Just like installing Discord or VS Code — one file, done. No Python or terminal knowledge required.
Compatible with: Ubuntu 20.04 and later, on any 64-bit Intel or AMD processor (
amd64).
No screenshot tools to install. Kapture captures natively — there's nothing extra to set up. On X11 it works out of the box; on Wayland it uses the built-in XDG desktop portal, which ships by default on Ubuntu's GNOME and KDE sessions.
Step 1 — Download the .deb
Go to the Releases page and download kapture_3.0.1_amd64.deb.
Step 2 — Install
Option A — Double-click the downloaded .deb file in your file manager.
It will open in GNOME Software / GDebi. Click Install and enter your password.
Option B — Terminal
sudo dpkg -i kapture_3.0.1_amd64.deb
# if apt reports missing dependencies, pull them in with:
sudo apt -f installStep 3 — Launch
Search for Kapture in your app launcher, or run kapture in a terminal.
The app starts silently in the system tray. Press Print Screen or Ctrl+Shift+S to take a screenshot — the capture is instant and uses no external tools. The capture shortcut, save folder and auto-save can all be changed from tray → Settings.
GNOME Wayland users — one-time step for flash-free capture. On GNOME's Wayland session the system screenshot portal always plays a shutter flash and asks for permission — that's an OS limitation no normal app can bypass. Kapture ships a tiny GNOME Shell extension that captures from inside the Shell with no flash and no prompt. The
.debinstalls and registers it automatically; just log out and back in once after installing to activate it. Until then, captures fall back to the portal (with the flash). On an X11/Xorg session no extension is needed — capture is already instant and flash-free.
Uninstall
sudo apt remove kaptureStep 1 — Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yeakiniqra/Kapture.git
cd kaptureStep 2 — Create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activateStep 3 — Install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txtNo screenshot backend to install — capture is handled in-process by Qt (X11) and the XDG desktop portal (Wayland).
Step 4 — Run
python3 main.pyGNOME Wayland (running from source): the flash-free Shell extension is bundled only in the
.deb. To get flash-free capture during development, install it into your user dir once and log out/in:cp -r "extension/kapture-screenshot@yeakiniqra.github.io" ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ gnome-extensions enable kapture-screenshot@yeakiniqra.github.io # after re-loginWithout it, source runs fall back to the portal (with the flash).
# Install packaging tools (one-time)
sudo apt install dpkg-dev
# Build .deb (runs PyInstaller then packages it)
bash build_deb.shOutput: kapture_3.0.1_amd64.deb — ready to share or install.
- Press
Print ScreenorCtrl+Shift+S— the screen dims and your cursor becomes a crosshair - Click and drag to select a region
- Release to confirm the selection — the captured area lifts off the background with a drop shadow and the annotation toolbar appears
- Use the annotation tools to mark up the screenshot:
- Pen — freehand drawing
- Arrow — draw directional arrows
- Box — draw rectangles
- Pixelate — drag over anything sensitive to redact it; the pixels are baked into the image so they can't be recovered
- Color picker — choose pen/arrow/box color
- Undo / Redo — step back and forth through your edits (
Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Shift+Z)
- Click Copy to put the result on the clipboard, or Save to write a PNG
- Close the editor with the ✕ in the top-right corner of the window
Open the tray menu → Settings to configure:
- Capture shortcut — pick the global hotkey (e.g.
Print,Ctrl+Shift+S) - Save folder — where screenshots are written
- Auto-save — skip the save dialog and drop straight into the save folder
Settings persist in ~/.config/kapture/config.json.
- Drag to select any region on screen
- Dimmed overlay with live selection size indicator and an accent glow that lifts the selection off the background
- Annotation tools: pen/marker, arrow, rectangle, pixelate redaction, color picker
- Undo / redo with full history
- Auto-copy to clipboard on selection, plus explicit Copy and Save buttons
- Save as PNG, with optional auto-save to a chosen folder
- Settings window — change the capture hotkey, save folder and auto-save without editing any files
- Close button pinned to the window's top-right corner, like any native app
- Draggable toolbar with remembered last position
- Runs silently in the system tray
- Native capture pipeline — no external screenshot tools. Instant
QScreengrab on X11; on GNOME Wayland a bundled GNOME Shell extension captures flash-free and prompt-free, with the XDG desktop portal as the automatic fallback - Ships a small GNOME Shell extension (
kapture-screenshot@yeakiniqra.github.io) installed and registered by the.deb; activate with one log out/in
- Fixed: Print Screen capture no longer permanently disables GNOME's built-in screenshot. Earlier versions stripped
Printfrom GNOME'sshow-screenshot-uikeybinding to claim it, but never restored it. Kapture now backs up GNOME's screenshot keybindings before borrowingPrintand restores them automatically when you change the capture hotkey to something else or uninstall the package (falling back to GNOME's factory defaults if no backup is found).
- Pixelate / redaction tool — drag to obscure sensitive areas; pixelation is committed as a baked layer so it can't be peeled back off the PNG
- Settings window — configure the capture shortcut, save folder and auto-save from the tray; persisted to
~/.config/kapture/config.json - Undo / redo for all annotations (
Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Shift+Z) - Close button moved to the window's top-right corner, matching standard Ubuntu window controls
- Selection drop shadow / accent glow so the captured region stands out from the dimmed background
- Print Screen fix — Kapture now claims the
Print Screenkey instead of letting it trigger GNOME's built-in screenshot, via a single-instance IPC trigger and GNOME custom keybinding
- Native capture pipeline — removed the dependency on
gnome-screenshot/scrot; capture is now an in-processQScreengrab on X11 and the XDG desktop portal on Wayland - Flash-free, prompt-free Wayland capture via a bundled GNOME Shell extension that runs inside the Shell's privileged context
- Modernised annotation editor, About dialog and system-tray menu/icon
- Added a Copy button alongside Save
.debinstalls and registers the Shell extension automatically
- Initial release — region selection, pen/arrow/rectangle annotation, clipboard copy, PNG save, system-tray operation
Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/my-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add my feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/my-feature) - Open a Pull Request
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2026 Kapture Contributors
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.