By default, i3 ignores the Print Screen key available in most keyboards. How can it be activated?
2 Answers
Everything inside i3 needs to be bound and just a minimal set of keys is added/generated inside the default config. Some keys that are not letters can be represented with its keycodes or keysyms. More about this subject here:
Printscreen is the Print
keysym.
I personally use gnome-screenshot
to that task, since it can crop images, making life easier. Add the following lines to your .config/i3/config
or any config file you are using as the i3wm
main config file.
#interactive screenshot by pressing printscreen
bindsym Print exec gnome-screenshot -i
#crop-area screenshot by pressing Mod + printscreen
bindsym $mod+Print exec gnome-screenshot -a
Some people like to use scrot
. That is up to you to decide :) . Example:
bindsym Print exec scrot $HOME/Images/`date +%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S`.png
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1The second binding with
Mod1+Print
does not work, but the rest is more than enough. Jan 31, 2019 at 14:51 -
1
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Good suggestion :) Will try maim at home too..– user34720Jan 31, 2019 at 17:52
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@LuísdeSousa
Mod1
is alt, not your main mod key(Control or Winkey, whatever you have set up). Editing the answer to use mainmod
key. Sorry for the misinformation from myi3
/config
– user34720Jan 31, 2019 at 18:07 -
@ndwildner This is not related to the
$mod
, there is even a sort of error sound that is played. Jan 31, 2019 at 19:32
To expand on @user34720's answer, if bindsym $mod+Print exec gnome-screenshot -a
doesn't work, pass the --release
parameter to bindsym
bindsym --release Print exec gnome-screenshot -i
bindsym --release $mod+Print exec gnome-screenshot -a