Screenshots and Screen Recording

Ubuntu 26.04 ships the GNOME Shell screenshot UI: one press of Print Screen gives you region selection, window capture and screen recording without installing anything. The standalone gnome-screenshot app is deprecated, so ignore the older tutorials that still mention it.

Interactive capture

Press Print Screen and the screen dims while the capture tool appears:

GNOME screenshot UI: the screen is dimmed with a resizable selection rectangle, and a bottom toolbar offers Selection, Screen and Window modes plus camera, record toggles and a confirm button — Print Screen opens the capture UI: pick a mode (Selection, Screen, Window), then press the large round button

There are three modes plus two easily missed toggles:

Element	What it does
Selection	Drag out any region; the corner handles resize it
Screen	Capture the whole display
Window	Click a window to capture just that one
Camera icon (left)	Switch to screenshot mode
Camcorder icon (left)	Switch to recording mode
Large round button (right)	Confirm — capture or start recording

Pick a region and press the round button to finish.

Where did the screenshot go?

A capture does two things at once: copies to the clipboard and saves a file. A notification confirms it in the top right:

Notification after a capture titled Screen Capture, saying screenshot captured and that you can paste the image from the clipboard — The capture is ready to paste with Ctrl+V, and the file has been written at the same time

Saved to: ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ (~/图片/截图/ on a Chinese system)
File name: Screenshot from 2026-10-26 23-34-05.png, so sorting by date works
PNG and lossless, which is what you want for UI text

Tip

The notification only mentions the clipboard, which makes it look like nothing was saved. The file is already in Pictures/Screenshots — check the file manager.

Shortcut reference

Settings → Keyboard → View and Customize Shortcuts → Screenshots lists and edits these bindings (26.04 defaults, verified on a real install):

Shortcut	Action
`Print Screen`	Open the interactive capture UI
`Shift + Print Screen`	Capture the whole screen directly
`Alt + Print Screen`	Capture the active window directly
`Shift + Ctrl + Alt + R`	Start / stop interactive recording

To use your own combination, click the pencil icon on the right of an entry and press the new keys.

Recording the screen

No extra software needed. There are two ways in:

Press Print Screen, then click the camcorder icon in the bottom left to switch to recording mode
Press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + R directly

While recording, a red dot indicator appears in the top bar; press the same shortcut again (or click the indicator) to stop.

Format: WebM
Location: the Videos folder (it contains a Screencasts subdirectory)
Good for short clips of a single step; use OBS for long sessions

Annotation and more advanced tools

The built-in tool only captures and records. For arrows, text and blurring, install one of these:


# Flameshot: annotate right after capturing, ideal for tutorial images
sudo apt install flameshot
 
# OBS Studio: multiple sources, streaming, long recordings
sudo apt install obs-studio

Once Flameshot is installed you can bind it to a key in Settings → Keyboard; it does not take over Print Screen by default.

FAQ

Print Screen does nothing?

Another tool probably grabbed the shortcut (Flameshot, or a screenshot plugin from an input method). Check Settings → Keyboard → View and Customize Shortcuts and look at the Screenshots group; any entry that was changed shows a “modified” marker.

Can’t find the saved screenshot?

Look in ~/Pictures/Screenshots/. If the folder does not exist yet, every capture so far only reached the clipboard — confirm one capture in the UI to create it.

Opening the capture UI closes open menus. For those cases a delayed capture works better: install Flameshot and set a 3-second delay, or record a short clip and grab a frame from it.

Input methods and fonts — input method and font setup for Chinese
File manager, settings, workspaces — overview of Files and the Settings app
Software installation — install more tools with APT, Snap or Flatpak