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By default, i3 ignores the Print Screen key available in most keyboards. How can it be activated?

Luís de Sousa
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2 Answers2

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Everything inside i3 needs to be bound and just a minimal set of keys is added/generated inside the default config. Some keys that are not letters can be represented with its keycodes or keysyms. More about this subject here:

Printscreen is the Print keysym.

I personally use gnome-screenshot to that task, since it can crop images, making life easier. Add the following lines to your .config/i3/config or any config file you are using as the i3wm main config file.

#interactive screenshot by pressing printscreen
bindsym Print exec gnome-screenshot -i 
#crop-area screenshot by pressing Mod + printscreen
bindsym $mod+Print exec gnome-screenshot -a

Some people like to use scrot. That is up to you to decide :) . Example:

bindsym Print exec scrot $HOME/Images/`date +%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S`.png
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    The second binding with `Mod1+Print` does not work, but the rest is more than enough. – Luís de Sousa Jan 31 '19 at 14:51
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    [maim](https://github.com/naelstrof/maim) has a rich feature set, including region selection – williamvds Jan 31 '19 at 17:11
  • Good suggestion :) Will try maim at home too.. –  Jan 31 '19 at 17:52
  • @LuísdeSousa `Mod1` is alt, not your main mod key(Control or Winkey, whatever you have set up). Editing the answer to use main `mod` key. Sorry for the misinformation from my `i3`/`config` –  Jan 31 '19 at 18:07
  • @ndwildner This is not related to the `$mod`, there is even a sort of error sound that is played. – Luís de Sousa Jan 31 '19 at 19:32
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To expand on @user34720's answer, if bindsym $mod+Print exec gnome-screenshot -a doesn't work, pass the --release parameter to bindsym

bindsym --release Print exec gnome-screenshot -i
bindsym --release $mod+Print exec gnome-screenshot -a

srabah-m
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