Scream

Screenshots Automated allows you to grab pictures of windows automatically by stimulating key press from keyboard. There would be a turning point in your life, where you think instead of manually pressing doing a key press and taking screenshot, you could have had an app to do it. Yes, here it is ! Scream makes it simple for you.

Requirements

1. GNU Linux only Yea it means your Arch, Debian, Fedora, Linux Mint, Ubuntu etc.
2. Supports one and only X Window System Wayland... huh... The libraries used by Scream work only with X.
3. Requires Python 3 As latest as possible. But please, no Python 2.
4. Essential libraries : Without the following libraries, Scream just screams.

• GTK
• Wnck
• Atspi
• PyGObject

They are from GNOME world and there is a very good chance that your system already has them installed. If not please install it.

Installation

Really, I never thought of making an install script, just like that. If you can make one, please do it. But that doesn't mean, you can't use Scream. Nah nah. Clone this repository (Download it). Then open the downloaded repository. Launch a terminal in the directory. Then type ./scream and boom.

Assuming you downloaded the repository in your Downloads, the steps will be like this in a terminal.

$ # If you have git...
$ git clone https://github.com/j-arun-mani/Scream.git
$ cd Downloads/Scream
$ ./scream

Usage

Using Scream is not difficult at all. Every control (like button) has a tool tip, so you can know what it is.

In Capture tab

1. Select the window you want to capture from combo box.
2. If the window is new or not found, try clicking the refresh icon beside it.
3. Describe the area you want to grab. This mean, tell the top-left corner and bottom-right corner.
4. Please use the coordinates picker beside the entries if you don't know position. Using a ruler or measurement tape is fine too.

In Actions tab

1. Click the plus button to add a row.
2. Click the minus button to remove selected row.
3. Every row has three values : keyval, repeat, delay.
4. Keyval is the code of the keyboard button you want to press. If you don't know the code, click Don't know keyval ? button to find out.
5. Repeat describes how many times you want to repeat the action. Remember it repeats the action, not just key press.
6. Delay is the number of seconds the app will wait before pressing a key.

In Options tab

1. Choose the directory where you want to save the grabbed pictures. Always use an empty directory to avoid surprises.
2. Select an image format. Only five types are supported for now. Just use jpeg or png if you are not a Picaso.
3. Tick the check button if you want the app to close itself after grabbing pictures.

Then click on the execute icon and the app will start it's process.

Notes

1. Though the app will raise the to be grabbed window, make sure that the window is not shadowed by other windows. Maximize the window for better results.
2. Just sit idle when app the is grabbing pictures. If you want, count from 1 to infinity. After completion, the app will either bring back it's window or close itself. Interfering with the app's process leads to undefined behaviors.
3. If you want to save all the settings (session) for a future use, click on the save icon. It is just a plain JSON format, so use any filename or type.
4. To open a saved session click on the open icon and select the saved file.
5. Repeating an action means, the delay will also be included. For example, if you add a row to repeat Enter press 2 times with 4 seconds delays. It means, the app will wait for 4 seconds, then press Enter. Then, again will wait for 4 seconds, then press Enter. Also repeat should be minimum 1 for an action to work.
6. Almost all excepted errors will be handled by the app and will be reported to you normally, but have an eye on the terminal screen too. Some uncaught errors will be shown there, so you can inform me (by opening an issue).

Command Line Usage

If you have a saved session file, then you can pass it as an command line argument of -f.

$ ./scream -f my_session.json

To immediately start the execution of actions, use -q. This is same like launching the app, opening a session and then starting grabbing pictures.

$ ./scream -q -f my_session.json

Help or Bugs or Feedback

Please open an issue. I will be really happy to help you in everyway possible. The brave hearts can also help in cleaning the bugs !

Thanks to GNOME and Python.