Snipping Tool for Linux

That classic Snipping Tool from Windows... but for Linux.

How to install? Go here

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Build

Do:

git clone https://github.com/drvptr/Snipping-Tool
cd Snipping-Tool
make install

That's all. You would have to use:

./sipping-tool

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CLI mode (default)

You would have to use the next commands:

snipping-tool       # rectangle -> clipboard (like scrot -s -F - | xclip -sel clip -t image/png);
snipping-tool -f    # whole screen, no selection
snipping-tool -w    # active window with its frame, no selection
snipping-tool -l    # free-form selection
snipping-tool -s    # also save the snip in $HOME (prints the path)
snipping-tool -o x.png  # also save the snip in x.png (- is stdout)
snipping-tool -d 3  # wait 3 seconds first
snipping-tool -t    # recognize the text: print it and put it on the clipboard instead of the image
snipping-tool -t -i x.png   # recognize the text of a PNG file
snipping-tool -n    # leave the clipboard alone
snipping-tool -g    # the graphical version (= --graphic). 

Esc or the right mouse button cancels the selection. For dwm (config.h):

{ 0, XK_Print, spawn, SHCMD("snipping-tool") },
{ ShiftMask, XK_Print, spawn, SHCMD("snipping-tool -w") },
{ MODKEY,XK_Print, spawn, SHCMD("snipping-tool -t") },

Graphical version

You have to start it by following command

snipping-tool --graphic

A small window: New (the arrow next to it chooses the snip type), Cancel (active during the delay), Options, and the instruction text with a help button. After a snip it becomes the markup window with the menus File, Edit, Tools and Help and the toolbar New, Save, Copy, Send | Pen, Highlighter, Eraser | Recognize Text.

Keys: Ctrl+N new snip, Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+Z undo a mark, Ctrl+T recognize text, Ctrl+Q quit, F1 help, F10 and Alt with the underlined letter for the menus and buttons (also while a second, non-Latin keyboard layout is on), mouse wheel and arrows scroll (Shift+wheel scrolls sideways). Tab completes the path in the Save As dialog.

An X11 clipboard lives as long as its owner, so every copy starts a small background process that hands out the image and quits when another program takes the clipboard. The snip stays on the clipboard after the program is closed.

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Modifications

The icons are ordinary PNG files in the icons/ directory (any color type, RGBA with transparency is best). They are drawn for this program; the original Windows icons are not used. To replace one:

1. put a PNG with the same name and size into icons/:

File	Rezolution	Comment
new.png	24x24	New (scissors)
cancel.png	24x24	Cancel
options.png	24x24	Options
save.png	24x24	Save
copy.png	24x24	Copy
send.png	24x24	Send
pen.png	24x24	Pen
marker.png	24x24	Highlighter
eraser.png	24x24	Eraser
ocr.png	24x24	Recognize Text
help.png	16x16	help button
app16.png	16x16	window icon (_NET_WM_ICON)
app32.png	32x32	window icon, message boxes
app48.png	48x48	window icon and the desktop menu (make install)

2. make icons - makes icons.h again with xxd -i (xxd comes with vim or as a package of its own); by hand it is:

cd icons && for f in *.png; do xxd -i $f; done > ../icons.h

The names of the arrays come from the file names (new.png -> new_png, new_png_len), so the file names must stay.

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Files

File	Comment
snip.c	main, command line, screen capture, selection, clipboard owner, saving, settings
gui.c	the graphical version
png.c	PNG: deflate with dynamic Huffman codes, and inflate
ocr.c	text recognition
snip.h	shared declarations
config.def.h	build settings (copied to config.h)
icons.h	icons (make icons from icons/*.png)
font.h	font of the interface (tools/mkfont.py)
ocrdb.h	letter samples for the OCR (tools/mkocrdb.py)

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License

GNU GPL version 2 or later; the parts of scrot are MIT, the Noto Sans font is SIL OFL 1.1.