sway-interactive-screenshot

sway-interactive-screenshot is Python helper script that enables users to take screenshots and video captures interactively with Sway.

Install

If you are using Arch Linux, you can install sway-interactive-screenshot with the sway-interactive-screenshot AUR package (e.g. yay -S sway-interactive-screenshot). You can otherwise download the sway-interactive-screenshot file, set it as executable and add it to your $PATH (e.g. putting it into your /usr/bin)

Dependencies

For the program to work, you will need the following dependencies installed:

• Python 3.7+.
• swaywm.
• fuzzel to prompt what you want to take a screenshot of.
• grim to take the screenshot.
• slurp to select an area on the screen.
• notify-send to send a notification to the notification daemon (such as mako).
• wl-clipboard to copy the screenshot to the clipboard.
• rofi (optional) to use rofi instead of fuzzel
• swappy (optional) to edit the captured screenshot.
• dragon (optional) to drag and drop the captured screenshot.
• xdg-utils (optional) to open the captured screenshot with the default image viewer.
• wf-recorder (optional) to capture videos.
• tomli if not using Python 3.11+.

Bind to the Print key

To bind this script to the Print key, just add this to your ~/.config/sway/config:

bindsym Print exec /path/to/sway-interactive-screenshot

You can also add this to do video capture:

bindsym Shift+Print exec /path/to/sway-interactive-screenshot --video

Edit the screenshot

You can edit a screenshot that was taken by running the default action on the notification. With mako's default settings, this is done by just clicking on the notification.

Settings

sway-interactive-screenshot can be configured through the ~/.config/sway-interactive-screenshot/config.toml file. Here's an example:

[screenshot]

# Prompt string to use.
prompt = "📷> "

# Directory in which to save screenshots.
save_dir = "~"

# File name format.
# See: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes
file_name = "screenshot_%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.png"

# Image format.
type = "png" # "jpeg", "ppm"

# JPEG quality value.
jpeg_quality = 80

# PNG compression level value.
png_level = 6

# Show or hide cursor.
cursor = false


[screencast]

# Prompt string to use.
prompt = "📹> "

# PID file used to keep track of a screencast in progress.
pid_file = "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/sway-interactive-screenshot.${WAYLAND_DISPLAY}.video.pid"

# Directory in which to save screencast.
save_dir = "~"

# File name format.
# See: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes
file_name = "screencast_%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.mkv"

# Video codec for ffmpeg, useful if you want hardware acceleration.
# See https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-codecs.html
video_codec = "h264_vaapi"

# Record audio.
audio = "ask" # "yes", "no"

[notification_actions]
# Alternative name for dragon-drop binary
dragon.command = "dragon"

[ask]
command = "fuzzel" 
args = []

The SWAY_INTERACTIVE_SCREENSHOT_SAVEDIR environment variable, while still supported, is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.