Flameshot – Open-source screenshot software

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Flameshot, an open-source, cross‑platform screenshot tool, is praised for its fast workflow, rich in‑place annotations, and easy keybinding integration, making it a popular alternative to Windows tools like ShareX and Greenshot, especially on Linux. Users highlight its strengths in precision capture, markup, and automation (e.g., piping screenshots to OCR, barcode decoders, or custom upload scripts), and appreciate that it stays lightweight while remaining powerful. Critiques focus on lingering Wayland compatibility issues, the lack of built‑in video capture or native OCR, limited post‑capture editing of annotations, and constrained cloud storage options.

Overall reception

  • Widely praised as a powerful, convenient, cross‑platform screenshot tool used daily on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
  • Users like that it “does what it says,” is quick, and generally stays out of the way until needed.
  • Some consider it the best option on Linux; others still prefer alternatives (e.g., Greenshot, ShareX, CleanShot X, Skitch, Shutter) for specific workflows or UX.

Wayland and platform support

  • Several report that it now works well on Linux with Wayland.
  • Others still experience serious issues (e.g., not working on Ubuntu 22.04 without Xorg, not working under some compositors like Hyprland, feeling less snappy than under X11).
  • Works on macOS and Windows, but binding to the Print Screen key is reported as easy on Linux/macOS and unclear or harder on Windows.

Core features and UX

  • Strong points: precise region selection, in-place annotations (arrows, text, numbering, highlight, blur, rectangles), quick copy-to-clipboard, and the “pin” feature for floating snippets.
  • Numbered callouts are especially appreciated for documentation and support.
  • Some find the monochrome, context-dependent toolbar icons unintuitive and dislike that icon layout shifts with selection shape.

Comparisons to other tools

  • Compared to ShareX: Flameshot is seen as simpler and less cluttered but missing key features such as built-in video/GIF recording and richer post-capture editing.
  • Compared to Greenshot: Flameshot wins on Linux support and in-place annotations; Greenshot is preferred by some for its separate editor, object-level editing, speed, and overall usability.

Workflows and integrations

  • Common pattern: bind a shortcut (often Print Screen) to launch Flameshot in selection mode, annotate, then copy or save.
  • Several advanced workflows pipe output to scripts: automatic upload to S3 or web hosts, custom image upload APIs, integration with Google Photos or Dropbox, OCR via Tesseract, barcode decoding, and even remote OCR/translation servers.

Limitations and feature requests

  • Frequently requested: editable/movable annotation objects, opening existing images, smoothing for freehand drawings, color picker, more upload backends than Imgur, OCR as a native feature, multi-monitor DPI handling fixes, and integrated screen recording (GIF/MP4).
  • Some users criticize blur for privacy reasons, preferring cropping or opaque rectangles.