How to make Flameshot the default Linux screenshot app

Flameshot is an excellent screenshot tool, but it doesn’t set itself as the default screenshot app once installed. Instead, users need to set it up themselves. To do this, you will need to modify the default screenshot shortcuts on your desktop.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up Flameshot as the default screenshot app in Gnome, KDE, Mate, and XFCE 4. To get started, find the desktop you in this guide and follow along.

Gnome Shell

To make the Flameshot screenshotting utility the default screenshot app on the Gnome Desktop, you need to change the default screenshot shortcut to no longer point to the Gnome Screenshot tool instead of points to the Flameshot app.

To change the default screenshot shortcut in Gnome, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Note: Before following these steps, find “Save a screenshot to Pictures” and change the default shortcut from Prnt Scrn to another keyboard combination that isn’t already in use.

Step 1: Press the Win key on the keyboard to open up the search box. Once the search box is open, type in “keyboard shortcuts” into the text box. Then, click on the “keyboard shortcuts” search result to access the shortcut features for Gnome.

Step 2: Scroll through to the very bottom of the shortcut page till you see a “+” symbol. Then, click on it to launch the “Add Custom Shortcut” window.

Step 3: Inside of the “Add Custom Shortcut” window, find the “Name” text-box and write in “Flameshot” in the text box.

Step 4: Find the “Command” text box, and write in the Flameshot launch command below into the text box.

flameshot gui

Step 5: Select the “Set Shortcut” button. Then, press the Prnt Scrn button on your keyboard to make Gnome call Flameshot the default screenshot tool rather than Gnome Screenshot.

KDE Plasma 5

To change the default screenshot tool in KDE Plasma 5, you will need to first delete the shortcut for Spectacle, the KDE screenshot tool, and then replace it with Flameshot. To do this, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Press the Win key on the keyboard to open up the search menu. Then, type in “Global Shortcuts” and launch the Global Shortcuts tool.

Inside the Global Shortcuts tool, click on the “Spectacle” option in the sidebar. Then, look for “Spectacle > Print” and click on it with the mouse. Select “Custom” and change the default keyboard shortcut to another, new keyboard combination.

Click “OK” and “Apply” when done.

Step 2: Go back into the menu (by pressing win), search for “Custom Shortcuts,” and click on it to open Custom Shortcuts.

Inside of the Custom Shortcuts tool, select “Edit,” followed by “New,” “Global Shortcut,” “Command URL.” Then, in the “New Action” box, write Flameshot.

Step 3: Select the “Trigger” tab in Custom Shortcuts, and click on the “None” button to bind it. Then, press Prnt Scrn on the keyboard to make the Flameshot app the default screenshot tool.

Step 4: Find the “Action” tab, and select it. Then, write the following command into the “Command/URL” text box.

flameshot gui

Select “OK” and “Apply” to apply the changes to KDE.

Mate

To change the default screenshot tool in Mate from Mate screenshot to Flameshot, you must modify the default shortcuts in the desktop and change it so that Mate launches Flameshot when Prnt Scrn is pushed. To do that, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Press the Alt + F2 button on the keyboard to open up the Mate quick launcher. Then, paste the command below into the quick launcher to gain access to the Mate keybinding settings.

mate-keybinding-properties

Step 2: Inside the keybinding properties window, click on the “+ Add” button to create a new shortcut. Then, write “Flameshot” in the “Name” box and the command below in the “Command” box. Click “Apply” to apply it.

Step 3: Scroll to the very bottom of the page and look for “Custom Shortcuts.” In this area, you should see your “Flameshot” shortcut. Double-click on the “Disabled” text to bind a shortcut. Then, press Prnt Scrn on the keyboard.

Upon pressing Prnt Scrn, Mate will warn you that another shortcut already uses this shortcut. Select the “Reassign” button to give your Flameshot shortcut access to it.

XFCE 4

To change the default screenshot tool in XFCE, you will need to change the default screenshot keyboard shortcut in the keyboard shortcut settings from the XFCE screenshot tool to Flameshot. To do this, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Press the Alt + F2 keyboard shortcut on the keyboard to open up the quick-launcher application. After that, write in the xfce4-keyboard-settings launch command to open up the keyboard shortcut area for XFCE.

Step 2: Find the “+Add” button, and select it with the mouse. When you click on this button, a pop-up window with the label “Shortcut Command” will appear. Inside of this window, write in the Flameshot launch command below into the text box.