to highlight. Big thanks to Richard Querin of the Inkscape Screencasters fame for providing us with the nice highlighter icon.

Numbered tags – ah, what Shutter was made originally for – aiding in documentation process. Numbered tags stamp a number (that’s auto-incremented each time you use it) on the screenshot, allowing you to clearly detail the steps needed to take in a graphical interface.

Crop tool allows you to crop your screenshot ala advanced selection tool for screen capture. You draw a box of the area you’d like to leave, crop, and everything outside of the box is removed with the canvas auto-sized to the new dimensions.

The canvas is now resizable – allowing you to extend it’s dimensions beyond the original screenshot resolution for more stuff, or sizing it down for less stuff. Do as you please! You are the king/queen.

Besides that, the editor also received various improvements like a built-in fullscreen mode and an option to clear all the objects you’ve added. The ability open your recently used files has been added to the main window as well.

New plugins

That’s right! Now you’ve got more neat effects to apply to your screenshots.

Watermark – quite a common function. Add your copyrights, location, project website on your screenshot – now without complex pixel manipulation and within Shutter.

Reflection – applies a fading reflection at the bottom of the image, giving it a stylish look.

Distortion adds the “fish eye” effect by bulging out the middle of the image.

3d rotate – allows you to rotate the image on all three (x, y, z) axis in 3d. Add a new depth to your screenshots!

As with everything else, bugs were fixed and we’re already planning for the next version, 0.85. We hope you enjoy this release!

Detailed changelog is available here.