Flameshot Qt5 screenshot tool has been updated to version 0.8.0, receiving new features like a basic launcher panel, a circle counter tool, and more.
Flameshot is a screenshot tool with drawing / annotation capabilities, available for Linux and Windows. On Linux it supports X11, and has experimental Wayland support for Gnome and Plasma.
Like most screenshot tools, the application sits in the tray area from where you can choose to take a screenshot. It includes annotation tools like arrow, highlight, freehand pencil, circle and more, and it can upload screenshots to Imgur.
The new version of Flameshot includes a new, basic launcher panel (screenshot above). This is available in the application tray menu (Open Launcher), and it allows choosing the area to screenshot (rectangular region or full screen), and setting a delay before taking a screenshot. This is especially important because these 2 features were not available in the GUI previously, and could only be used from the command line.
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| New Flameshot circle counter and pixelate tools |
Flameshot 0.8.0 also includes a new circle counter annotation tool. This is a circle with a number, which counts upwards with each new item added to the screenshot, useful for showing the order of doing something in a screenshot.
Another change worth noting is the addition of support for saving screenshots as JPG and BMP files. Previously only PNG was supported.
There have also been some changes to improve the discoverability of some features and make them work on tablets, like adding a button to open the sidebar (it’s on the left-hand side of the monitor), a feature that was previously only available by pressing Space. Also, a slide has been added to the side panel that allows changing the line thickness; previously this could only be done using the mouse scroll wheel.
More new features and changes:
- Replace the blur tool with pixelate tool
- Side panel: Add thickness slider
- Allow 45 degree adjustment for some tools
- Add option to close after capture (this is currently buggy, and it won’t copy the image to clipboard when using this)
- Add option to auto copy URL after upload
- Add launcher action into .desktop file
- Allow enter key to copy image to clipboard
- Added support for 13 new languages, including German, Czech, Swidish, Italian and more
The new release also adds Snap and Flatpak packages, although the application is not available on the Snap Store or Flathub, so you’ll need to install those packages manually, so the AppImage remains the easier way to use it if there are no native packages for your Linux distribution.
You may also like Ksnip, another screenshot tool for Linux (X11, and experimental KDE and GNOME Wayland support) that also runs on Windows and macOS.
Download Flameshot
The Flameshot GitHub releases page linked above includes binaries: DEB, RPM, AppImage, Flatpak and Snap, and the source.
The application is also available in the repositories for many Linux distributions, including Arch Linux / Manjaro, Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 10 , Fedora, openSUSE, Solus OS and more. It has yet to be updated to the latest 0.8.0 in most though (right now it’s available in the Arch Linux, Debian Unstable and Stable Backports, and Fedora Rawhide repositories).
Note that if you are using Gnome you need to install the Gnome Shell Appindicator extension in order to see the systemtray icon (this is installed by default on Ubuntu so there’s no need to do anything).
If you prefer the old, yet still great Shutter screenshot tool and you use an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution (Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, etc.), you can take advantage of the Linux Uprising Shutter PPA to install it.
