waysnip 0.6.0b1

Lightweight Wayland screenshot and annotation tool

WaySnip

Lightweight screenshot and annotation tool for Linux Wayland. Captures your screen, lets you select a region, annotate with shapes and text, and saves with a single shortcut. Built for documentation workflows and quick sharing.

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04 with GNOME Shell 46. Also supports sway, Hyprland, Wayfire, river, and other wlroots-based compositors via grim.

Features

• Region and fullscreen capture with frozen screen (menus don't close)
• 11 annotation tools: rectangle, ellipse, arrow, line, text, numbered markers, freehand pen, highlight, blur/pixelate, crop
• Color picker with recent colors, stroke width, opacity, font controls
• Undo/redo, clone, multi-select, keyboard shortcuts for every tool
• Re-editable annotations stored as PNG metadata
• Gallery with thumbnail browser
• System tray with hotkey support
• Settings UI backed by TOML config
• Auto-copy to clipboard on capture and save
• Dark theme

Install

pipx install waysnip
waysnip setup

waysnip setup binds PrintScreen to region capture, Ctrl+PrintScreen to fullscreen, and enables tray autostart on login.

From source

git clone https://github.com/paalkr/waysnip.git
cd waysnip
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
waysnip setup

Requirements

• Linux with Wayland
• Python 3.12+
• wl-clipboard
• gnome-screenshot on GNOME / Unity, grim on sway / Hyprland / Wayfire / wlroots (gnome-screenshot is pre-installed on Ubuntu 24.04)

WaySnip auto-detects the active compositor via XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP and falls through to the other backend if the preferred one isn't installed or fails.

Quick start

Action	How
Region capture	Press Print or waysnip region
Fullscreen capture	Press Ctrl+Print or waysnip fullscreen
Open gallery	waysnip gallery
Open settings	waysnip config
Start tray only	waysnip tray

Editor shortcuts

Key	Action
V	Select tool
R	Rectangle
E	Ellipse
A	Arrow
L	Line
T	Text
N	Numbered marker
P	Freehand pen
H	Highlight
B	Blur/pixelate
C	Crop
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save as
Ctrl+C	Copy to clipboard
Ctrl+D	Clone selected
Del	Delete selected
Ctrl+Shift+]	Bring to front
Ctrl+Shift+[	Send to back
Ctrl+]	Move up one layer
Ctrl+[	Move down one layer
Ctrl+1	Actual size (100%)
Ctrl+0	Fit to window

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/waysnip/config.toml

[capture]
after_capture = "editor"    # "editor", "clipboard", "save", "clipboard+save"
auto_copy_clipboard = true
show_cursor = false

[save]
directory = "~/Pictures/Screenshots"
pattern = "Screenshot_%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S.png"
mode = "annotated"          # "annotated" (re-editable) or "editable" (smaller)

[editor]
copy_on_save = true

[tray]
enabled = true
left_click_action = "region"

Edit via GUI: waysnip config Edit directly: waysnip config --edit

Uninstall

waysnip uninstall
pipx uninstall waysnip

waysnip uninstall restores GNOME's default screenshot keys and removes the autostart entry.

License

GPL-3.0