How do I take a screenshot on Ubuntu?

Press Print Screen to open the screenshot overlay, choose an area, window or screen, and press Enter. Files go to Pictures/Screenshots.

What's the screenshot app on KDE?

Spectacle. Press Print Screen to open it.

How to Screenshot on Linux: Ubuntu, Fedora, KDE & More

Quick answer

Press to open the screenshot tool, select an area, a window or the whole screen, and press . The image is saved to Pictures/Screenshots and copied to the clipboard.

All 4 methods at a glance

Method	What it does	Best for
GNOME (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian)	Print Screen opens an overlay with area, screen and window modes.	Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, Debian, Pop!_OS
KDE Plasma (Spectacle)	Print Screen opens Spectacle, KDE's screenshot app.	Kubuntu, KDE neon, Fedora KDE, openSUSE, Steam Deck desktop mode
Cinnamon and Xfce	Print Screen works here too.	Linux Mint, Xubuntu
From the terminal	Scriptable screenshots for power users.	Scripts, servers with a desktop, tiling window managers

GNOME (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian)

thenthen

Press . The screenshot overlay appears.
Choose Selection, Screen or Window (or press , or ). Press to include the mouse pointer.
Press or click the big round button.
For an instant capture without the overlay, press (whole screen) or (current window).

KDE Plasma (Spectacle)

thenthen

Press to open Spectacle.
Use to select a rectangle, or for the active window. ( is the Windows key.)
Annotate, copy or save from the Spectacle window.

Cinnamon and Xfce

then

Press for the whole screen or for the current window.
In Xfce, the Screenshot app opens so you can choose to save, copy or open it in another app.

From the terminal

On Wayland desktops like Sway or Hyprland, use grim (with slurp to select an area): grim -g "$(slurp)" shot.png.
On KDE: spectacle -b -n -r -o shot.png captures a region without the window.
On older X11 setups, scrot or maim do the same job.

Where are screenshots saved?

~/Pictures/Screenshots

GNOME saves to Pictures/Screenshots in your home folder and copies to the clipboard. KDE Spectacle saves to Pictures/Screenshots by default (you can change it in Spectacle's settings).

Record your screen on Linux

GNOME: press to start and stop a recording, or press and switch the overlay to video. Recordings go to Videos/Screencasts.
KDE: open Spectacle and choose Record Screen, Record Window or Record Region.
Anywhere: OBS Studio works on every desktop.

Screenshot not working?

Old screenshot tools show a black image

Most modern desktops use Wayland, where X11 tools like scrot can't see the screen. Use your desktop's built-in tool, or grim on wlroots-based desktops.

Print Screen does nothing

Check your desktop's keyboard shortcut settings (search "Keyboard shortcuts" in Settings) and look for the Screenshots section. On laptops, try .

Frequently asked questions

How do I take a screenshot on Ubuntu?: Press Print Screen to open the screenshot overlay, choose an area, window or screen, and press Enter. Files go to Pictures/Screenshots.
What's the screenshot app on KDE?: Spectacle. Press Print Screen to open it.